tv's, real america, from 1947 " don't be a sucker." is the experience of a hungarian americans warn against the acting against minorities. he talked about persecution of minority groups and the eventual does your action of certain -- german society. this is about 20 minutes. ♪ [applause]

lexi was willing to bet his hard earned money on it. he got on the train >> henry got on the train with $200. he couldn't see any harm in a friendly game of cards. what if the other men were strangers. ♪ and take joe collins, he's got a nice wife at home but he met this girl at the bar and she looked, after the first couple of drinks. >> there's a good old fashioned word for people like this. we call them suckers. and there are other people, people who stay up

nights figuring up thou take ahow to take away what they've got. there are all kinds. take mike for instance. he's got everything. he's young, healthy, got a job. and he's got plenty of food. big factories to make things a man can use. big cities to do the business of a big company and people, lots of people. enough to work the farm and build the factories, dig the

mines with, run the business, all kinds of people. people from different countries with different religions, different colored skins, free people. they can live together and work together and build america together because they're free. free to vote, to say what they pleased. go to their own churches. to pick their own jobs. yeah. mike has got something all right. he's got

america. but there are guys who stay up nights figuring up how to take that away from him. >> i happen to know the facts. now, friends, ienl'm just an average american, but i'm an american american and some of the things i see in this country of ours make my blood boil. i see people, negros holding jobs that belong to me and you. i ask you. if we allow this thing to go on, what's going to become of of us real americans. >> i've heard this kind of talk before but i never expected to hear it in america. >> fella seems to know what he's talking about. >> what are the real americans going to do about it? you'll find it right here in this little pamphlet. the truths about the foreigners, the truth about the catholic church.

>> you believe in that kind of talk? >> i don't know. it makes good sense to me. >> and i'll tell you we'll never be able to call this country our own until it's a country without. without what? >> yeah, without what. >> without negros, without alien foreigners, without catholics, without free masons. >> masons, what's wrong with the masons. i'm a mason. hey, that fella is talking about me. >> and that makes a difference, doesn't it? >> these are your enemies. these are the people who are trying to take hold of our country. now you know them. you know what they stand for. and it's up to you and me to fight them. fight them and destroy them before they destroy us. thank you.

>> before he said masons you were ready to agree with him. >> yes, but he was talking, well, about those other people. >> in this country we have no other people. we are american people. >> what about you? you ain't american, are you? >> i was born many hungry but now i'm an american citizen. and i have seen what this kind of talk can do. i saw it in berlin. >> what were you doing there? >> i was a professor at the university. i heard the same words we have heard today. but i was a fool then. i thought nazis were crazy people, stupid fanatics but unfortunately they were not so. you see, they knew that they were not strong enough to conquer a unified country so they split germany into small groups. they used prejudice as a practical weapon to cripple the nation. of course that was not

easy to do. they had to work hard to do it. you see, we human beings are not born with prejudices. always they are made for us, made by someone who wants something. remember that when you hear this kind of talk. somebody is going to get something out of it and it isn't going to be you. this is not classroom theory. i saw it happen. i saw it first in berlin in 1932, five young men that i knew were stand in the crowd listening to the nazi speaker. listening to the nazi speaker. eric was a catholic. anton, a student of mine was a you. heinrich owned a small hardware store. karl was a former and heinz was an unemployed worker. >> i said it's time you inherit the nation that rightfully

belongs to you. you belong to the glorious destiny of the germany, provide land for the farmer, work for the worker and profits for the small businessman. who is getting these things now? the jew. the jew who has stolen our nation and our birthright. who makes all of the money and takes all of our jobs? the jews. they must be shunned. he must be astra sizeostracized. he must be eliminated. and the catholics, we don't want our great nation run by a foreign church. we germans know what to do with these people when the time comes, they and their faith must be destroyed. and now the free masons, in germany we have no place for secret society. there be only one society and that is the senate zinazi party. no

secrecy about this. >> one by one he attacked them and split them off one from another. these men were all fellow germans when they came here today now split into rival groups, suspicious of each other, hating each other. they were being swindled, all of them. but the man who was really being fueled was hans. he was pure german. to him they promised everything and he fell for it. that is how he became a superman. they gave him a uniform and pumped up his ego. he wasn't just a little fellow after work anymore, he was a

member of the master race. hans and thousands of others like him, all playing a sucker's game. they gambled with other people's liberty and of course they lost their own. a nation of suckers. hitler needed these people. there was lots of work to be done. there were three this kind of talk would put people in jail. funds didn't like it.

