Why Hitler Declared War on America — What Göring and Ribbentrop Admitted in Their Cells

Göring told an American major he was "astonished" by the decision. Ribbentrop called it "a formality". So why did Hitler declare war on the United States on December 11, 1941, when no treaty forced him to and his armies were retreating from Moscow? In this documentary we follow the decision day by day: the undeclared war in the North Atlantic, when German submarines torpedoed the USS Kearny and sank the USS Reuben James weeks before Pearl Harbor; Ribbentrop's secret promise to Japan at half past ten at night on November 28, read by American codebreakers before the attack; the Chicago Tribune leak of America's war plan; Hitler's order to attack American ships three days before the declaration; the three-minute meeting in Berlin; and the U-boat slaughter off the American coast that followed. Then we go to the cells of Camp Ashcan and Nuremberg, where Göring and Ribbentrop explained the decision to their American interrogators, and compare their words with the documents. Did your family serve in the Atlantic or in Europe? Tell us in the comments. Based on interrogation records, the Nuremberg trial transcripts, wartime diaries and historians' research. 0:00 Intro 2:34 The Arsenal of Democracy 10:57 A Promise Made at Night 22:24 Three Minutes in Berlin 25:08 Why Hitler Did It 27:39 Drumbeat 30:45 The Men in the Cells