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How the Holocaust Began

Historian James Bulgin reveals the origins of the Holocaust in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, exploring the mass murder, collaboration and experimentation that led to the Final Solution.

Historian James Bulgin, who created the Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War Museum, investigates a story left unexplored for over 80 years. During the Second World War, millions of men, women and children were shot and buried by the Nazis in thousands of trenches and ditches, dug in fields and forests across eastern Europe. This was often unrecorded and uncounted, and the victims lost to history.

It is only now that the scale of these killings, which took place in states belonging to the former Soviet Union, is emerging fully. Using historic air photos and new exploration technology, this documentary takes a look at the first defining act of the greatest crime in history, a holocaust of bullets that preceded the holocaust of gas.

Available now

59 minutes

Last on

Sun 24 Mar 2024 01:23

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:06

    Danny & Pumba, Chirag, Onklp

    Stil

Credits

Presenter James Bulgin
Writer Nic Young
Producer Ben Holgate
Editor Julie Buckland
Production Manager Sara Jimenez Criado
Executive Producer Dinah Lord
Production Company Caravan Media

Broadcasts

  • Mon 23 Jan 2023 21:00
    BBC Two
  • Fri 27 Jan 2023 23:05
    BBC Two except Northern Ireland & Northern Ireland HD
  • Sun 24 Mar 2024 01:23

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