FRONTLINE - Memory of the Camps

Sixty years ago, in the spring of 1945, Allied forces liberating Europe found evidence of atrocities which have tortured the world's conscience ever since. As the troops entered the German concentration camps, they made a stematic film record of what they saw. Work began in the summer of 1945 on the documentary, but the film was left unfinished.
FRONTLINE found it stored in a vault of London's Imperial War Museum and, in 1985, broadcast it for the first time using the title the Imperial War Museum gave it, 'Memory of the Camps. 


 

Read more »

The Life Of Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was an Chicago gangster who achieved worldwide fame during the Prohibition era.

Born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants, Capone was a Five Points Gang member who became a bouncer in organised crime premises such as brothels. He apparently contracted syphilis without seeking medical attention, although there was an effective treatment available. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago becoming bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate illegally supplying alcohol, and politically protected through the Unione Siciliane. On Torrio's retirement Capone succeeded him as boss. Capone was able to expanding the bootlegging business through violent means that included bombings by James Belcastro. With his last rivals eliminated in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, and mutually profitable relationships with mayor William Hale Thompson and the city's police, Capone was undisputed boss and safe from local law enforcement. His wealth, influence, and corruption of the city authorities made him a nationally debated symbol of prohibition and crime. Apparently revelling in the attention, such as the cheers when he appeared at ball games, Capone made donations to various charities and was viewed by many to be a "modern-day Robin Hood". 

 

Read more »

True Story Of Henry Hill

Documentary about Henry Hill a former Newyork gangster on which the film Goodfellas is based on.

 

Read more »

The True Story Of Hannibal

Known as one of the greatest commanders of the ancient world, Hannibal excelled as a tactician. No battle in history is a finer sample of tactics than Cannae. But he was yet greater in logistics and strategy. No captain ever marched to and fro among so many armies of troops superior to his own numbers and material as fearlessly and skillfully as he. No man ever held his own so long or so ably against such odds. 

Constantly over matched by better soldiers, led by generals always respectable, often of great ability, he yet defied all their efforts to drive him from Italy, for half a generation. ... As a soldier, in the countenance he presented to the stoutest of foes and in the constancy he exhibited under the bitterest adversity, Hannibal stands alone and unequaled. As a man, no character in history exhibits a purer life or nobler patriotism.
Again, all we know of him comes for the most part from hostile sources. The Romans feared and hated him so much that they could not do him justice.

 

Read more »

The Death Penalty: The Story of Capital Punishment

How far should retribution go? Capital punishment was once the punishment for over 200 offences, including stealing a sheep and shooting a rabbit and children as young as eight were hanged. Execution has often been praised as a warning to others, but with the emergence of the police as a viable deterrent to crime, is it still necessary? The death penalty is still legal in 78 countries and over 2,000 people are executed every year. 

The media has closely followed the capital punishment debate in America since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976. Yet America executes under 100 people each year, compared to many hundreds in China. This episode asks whether the tabloid portrayal of some murderers as monsters has influenced how they are punished. Does vengeance underpin public expectations of punishment in the 21st century?

Read more »

Can Science Stop Crime? - Nova Science Now

What's the secret to stopping crime? David Pogue gives the third degree to scientists pushing the limits of technology, not only to solve horrific murders but also to try to prevent crimes before they even happen. Pogue learns the latest techniques, from unraveling the clues embedded in a decomposing corpse, to detecting lies by peering directly into a suspect's brain, to tracking the creation of a criminal mind. And we meet a genius crime-stopper who has made some terrifying discoveries, including how easy it is for a bad guy to highjack not just your laptop but your kids’ toys, medical devices, even your car.

Read more »

Secrets Of The Dead - Witches Curse

SECRETS OF THE DEAD: "The Witches Curse" poses a shocking new idea about the violent convulsions, delirium, and strange skin sensations that struck a group of young girls in 17th-century Massachusetts and inspired the infamous Salem Witch Trials. In 1692, 19 of the town's residents were put to death because they were believed to have been witches. For hundreds of years, this tragedy was blamed on religious fanaticism, adolescent cruelty, and contagious hysteria. But these explanations failed to satisfy a "detective" who embarked on her own fact-finding mission. Was Salem's Puritan community unwittingly living on bread infected by the fungus from which LSD is derived? Could toxic amounts of this fungus, known as ergot, be the real reason the accusatory teens endured psychotic episodes and saw blood dripping down their walls at night? And what clues could the 2,300-year-old corpse of a Danish murder victim possibly hold for Salem investigators? Tracking down historic outbreaks of ergot poisoning, Dr. Caporael compares its symptoms to those that plagued the girls in Salem, revealing a whole new side of this unsettling period.