these were the men who painted the hook. why? so hans come to power? of course not. so they could come to power! work fordo the dirty them. thousands of others like him, all playing a sucker's game. they gambled with other people's liberty and of course they lost their own. a nation of suckers. hitler needed these people. there was lots of work to be done. there were three unions to be smashed because unions were organized and might offer resistance. there were many political parties in germany. these would have to be destroyed. they were determined to smash every organization where people might band together and resist them. there are jews to be beaten and killed. the jews were not powerful but were a convenient excuse for all the nation's ills. besides, a nazi

party member could now take over this man's store. hundreds of catholics were put in jail because the catholic church could resist the nazi's power. they split the nation into a hundred pieces. and then one by one they had destroyed the pieces. over these broken pieces the nazis rose into power. one party, one nation, one religion. these men had won their struggle for power. they now ruled all of germany. but still they had trouble with their oldest and most persistent enemy, the truth. they found the truth does not die easily. and so they decided to abolish truth. one great source of truth is literature. so they burned books. 20 million of them. many

great men in germany who spoke the truth were jailed or driven from the country. teachers. scientists. education was discouraged. in five years college attendance dropped 53%. it was forbidden to listen to a british radio program or read an american newspaper. in nazi germany you had to get your information from this man. he knew what was best for you. the church was one force in germany you couldn't watch things on tv that disagreed with settler. greatest scientists disprove the theory. he was non-arians we had to

leave germany. nazis having sold the line, were not supportive of albert einstein. he was strong enough to proclaim the truth in public. >> no doubt it is possible that we christians are in a grave danger. faith --s, stanza outlined in blood. ranges from cool repudiation to hate filled causes. weapons are used. the aim of this battle is to dislodge christianity. this catholic priest was arrested the following day on charges of immorality. this church also continued to

try and fight for truth. >> who desires this for himself cannot deny to others. this is a great loss in the world can learn germany. the nazis put this meant that these men in a concentration camp. there were others who fought for truth. i'm proud to say that educators were among them. arian? may i ask is an not sure. nancy -- what are so-called authorities have to say about it. they say he's tall. slender, blueprints global -- blue-eyed, and long.

-- blonde. did the there is no area and or master race -- here he and race or master race. there are people who might sundays it is convenient. proofere is no scientific that there's any correlation between a man's race and characteristics, and his ability or character. findl racial groups, we the same range of potentialities. criminals,iuses, philanthropists. we must judge each man as an not by the color of his skin or his is, or by the link of his nose. -- length of his nose.

>> come in, gentlemen. >> there are many differences between individuals. we each have different capabilities, different backgrounds, different views about what's right and what's wrong, like the difference between me and these gentlemen who have just arrived. but, that is not the difference in rates. it is a difference in the way think. remember that that's, and remember that there is no master race. that is the scientific truth. anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. ♪ >> so, for all practical purposes, truth had been abolished in germany. a lot of

my german friends wondered who had hit them, how did it happen, where did it start. it started right here. and this was where it could have been stopped. if those people had stood together, if they had protected each other, they could have resisted the nazi threat. together they would have been strong, but once they allowed themselves to be split apart, they were helpless. when that first person lost out, they all lost out. they made the mistake of gambling with other people's freedoms. carl the farmer was gambling on a better life for himself. what he got were extra hours of back-breaking work. as much as 100 hours a week. he was forced to stay on his land and produce what he was told to produce because now hitler was preparing for war. for heinrich who owned the hardware store it didn't pay off either. 104,000 small

businesses were closed in two years. and for hans, conditions hadn't improved any. he had a job now. in the munitions factory, but he worked long hours for little pay. the working conditions grew increasingly bad. and even though he didn't like the job, he wasn't permitted to leave it. when hitler decided the time was right, germany went to war. not by declaring war but by a carefully prepared sneak attack. once again, hitler needed hans to do his dirty work. hans was an expert at brutality. and hitler decided to use hans and his brutality against other

people. the czechs, the poles, the russians. in the crucial test of war hitler's race theories didn't pay off. his pure-blooded supermen were defeated by the mon grelgrel army they disespised. the british. by the russians. at stalingrad. then on d-day by american soldiers of every color and religion, who smashed onto normandy beaches and drove through to the heart of germany. for the misguided germans who had swallowed the nazi bait, the game did not pay off. the continent of europe was strewn with millions of german bodies, pure aryan bodies. carl the

farmer was left in the snow outside of moscow. heinrich stayed in italy at salerno. hans, who was going to rule the world, got only a little patch of normandy that he could call his own. >> you must never let that happen to us or our country. we must never let ourselves be divided by race, religion. i was born in hungary. you are a mason. these are minorities. you are a farmer. you go to the methodist church. you are right to belong to these minorities. these are precious things. you have a right to be what you are and say what you think because here we have personal freedoms. we have liberty. these are not fancy words. this is a practical and priceless way of living. but we must work at it. we must guard everyone's liberties or we

can lose our own. if we allow any minority to lose its freedom by persecution or prejudice we are threatening our own freedom. this is not simply an idea. this is good, hard common sense. you see, here in america it's not a question whether we tolerate minorities. america is minorities. and that means you and me. so let's not be suckers. ♪ we must not allow the freedom or dignity of any man to be threatened by any act or word. let's be selfish about it. let's forget about we and they. let's think about us. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> each week american history tv is railamerica brings archival films. let us live. it tells the story of german refugees fleeing the soviet occupied zones group berlin to west germany. and estimated 20,000 germans were crossing the border each month. this u.s. army film is about 20 minutes. ♪ narrator: berlin, the target area for the strangest invasion of all-time. an invasion by its own people, an