THE WAR OF THE WORLD

PROGRAMME 3: KILLING SPACE

PROGRAMME OUTLINE

00.00 – 02.54

Niall Ferguson summarises the advances made by Germany and Japan in the first few years of the Second World War.

02.55 – 07.39

Using the 'Rape of Nanjing' as an example, we look at the appalling atrocities carried out by the Japanese in China.

07.40 – 11.03

Niall looks at the 20th-century phenomenon of a biological basis to violence, and describes the outcome at Nanjing.

11.04 – 18.16

We learn of the German's plan to take 'Living Space' from other countries and repopulate these areas with 'true' Germans.

18.17 – 22.19

In Krakow, Poland, Niall shows us the fate of thousands of Poles and Jews.

22.20 – 26.33

Niall visits The Rotunda – an old fortification in Krakow, used to hold and then execute people, in order to clear the town for Germans.

26.34 – 31.15

We see how Germany and the Soviet Union worked together to carve up Poland for their two empires, and learn of the treatment of Polish people by the Soviets.

31.16 – 33.19

Niall visits Obersalzburg, Germany, where Hitler and his team met and where they planned Operation Barberosa – a military operation against Russia.

33.20 – 34.42

At Oxford, even ordinary academics knew what Hitler was planning to do to the Soviets.

34.43 – 38.56

A description of the onset of Operation Barberosa.

38.57 – 41.59

We hear about Hitler's 'Final Solution' against the Jews.

42.00 – 45.13

Niall asks how ordinary Germans were able to execute Jews or at least collaborate with this policy.

45.14 – 46.38

We are given other examples of oppressed people's collaboration with their oppressors.