Read more »

Secrets of the Dead - Umbrella Assassin

On Monday, September 11, 1978, Bulgarian emigre, writer, and broadcast journalist Georgi Markov died in London at the age of 49. A political murder, his death remains one of the Cold War's greatest mysteries.
Markov was an acclaimed literary figure in Bulgaria before he defected to the West in 1969. Later, he succeeded in getting official permission to leave Bulgaria. After arriving in England, he joined the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and became a freelance scriptwriter for Radio Free Europe (RFE) in Munich, Germany.

On June 8, 1975, he contributed his first freelance program to RFE, called "The Debts of Contemporary Bulgarian Literature." For the next three years, he wrote more than 130 Sunday-evening programs for his series called IN ABSENTIA: REPORTS ABOUT BULGARIA. These programs not only covered cultural life in Bulgaria but also revealed the otherwise hidden lifestyles of leading regime figures, especially Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov, who reportedly appealed to the KGB for help in silencing Markov.

Two failed attempts to poison Markov followed. But on September 7, 1978, while Markov was waiting for a bus, he felt a sudden stinging pain in the back of his thigh. He turned and saw a man bending to pick up a dropped umbrella. The man apologized and departed. By evening, Markov developed a high fever. He was taken to a hospital and treated for blood poisoning. But his condition worsened, and three days later he died.

Read more »

Secrets of the Dead - Murder at Stonehenge

In SECRETS OF THE DEAD: "Murder at Stonehenge," archeologists and forensic experts dig up ominous information about the strange ancient ruins and what role they might have played in early English culture. Studying a male skeleton discovered at Stonehenge in 1923, scientists determine that the man died not from natural causes -- as was previously believed -- but from intentional beheading. Bone studies, carbon dating, facial reconstruction, analyses of the wound's angle and the skeleton's damaged vertebrae, a study of Roman-style executions, and comparisons with other human remains: These are the tools employed as the researchers attempt to find out who the man was, when he was murdered, and why. Was he a pagan in a newly Christian world? A cattle thief? A ritual sacrifice? Murder at Stonehenge travels 2,000 years back in time to illuminate the beginnings of modern Britain.

Read more »

Secrets Of The Dead - Bombing Nazi Dams

Spring rains had swelled the water dammed up in Germany's Ruhr valley, and on May 16, 1943, Operation Chastise was about to begin. Taking off from an air base in England, nineteen Lancaster bombers manned by 133 airmen from Squadron 617 of the Royal Air Force were on a mission to destroy several of the Nazi's major hydroelectric dams. The Ruhr region was an important industrial center for Germany, and the demolition of these dams was expected to create widespread destruction, cut off the supply of water for industrial purposes, and halt work in coal mines and factories. Each Lancaster in Squadron 617 was outfitted with a strange new weapon -- a bouncing bomb that, when dropped precisely on target, would skip across the water and slam into the wall of an enemy dam.

The commander of Squadron 617, 24-year-old Guy Gibson, had already completed 170 sorties by the time he was chosen to lead the mission. Operation Chastise was so top-secret that Gibson was at first told nothing of the task that lay before him, other than that he needed to train his pilots rigorously in the art of low level flying. Eventually, the pilots simulated the nighttime conditions under which they would fly into the Ruhr by fixing blue Perspex plastic into their cockpits and wearing amber-tinted goggles.

In his autobiography, Gibson recalled that their training was hampered by communication problems. The radio-telephone headsets they used were ineffective, resulting in chaos during a dress rehearsal for their bomb run. "Aircraft went astray, some nearly collided, others went home browned off," he wrote. The communication snafus were solved when the entire squadron was outfitted with better equipment. Yet problems persisted. During another dress rehearsal, "six out of twelve aircraft were very seriously damaged by the great columns of water sent up when their mines splashed in." Gibson concluded that the pilots had been flying too low.

The difficulty of their training only hinted at the danger that would confront Squadron 617 in Germany. "The gunners had seen us coming," Gibson wrote. "They could see us coming with our spotlights on for over two miles away." Before the planes even reached the dams, one aircraft hit cables and crashed and two more were shot down. In 1944, Gibson acknowledged how precarious flying just 60 feet over enemy territory could be. "I said quickly to Pulford, under my breath, 'Better leave the throttles open now and stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit.' As I glanced at him I thought he looked a little glum on hearing this."

At the Möhne dam, Gibson managed to drop his bomb unscathed, although it missed the dam. Another pilot, Hopgood, followed, but his plane was hit by flak and exploded shortly after his bomb also fell off the mark. The next plane fell prey to German anti-aircraft fire, but the bombs of the fourth and fifth Lancasters scored hits, smashing apart the middle of the dam. Gibson and four other planes then flew on to the Eder, where two bomb hits created a thirty-foot-wide hole in the dam.

Unlike the others, the Sorpe dam was constructed of earth, as opposed to masonry. Joe McCarthy's Lancaster made nine aborted runs before finally dropping his bomb. Though McCarthy and another plane scored direct hits on the crest of the Sorpe, the dam withstood the attack. The damage caused to the crest of the dam, however, required the Germans to empty its reservoir halfway and make repairs.

