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Okay, let's go back the story.
There's this one moment captured on film
that I can't seem to get out of my mind.
There's a boat sailing the waters
to the remote island of Iceland in 1938.
There are smiling faces
and tourists doing what they've always done
and will continue to do,
exploring the vastness of this country.
And then there's shots of children smiling, playing, living.
It's honestly beautiful footage.
But when you pause this clip
and think about who is the person holding this camera,
the person zoomed into all of these kids smiling faces,
these people alive and well,
the person holding this camera is Hitler's girlfriend.
Her name was Eva Braun.
She was the longtime confidant, girlfriend
and eventual wife of Adolf Hitler.
The only person who could call him by his name,
and the one who bit into a cyanide pill alongside him
as they both ended their lives together
in a small study in Berlin,
as Germany was losing the war.
Oh, and this footage was taken
just a few months before Hitler invaded Poland
to start the bloodiest war of all time.
So who was she?
And why was she on a tour in Iceland?
And I guess most importantly,
what role did Iceland play
in Hitler's grand plans to take over the world?
(upbeat orchestral music)
Eva Braun met Hitler while working in Munich
as a model and assistant to Hitler's photographer.
They got together when she was 19 and he was 42,
and she remained the closest person to Hitler
leading up to and during the war.
Eva was a photographer and is responsible
for many of the images and film we have of Hitler today.
Hitler wanted to keep their relationship a secret
because he thought being a bachelor
would like give him a wider appeal among Germany's women.
Okay, big PR guy Hitler was.
He would always say he was married to Germany.
Okay, so it's summer 1939,
Hitler is literally two months away from invading Poland
and starting world war II.
And Eva is on a Nazi boat
with this sweet swimming pool on it.
I want a boat with a swimming pool.
And they're traveling to Iceland.
They visit the Geyser and see all the hot water
and the steam and the volcanic rocks,
and they're in Reykjavik.
I mean, this doesn't look too much different
from my trip in Iceland.
Anyway, it turns out that the Nazi leadership
was kind of obsessed with Iceland.
And not because of the black sand beaches and glaciers,
but because of the people.
(curious music)
Specifically, this guy, Henrich Himmler,
the big dog in the Nazi regime,
the literal architect of the Holocaust.
He was the one who loved Iceland the most.
He loved the Viking lore and legends,
but he also had this twisted enthusiasm
for the fact that the whole country was white.
Icelanders in Himmler's mind,
were the pure superior Nordic race
that he thought the Nazi message would resonate with.
It's insane.
So as the Nazis were gaining power in Germany,
they turned to Iceland.
They bought an apartment in the capital, Reykjavik,
and they sent this guy a Nazi loyalist
who was tasked with being a diplomat to Iceland.
His job was very simple,
to commune with the racially pure Icelandic people
and fulfill Himmler's dream of converting them to Nazi-ism.
More on how that went later, but real quick,
another reason that the Nazis were so into Iceland
was because of this.
These are the convoy routes between the UK
and the Northern hemisphere.
This is where goods supplies, ammo, troops
would be moved between the two regions.
See how these routes run right past Iceland?
- [Narrator] 1500 Air miles from Halifax,
825 miles from Scotland,
and only 900 from Nazi-held Norway.
- The Nazis realized that if they could take over Iceland
and have a base here,
it would render this route way too dangerous.
So yeah, the Nazis were kind of into Iceland,
not just because of the racial makeup of the people
and the abundant resources,
but also because of the prime strategic location
in the impending war.
Okay, so let's fast forward
to a year after Eva Braun's trip to Iceland.
It's 1940, the war has started,
the Nazis have started conquering their neighbors,
moving into Denmark, Norway, and soon Sweden.
Meanwhile, Iceland is remaining a neutral country,
a reminder that remaining neutral during world war II,
isn't easy, but anyway, Iceland is remaining neutral.
And the diplomat who the Nazis had sent to Iceland
is still there,
he's still working on recruiting the Icelanders
to the Nazi cause,
and not having tons of success.
He recruited like a small group of college kids
to the cause.
And overall he's kind of disappointed in Iceland.
The place is not what Himmler thought it was,
but he doesn't tell anyone back home.
He doesn't want to disappoint the Nazi regime.
Instead he confides in his journal,
complaining that Iceland's theaters
perform plays written by Jews
and that they have no apples in their stores.
Like that's her complaint? It's like, oh,
they have no apples in the stores.
Like I hate this country.
He also complained that they held their forks
with their right hands like shovels.
Oh gosh.
This was not the aryan in utopia that he was hoping for.
But still Iceland had strategic value,
the Nazi army is moving north.
And you know, who's most freaked out by this,
by this movement north?
This guy, Winston Churchill,
leader of the UK at the time.
Churchill said, quote,
"Whoever possesses Iceland holds a pistol firmly pointed
"at England and America and Canada."
Yeah.
That's pretty much sums it up.
Churchill had been trying to convince Iceland
to join their side, but Iceland was like,
no, we have a hundred thousand people. We have no army.
We're going to remain neutral.
