THE SECOND POSEN SPEECH (OCTOBER 6, 1943)

            Following the first Posen Speech of October 4, 1943, this one is the second speech on October 6, 1943. I will post information from several sources.

 

Heinrich Himmler in 1942

INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posen_speeches#Speech_of_6_October_1943

Speech of 6 October 1943

Records, discovery and proceedings

Of the second Posen speech, Himmler's terse notes are available, as well as a version recorded via shorthand then typed up and corrected in detail, and the final version as authorised by Himmler himself. The speech in each of these stages resided in the files of the Personal Staff of the Reichsführer (Persönlichen Stabes Reichsführer-SS), which were seized in their entirety by U.S. authorities in 1945.

The text of the speech was recorded into microfilm by the U.S. and released to the Bundesarchiv. Analysis of these previously unavailable documents by historian Erich Goldhagen in 1970 in Koblenz revealed a speech hitherto unknown. It was printed in its entireity for the first time in 1974 in Bradley Smith's and Agnes Peterson's book of selected Himmler speeches.

Reason, intention and relevance

At the end of September 1943, the party chancellery invited all Reichsleiters and Gauleiters, the head of the Hitler Youth Artur Axmann and Reich ministers Albert Speer and Alfred Rosenberg to a conference. It began on 6 October at 9 o'clock in the morning with Speer's reports, his speakers, and four big industries for armament production. Talks from Karl Dönitz and Erhard Milch followed. Himmler held his speech from 17:30 to 19:00.

The second speech is shorter than the first, but contains a slightly longer and more explicit passage regarding the genocide of the Jews.

Beginning of the speech

Himmler begins by discussing partisans in Russia and support from Vlasov's auxiliary forces. The widespread idea that there would be a 300 kilometre wide belt dominated by partisans behind the German front is considered false. Frequently expressed is the view that Russia can only be conquered by Russians. This view is considered to be dangerous and wrong. Slavs are to be considered unreliable on a matter of principle, and for that reason, Russian Hiwis may only be employed as combatants in mixed units.

The danger of infiltrated parachutists, fugitive POWs and forced labourers is considered marginal, since the German population is in an impeccable way and grants the opponent no shelter, and the police have such dangers under control. A request by Gauleiters for a special force against the insurgency in the country is considered to be unnecessary and unacceptable.

On the Jewish question

Himmler then reveals to "this most secret circle" his thoughts on the Jewish question, which he describes as "the most difficult decision of my life".

I ask of you that that which I say to you in this circle be really only heard and not ever discussed. We were faced with the question: what about the women and children? – I decided to find a clear solution to this problem too. I did not consider myself justified to exterminate the men – in other words, to kill them or have them killed and allow the avengers of our sons and grandsons in the form of their children to grow up. The difficult decision had to be made to have this people disappear from the earth. For the organisation which had to execute this task, it was the most difficult which we had ever had. [...] I felt obliged to you, as the most superior dignitary, as the most superior dignitary of the party, this political order, this political instrument of the Führer, to also speak about this question quite openly and to say how it has been. The Jewish question in the countries that we occupy will be solved by the end of this year. Only remainders of odd Jews that managed to find hiding places will be left over.

Albert Speer remark

Himmler then discusses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (19 April – 16 May 1943) and the heavy battles during it:

This entire ghetto was producing fur coats, dresses, and the like. Whenever we tried to get at it in the past we were told: Stop! Armaments factory! Of course, this has nothing to do with Party Comrade Speer. It wasn't your doing. It is this portion of alleged armaments factories that Party Comrade Speer and I intend to clear out in the next few weeks.

Albert Speer, Reich minister for arms and munition since 1942, was, since 2 September 1943 as Reich minister for armament and wartime economy, responsible for all German armament production. This used Jewish forced labourers who were partly exempted from being deported to their extermination until 1943. After 1945, Speer always maintained that he left the conference before Himmler made his speech and knew nothing of the Holocaust. Historians cite Himmler's direct reference to Speer as proof of his presence.