Although eight of the nineteen bombing crews did not return, the mission was considered a success. Four of six targets were hit; two were destroyed. One hundred and thirty million gallons of water flooded the German countryside after the destruction of the Möhne. The Eder had held back 202,000,000 tons of water, and significant flooding took place in the wake of its bombing. Miles of factories and houses were destroyed and the Germans incurred thousands of casualties. News of the operation boosted Allied morale at a time when hopes for victory were bleak.

The pilots of the RAF's 617 Squadron crept across Germany just 60 feet above the ground, delivering an experimental weapon with astounding precision. How did these brave airmen pull off such a feat? When Barnes Wallis -- who developed the bomb that broke the German dams -- presented his design to Royal Air Force officials, he was laughed at. How did he convince the air force that his weapon was powerful enough to destroy a dam and clever enough to outmaneuver the underwater nets protecting these dams from traditional torpedo attacks?

Read more »

Secrets Of The Dead - Death at Jamestown

As they set sail from London to the distant shores of America in December 1606, the men and boys onboard the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery surely expected the best from their adventure. They'd establish a British settlement, find gold and silver, a passage to the Orient, and, perhaps, the lost colony of Roanoke. The explorers, funded by a group of London entrepreneurs called the Virginia Company, could not have anticipated the fate that actually awaited most of them: drought, hunger, illness, and death.

Their journey started off as badly as it ended. The three ships were stranded for weeks off the British coast, and food supplies dwindled. Over the course of the voyage, dozens died. But 104 colonists -- many gentlemen of privilege, but also artisans, craftsmen, and laborers -- survived to reach the shores of Virginia. On May 13, 1607, they decided to make landfall on the swampy ground of what was then a peninsula (and now an island) along the James River, some 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Within a month the settlers had constructed a triangle-shaped wooden fort, for protection against the Spanish, who did not want the British to establish any kind of foothold in the New World.

The settlers of the new colony -- named Jamestown -- were immediately besieged by attacks from Algonquian natives, rampant disease, and internal political strife. In their first winter, more than half of the colonists perished from famine and illness. Eventually, more colonists and new supplies were brought from Britain, and, despite a fire that wiped out the original fort, the settlement found some stability under the leadership of Captain John Smith. Smith, with the help of Pocohontas, daughter of the Algonquian chief Powhatan, managed to broker an uneasy peace with the natives before leaving the colony and returning to England in September 1609. 

The following winter, disaster once again struck Jamestown. Only 60 of 500 colonists survived the period, now known as "the starving time." Historians have never determined exactly why so many perished, although disease, famine (spurred by the worst drought in 800 years, as climate records indicate), and Indian attacks took their toll. On June 7, 1610, Jamestown's residents abandoned the hapless town, but the next day their ships were met by a convoy led by the new governor of Virginia, Thomas West, Lord De La Ware, who ordered the settlers back to the colony.
In 1612, John Rolfe -- who would later marry Pocohontas -- began to grow tobacco, finally giving the colony a cash crop and hope for survival. The first representative government in the New World was convened in Jamestown in July 1619, the same year that African slaves -- then indentured servants -- were first brought to America. Jamestown was the capital of Virginia until 1698, when its statehouse burned down. The following year, the capital moved to Williamsburg, and Jamestown began its slow decay. 

 

Read more »

SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden : History Channel

Navy Seal Team Six Do a Compound Raid In Pakistan Where al Qaeda Terrorist Leader Osama Bin Laden Is Hiding. The Seals Crash Their Advanced Black Hawk Chopper Which Forces Them To Move In Quickly And Capture Or Kill The Terrorist Ring Leader Before Pakistan Military Arrives so they Move In Fast and Terminate Bin Laden then Search The Compound For Intel That May Lead To Future Terror Attacks. The downed Black Hawk helicopter from the Bin Laden raid had to be destroyed with strategically placed explosives before the SEALs could leave the Abbottabad compound so it would not fall into the wrong hands and leave advanced technology with enemies. 

United States Conducted An Operation That Killed Osama Bin Laden, The Leader of al qaeda, A Terrorist Responsible for the Murder of Thousands. A Small Team of Americans Carried out The Operation With Extraordinary Courage and Capability. The Death of Bin Laden Marks Most Significant Achievement to Date In Our Nations Effort To Defeat al qaeda

Songs Used In This Edit are Soundtracks By:
Hans Zimmer - Chevaliers de Sangreal - Da Davinci Code
Hans Zimmer - Rock House Jail - The Rock
Hans Zimmer - Kopano Part III / The Journey - Tears Of The Sun

Targeting Bin Laden: Code Name Geronimo/Operation Neptune Spear Navy Seal Team 6 Zero Dark Thirty

I Do Not Own The Content To This Video - It Was A Courtesy of the History Channel

Read more »