And Churchill becomes impatient.
So in may of 1940,
not even a year after Eva Braun's getaway to Iceland,
Churchill sends in his Navy,
they showed up to Iceland
on a mission called operation fork.
Sort of weird name, but whatever.
So the Navy arrives to the port of Reykjavik,
not to an army, but to a bunch of locals,
like why is there a giant Navy arriving to our country?
Remember Iceland doesn't have an army.
So they sent the local police to tell the British Navy
that they were in violation of Iceland's sovereignty.
The British troops were like, yeah, I know anyway,
could you tell all these people to move
so we can dock our boats and let our Marines off?
And the Icelandic police were like, yeah, okay, sure.
No conflict, no confrontation.
The British are politely invading Iceland.
The most cordial invasion ever.
They did this because they were freaked out
that the Nazis would do it first.
The first thing they do when they show up
is go to the German diplomat's house.
They show up in certain knocking on the door
and they're like, Hey, German diplomat,
we just invaded Iceland so that the Nazis can't,
by the way, you're arrested.
And the diplomat from the other side of the room
literally said, this is a quote,
he said, "you can't do that,
"Iceland is a neutral nation in the war."
And the British troops said, and again, this is a quote,
"Oh yeah, neutral, like Denmark was neutral?
"Like Norway was neutral?
"These were neutral countries too.
"That didn't stop you guys from invading."
So the diplomat is sitting there
trying to get his furnace to work
so he can burn all these documents
before the British break in and arrest him,
which they eventually did.
When they broke in,
they found a shrine to Hitler in his house.
He had burned a lot of documents,
but he didn't burn his diary,
which is why we know this guy
really actually didn't like Iceland.
So yeah. Now the British have troops in Iceland,
but as the war rages on Britain realizes
that they needed troops elsewhere.
They can't afford to have all these troops
just sitting in Iceland as placeholders.
So they call upon their friends, the Americans,
they're like America,
can you please help us out with troops?
And America is like, no, we already told you,
we're not getting involved in the war.
Because at this time America was not involved in the war.
They were neutral.
So Britain is like, okay, is there a loophole here?
So Britain asks Iceland to ask America to come help them,
as one neutral nation to another.
America is like, okay cool, I can do that.
- [Narrator] Another union, if not actually have allies,
then suddenly have two armies with the same objective
was cemented when American troops joined ours in Iceland.
- [Narrator 2] With Iceland in his hands,
Hitler could have controlled our sea lanes,
but accepting an invitation and the Icelandic government
we got there first.
- So before the U.S. ever got
officially involved in the war,
which happened when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor,
before all of that,
they sent 25,000 troops to Iceland
to hold down the fort
so that the British troops could go fight elsewhere.
- [Narrator 2] At first, the Icelanders didn't take
to the strange faces and uniforms,
which began to appear on the street.
- I freaking love 1940s American military documentaries.
They're just so, they're just so bizarre.
- [Narrator 2] Some were steaming hot and come in very handy
when they want their long handled johns fresh and dainty
for that Saturday inspection.
- While in Iceland,
the Americans start building roads
and bunkers and ports and bases.
- [Narrator 2] The United States army
is laying better road beds and is widening
and strengthening the bridges
to permit the passage of heavier trucks and tanks.
- This is stuff that is still there today.
A lot of Icelanders see this as a blessing,
since it helped upgrade their infrastructure.
Helped give them like big, beautiful roads
around the country,
but rightfully so,
many feel like they were used as a pawn
by these super powers that violated their sovereignty
in the name of geo strategy,
which is absolutely what happened.
As always with occupation it's complicated.
Anyway, but you know what,
I'm super curious what Icelanders
actually think about this history.
Was the invasion of Britain
and the subsequent presidents of the United States
a blessing to Iceland?
Or was this a deep violation of their sovereignty or both?
I'm super curious and will gladly read comments
from any Icelander who has thoughts on this.
(curious music)
So the Americans eventually got totally involved in the war,
as we know, and they helped turn the Nazi tide,
and eventually the allies defeated the Nazis in Europe.
Hitler and Eva Braun knew it was coming to an end.
They didn't want to face the justice
that was going to be dealt them
for the atrocities by Hitler's regime.
So they took their own lives in Berlin in 1945,
as it was all coming to an end.
And that's for Iceland,
the troops eventually left and Icelanders
were sort of done being a part of this global system
that could just throw them around like a pawn.
They had been a part of the kingdom of Denmark in some way,
but right after the war,
they voted 97% to move away from the Danish crown
and become totally independent, an independent Republic,
which is what they are today.
And they remain quite neutral and independent with no army,
no membership in the EU,
and despite the great powers who tried to persuade them
and occupy them,
Iceland has retained its unique and independent culture.
A couple of years ago,
I got to interview the prime minister of Iceland
when I was making an episode of Explained for Vox.
I learned about how Iceland leads the world
in gender equality, in happiness, in energy sustainable.
(upbeat music)
It's a special place
and not because it is strategically located.
I will certainly be back many times over the years.
Thanks for watching.