In the chaos and annihilation of total war, top-notch intelligence is as important as firepower. MI19 begins the most enthusiastic surveillance mission ever, using German POWs. Three palace homes in the English countryside have been converted into prisoner-of-war camps and fitted with sound systems. SI19’s microphones ticked all the boxes. Nothing is out of bounds.
The listening rooms hidden in the basement and top floor are filled with the most advanced recording equipment of the time. German prisoners of war were taken to England for interrogation. If they suspect they have important information, prisoners are sent to bugged areas, where an audience stands ready for them to speak.
The evidence comes from one of the most impressive operations ever conducted by British intelligence. Conversations between captured German soldiers were secretly taped and then transcribed verbatim. In this documentary we hear the voices of German soldiers like they’ve never been heard before – uncensored and unguarded. The conversations are being reconstructed for the first time from transcripts that have been buried for decades.
After World War II, ordinary German soldiers claimed they knew nothing about the Holocaust. They blamed all the atrocities on the SS. But these recently released transcripts reveal the full extent of the lie.
