- Erik Dorf complains to the other S.S. leaders that the executions of the Jews are not being efficiently done. An order is placed by Erik for Zyklon B (a lethal gas) for use at Auschwitz and other camps. Inga asks Muller to denounce her and have her sent to Karl at Theresienstadt. Felscher sells four of the secret drawings done by him, Frey and Karl, which depict the brutal conditions at Theresienstadt, to a Czech gendarme, which the S.S. get a hold of. Felscher, Frey and Karl are called in for questioning and then tortured, where Karl is the only one who survives and is told he is being sent to Auschwitz. He sees Inga one last time, where she tells him she is carrying his child. Karl dies the day Auschwitz is liberated. In Warsaw, Josef is caught for setting up the clinic to act as a front to keep people from getting on the train headed to Treblinka, and him and Berta with Mr. and Mrs. Lowy are sent to Auschwitz, where soon after they are sent to the gas chambers. Moses joins the resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto and they are successful in holding back 7,000 German soldiers over a three-week period, until they are forced out via a gas bomb and are shot. In the Ukraine, Uncle Sasha's unit attempts to shoot up a convoy, but Helena is shot and killed and Rudi is knocked unconscious. Rudi wakes up in the Sobibor camp, where he learns of a breakout being planned by the other prisoners and joins with them. He survives to the end of the war and is reunited with Inga in Theresienstadt, where he learns that Inga has given birth to a son, who is two years old named Josef, after Karl's father. Rudi is asked to lead a group of Greek orphans into Palestine. Erik Dorf is placed in custody by the Americans and after a brief questioning commits suicide via a cyanide pill hidden in the hem of his pants. Uncle Kurt Dorf visits Marta, Peter and Laura Dorf and tells them what really happened to Erik, despite an unsigned letter Marta is reading commending Erik's service to the Reich. He then tells them what Erik and the other SS men really were - mechanical killers. In response, Marta tells Uncle Kurt they never want to see him again. Uncle Kurt says he will not be silent about the truth.—Anonymous
- At Theresienstadt, Karl Weiss and the other artists producing pictures of what life is really like for them, are found out. They are taken for questioning and are tortured by the Gestapo. Weiss' hands are are severely injured in the process. He is eventually transferred to Auschwitz. Similarly, Dr. Josef Weiss has been doing his best to save what few people he can from the daily trainload of people being sent to execution camps. He is found out and along with his wife Berta is sent to Auschwitz. His brother Moses becomes a fighter in the Warsaw uprising. Erik Dorf, ever the fervent Nazi, orders the use of Zyklon B gas to speed up the execution of concentration camp detainees. Rudi successfully escapes from Sobibor and begins the long trek home. By war's end, Inga has given birth to husband Karl's child and is reunited with Rudi. They are the only survivors of the Weiss family.—garykmcd
- Erik and Heydrich work on a plan to create a huge concentration camp at Auschwitz, with the intention of gassing Jews in more and more numbers. Heydrich speaks to Himmler himself and tells him that Erik is doing a good job and baseless rumors should not distract them from their goals. Erik meanwhile works with military chemists and starts using poison gas in the chambers (Zyklon B) There is an assassination attempt on Heydrich at Prague, and Marta tells Erik that if he dies, Erik could be the one succeeding him.
Erik and Marta rarely see each other now. Their son Peter is a member of Hitler Youth. Kurt is aware of what is happening to the Jews and his disgust with Erik grows. Watching executions and gassing is affecting Erik's mental health. At home, Marta finds copies of letters detailing these actions. Far from being upset, she reminds Erik that he was only following orders. Their relationship deteriorates to the point that he is no longer able to make love to her.
Every day Josef must select 6000 Jews daily to be sent to a resettlement camp. When he learns that they are really being gassed, he tries to save as many as he can by opening a railway station clinic. He pulls various people off the transport by saying they have symptoms of typhus. This only works for a short time. He and Berta are placed on the transport and sent to Auschwitz. Moses Weiss stays behind but is among those who were executed after the Warsaw uprising. Moses is pissed that despite getting word out to the BBC in London about Jew extermination, there is no word on it on the daily news broadcasts. The Jewish resistance thinks that the crime is so huge, that the world is having trouble believing the claims. Moses Weiss and other fighters stockpile weapons bought outside the ghetto and smuggled in (Moses frequently smuggles out of the ghetto to meet traffickers and spends huge amounts of money to buy whatever arms he can and brings them back to the ghetto). Eventually Josef is caught and he and Berta, along with Franz and Chana Lowy, are deported to Auschwitz.
Inga can no longer bear life without her husband. She persuades Muller to turn her in on false charges so she can join Karl at Theresienstadt. When she arrives, Karl doesn't want anything to do with her because of her affair with Muller. Inga assures him that she hated every minute of it but it was the only way she could get letters to him. Inga and Karl are reconciled and soon Inga is pregnant.
Karl and his fellow artists make drawings of starving children and dead bodies, indicating what really happens in the concentration camps. These drawings are kept hidden from the guards. But then one of the artists swaps several drawings for cigarettes. Heydrich dies, but Erik is not chosen for command. instead his new superior tells him that field commanders complain against him. He also shows him drawings depicting Nazi brutality against Jews. The studio is destroyed and Karl, together with two other men, is beaten and tortured for information. Erik Dorf, now a Major, questions Karl. He reminds Karl that they are both Berliners and even asks if they have met in the past, as Karl reminds him of someone. But Karl refuses to tell where the rest of the drawings are hidden. His hands are broken so that he can never draw again. The other two men die of their injuries.
Meanwhile Erik has industrialized the entire process of mass killing, from sorting of clothes, to gassing them, cremating them (with conveyor belts) and disposing of the ashes. His new commandant is impressed, but his request to relocate to Berlin is denied. Erik is sent to inspect Auschwitz where he learns that Berlin military commanders own shares in the company that produces Zyklon B, and are getting rich by participating in the murder of Jews. Erik has to bring in a sanitation expert to see how they can suppress the stench from burning 12000 Jews everyday in the furnaces.
Rudi and Sasha raid German ammo dumps and arm themselves for bigger battles.
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