1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,120 From early February, Stalin orders new offensives all along the southern fronts. 2 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:19,800 Though they have fought and survived the Battle of Stalingrad, their commanders can 3 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:21,839 permit them no rest. 4 00:00:21,839 --> 00:00:26,920 Instead, they must struggle on through the late winter blizzards, instruments of their 5 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:31,120 supreme commander's lust for glory. 6 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:37,359 The Red Army drives deep into Nazi-held territories, fighting exhaustion, cold, mud. 7 00:00:37,359 --> 00:00:47,439 Inch by inch, the infantry advances. 8 00:00:47,439 --> 00:00:53,520 The Führer knows that if his stretched forces are to defeat the Red Army in 1943, they must 9 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:57,680 attack quickly before it can recover from the losses of the winter. 10 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:02,440 Hitler's strategy is simple and optimistic. 11 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:07,560 In a two-pronged attack, he plans to destroy the Soviet position around Kursk. 12 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:13,120 On the map, a great bulge, 130 miles long and 100 miles deep, at the center of the 13 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:18,040 eastern front. 14 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:22,480 And so now, two gigantic armies are converging. 15 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,840 The greatest tank battle of all time is about to begin. 16 00:03:22,479 --> 00:03:49,679 The great barrage of Katyusha rockets and artillery announces counteroffenses by four 17 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:54,120 more Soviet armies sweeping around the rear of the battered German divisions. 18 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:58,240 German offensive operations are halted. 19 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:00,480 The Wehrmacht can only retreat. 20 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:07,960 It leaves behind the mangled debris of war. 21 00:05:07,959 --> 00:05:12,719 The enemy's battle zones littered with charred and broken tanks and the bodies of... 22 00:05:12,719 --> 00:05:25,399 of thousands of men. 23 00:05:25,399 --> 00:05:30,919 For survivors of this savage inferno, shattered, shell-shocked, stunned by the... 24 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:33,080 can be no joy. 25 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:37,199 In 1943, the story changed and the Germans were pushed back. 26 00:06:37,199 --> 00:06:42,720 And in the pushback, they moved us with them and we went willingly. 27 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:47,280 There was no moving at gunpoint. 28 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:51,600 Had we stayed back, the communists would have taken us and executed us or shipped us to 29 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:52,600 Siberia. 30 00:06:52,600 --> 00:07:00,720 So we very willingly retreated with the Germans. 31 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:06,360 The road was getting short, the horses were getting sick, the road was getting narrowed. 32 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:07,880 It was extremely cold. 33 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:12,200 When I think of the war, I do not think of hunger so much as of cold. 34 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:21,320 It was always, always cold. 35 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:26,680 And then of course, once the winter came, it became harder and harder. 36 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:30,519 We had to often stay overnight in strange houses. 37 00:07:30,519 --> 00:07:34,920 The army would confiscate houses, would put the refugees there. 38 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:37,519 The army protected us to the end. 39 00:07:37,519 --> 00:07:42,319 The army never ever let us down, never let us down to the very end. 40 00:07:56,680 --> 00:08:01,079 And the snow fell. 41 00:08:01,079 --> 00:08:04,079 They had to keep warm for survival. 42 00:08:04,079 --> 00:08:15,079 And the snow fell and defeated the peace and the rival. 43 00:08:15,079 --> 00:08:22,480 They took the old roads that Napoleon had taken before. 44 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:29,480 They fought as the forces of light against the darkness in a holy war. 45 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:36,480 One day they were looking around at the sun shining on the cold flowers. 46 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:43,480 The next day they were freezing to death in the snow and the ice cold showers. 47 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:47,480 And the snow fell. 48 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:50,480 Covering the dreams and ideals. 49 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:54,480 And the snow fell. 50 00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:57,480 Freezing the blood in the wheels. 51 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:01,480 And the snow fell. 52 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,480 They had to keep warm for survival. 53 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:08,480 And the snow fell. 54 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:12,480 And defeated the peace and the rival. 55 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:26,480 This secret partisan report, declassified for this program, 56 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:30,480 complains that amongst one large partisan division, 57 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:37,480 drunkenness, robbery, beatings and rape are universal occurrences. 58 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:46,480 The widespread terror wrought by the partisans was not a story the communists... 59 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:51,480 This rare archive shows a woman hanged by the partisans 60 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:56,480 and displayed to the rest of the population as a warning. 61 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:06,480 These film rushes, never shown to the German public during the war, 62 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:11,480 reveal Soviet mutilation of German prisoners. 63 00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:22,480 Actions like these only serve to escalate the level of the German reprisal. 64 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:50,480 The partisans became a growing problem for the German occupiers. 65 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:54,480 If the Germans suspected a village had been used as a partisan base, 66 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:58,480 then it was common practice to burn it to the ground. 67 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:00,480 And we burned the houses. 68 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:04,480 On the one hand I didn't regret it too much because I knew what is the worth of a Russ... 69 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:07,480 They are so primitive anyhow. 70 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,480 And the German occupiers were not afraid to use the German village as a base. 71 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:15,480 I regret it too much because I knew what is the worth of a Russian house. 72 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:17,480 They are so primitive anyhow. 73 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:21,480 Not comparable to a German house or an English house or a French house or so on. 74 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:23,480 Not at all. 75 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:26,480 But all in all there is not much value in it, in such a house. 76 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:29,480 And they will survive. That was my feeling. 77 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:31,480 The Polish Army 78 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:33,480 The Polish Army 79 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:35,480 The Polish Army 80 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:37,480 The Polish Army 81 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:39,480 The Polish Army 82 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:42,480 In Britain they have forged a sword, 83 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,480 a gift to the victor of Stalingrad from King George. 84 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:51,480 Earlier in 1943, at Katyn forest near Smolensk, 85 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:58,480 German occupying authorities had unearthed the mass graves of 20,000 Polish officers. 86 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:04,480 International observers were invited to support Berlin's claim 87 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:07,480 that the murders were carried out by the NKVD, 88 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:12,480 but Stalin had reacted furiously, denying any link with the massacres. 89 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,480 But when allied leaders meet in Tehran, 90 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:21,480 Churchill and Roosevelt back their most important ally 91 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:25,480 in the face of outraged protest from exiled Poles. 92 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:32,480 His sword is presented, and Stalin stands as an undisputed world leader. 93 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,480 In March 1940, in a forest near Katyn village, 94 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:43,480 eight huge pits were dug. 95 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:45,480 Heavy trucks brought in people. 96 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:50,480 They were Polish Army reservists, doctors, engineers. 97 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:54,480 The Soviets carried out massacres on a regular basis. 98 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:58,480 Riga, Tartu, Lviv, Minsk. 99 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:02,480 Relatives could not identify many of the corpses. 100 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:06,480 Horrific torture had made them unrecognizable. 101 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:10,480 The Soviet Union meanwhile had become an allied power. 102 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:15,480 The Soviet officers who pulled out fingernails, cut tongues, 103 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,480 and perforated the skulls of their victims with nails, 104 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:22,480 were paid with Western aid. 105 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:28,480 The British War Crimes Act gives them immunity from persecution in Britain, 106 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:34,480 because war crimes by definition were committed only by the Germans. 107 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:27,480 The war crimes by definition were committed only by the Germans. 108 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:32,480 The war crimes by definition were committed only by the Germans. 109 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:37,480 The war crimes by definition were committed only by the Germans. 110 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:42,480 The war crimes by definition were committed only by the Germans. 111 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:47,480 The war crimes by definition were committed only by the Germans. 112 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:54,480 Thank you for watching.