Bugging Hitler's Soldiers

Bugging Hitler's Soldiers

2013, History  -   13 Comments
8.19
12345678910
Ratings: 8.19/10 from 125 users.

In the mess and annihilation of total war, first-class intelligence is as crucial as firepower. MI19 set out to make use of the German prisoners of war in the most enthusiastic surveillance mission ever attempted. Three courtly homes in the British non-urban area were transformed into prison camps and wired for sound. MI19's microphones reached everywhere. Nothing was outside limits.

Cloaked away in cellars and top floors were the listening rooms filled with, what at that time was cutting edge, recording equipment. German prisoners of war were brought to the UK and interrogated. If they were suspicious of having important intelligence the prisoners were then sent to bugged locations where listeners were ready and waiting for them to start talking.

The evidence comes from one of the most aweless operations British intelligence ever attempted. Conversations between captured German soldiers were secretly recorded and then transcribed word for word. In this documentary we hear German soldiers as they'd never been heard before - uncensored and unguarded. Using transcripts buried for decades, these conversations are reconstructed for the first time.

In the aftermath of World War II, ordinary German soldiers claimed they knew nothing about the Holocaust. They blamed all its atrocities on the SS. But these recently publicized transcripts expose the full extent of that lie.

More great documentaries

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

13 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
L Freundin
L Freundin
6 years ago

Re DustUp--my thoughts exactly...

DustUp
DustUp
6 years ago

No doubt atrocities and too many of them occurred. But even Fritz the defected German Jew admitted they felt good getting back at the nazis. How accurate were their translations, all done by those defected German Jews? Did 3000 Jews shot turn into 30000, etc.? One would have to hear the original recordings rather than just read the translations.

I'm not saying it didn't happen as stated, just saying tough to know since there was propaganda in this account as well, in what they didn't say. Eisenhower hated the Germans, rounded them up behind barbed wire, not allowing them to have food nor water, with a creek nearby; apparently some sort of Eisenhower punishment. Many died. When all they say is he showed some officers the situation at the camps... Which in actuality was partly due to Typhus and starvation, caused by the Allies bombing out the rails which brought supplies to those camps... there is more to the story besides the incidents of German atrocities. Were the German officers going to talk about the things that bothered them or of normal routine drudgery of war?

Moral of the story: War is bad business ...unless you are the ones (Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Warburgs, and European and American companies, etc.; nowadays add in the Israelis, Russians, and Asians) making bank from it. Then what you cause and do is ok because people dying to make you money is just business.

bdoon
bdoon
10 years ago

This shows how little mankind as progressed since 13th Century Mongols or 16th Century Ivan the Terrible russia (or 1945 army of USSR in Germany. Why were prosecutions so few post-war? Were millions of German military (Japanese as well) "just following orders"?

rocketmahn
rocketmahn
10 years ago

Excellent and entertaining doc.

Russ Tul
Russ Tul
10 years ago

The only reason British intelligence didn't disclose these files when they would have done some good was to prevent the embarassment of admitting that they were snooping. There was nothing new or top secret about the methods they used. Basically, the whole exercise just cost the British taxpayer untold amounts of money with the net result that the Nazi criminals lived through the rest of the war in great comfort, drinking to Hitler's health and being treated like gentlemen instead of scumbags, while the Brits were living on war rations.
PS: Thanks for the docu.

Glen
Glen
10 years ago

Good thing Hitler was in control, had Germany had some sane it could have been a different out come.. Google War is a Racket and read..

Wayne Siemund
Wayne Siemund
10 years ago

I wonder what our soldiers and generals would say about recent world actions if they were placed in a bugged mansions.
Would they be as embarrassing to the future as these Germans?