Further contents

Himmler then discusses the dismissal of Benito Mussolini, which is to have led to defeatism. A few death sentences imposed on the basis of making corrosive remarks are to serve as dissuasive warnings for thousands of others, and party members must display exemplary behaviour.

Himmler then discusses his duties as Reich minister of the interior. By Hitler's volition, party organisation and administrative organisation are henceforth two separate pillars. Decentralized decisions are considered important, but centralised arrangements take precedence in the strained war situation. As a result, Himmler makes broad criticism of the personal politics of Gauleiters. In the last part of his speech, he goes into the benefits of the Waffen-SS.

Himmler closes by discussing how the German national boundary will be pushed 500 km eastwards with 120 million people being relocated, and ends with the appeal:

When we see this then we will never lose our belief, never will we become disloyal, never will we be cowardly, never in bad spirits, but we will strive to be worthy to have lived under Adolf Hitler and been allowed to fight with him.

 

One of the pages of the final edition of Himmler's 3 hour long speech made at Posen on October 4, 1943. 115 pages of this edition of the speech - copyedited by Himmler himself - were recovered after the war. This page bears the Reichsführer-SS's comments that the extermination of the Jews, a Nazi policy, is being carried out.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler

• I also want to mention a very difficult subject before you here, completely openly. It should be discussed among us, and yet, nevertheless, we will never speak about it in public. Just as we did not hesitate on 30 June to carry out our duty, as ordered, and stand comrades who had failed against the wall and shoot them. About which we have never spoken, and will never speak. That was, thank God, a kind of tact natural to us, a foregone conclusion of that fact, that we have never conversed about it amongst ourselves, never spoken about it, everyone shuddered and everyone was clear that the next time he would do the same thing again, if it were commanded and necessary. I am talking about the "Jewish evacuation"; the extermination of the Jewish people. It is one of those things that is easily said. "The Jewish people are being exterminated," every party member will tell you, "perfectly clear, it's part of our plans, we're eliminating the Jews, exterminating them, Ha! A small matter." And then along they all come, all the 80 million upright Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. They say: all others are swine, but here is a first-class Jew.
• The Posen speech to SS officers (6 October 1943)

• One basic principle must be the absolute rule for the S.S. men. We must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and nobody else. What happens to a Russian and a Czech does not interest me in the least. What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type we will take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our culture: otherwise it is of no interest to me. Whether ten thousand Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished. We shall never be tough and heartless where it is not necessary, that is clear. We, Germans, who are the only people in the world who have a decent attitude towards animals, will also assume a decent attitude towards these human animals. But it is a crime against our blood to worry about them and give them ideals, thus causing our sons and grandsons to have a more difficult time with them. When somebody comes up to me and says: 'I cannot dig the anti-tank ditch with women and children, it is inhuman, for it would kill them,' then I have to say: 'You are the murderer of your own blood, because if the anti-tank ditch is not dug German soldiers will die, and they are the sons of German mothers. They are our own blood....' Our concern, our duty, is our people and our blood. We can be indifferent to everything else. I wish the S.S. to adopt this attitude towards the problem of all foreign, non-Germanic peoples, especially Russians....
• The Posen speech to SS officers (6 October 1943)

• Most of you know what it means when a hundred corpses are lying side by side, or five hundred, or a thousand. To have stuck it out, and at the same time — apart from exceptions caused by human weakness — to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history, which has never been written and is never to be written.... We had the moral right, we had the duty to our people, to destroy this people which wanted to destroy us.
• The Posen speech to SS officers (6 October 1943)

 

Posen's town hall, where the conference took place (the building no longer exists today)

INTERNET SOURCE: http://holocaustcontroversies.yuku.com/topic/1825/Himmlers-Speech-in-Posen-on-6-October-1943

Himmler's Speech in Posen on 6 October 1943
	What follows is an excerpt from the speech held by Heinrich Himmler before the Reichsleiter and Gauleiter of the NSDAP in Posen on 6 October 1943. The source of the text is: Märthesheimer/Frenzel, Im Kreuzfeuer: Der Fernsehfilm Holocaust. Eine Nation ist betroffen, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH Frankfurt am Main 1979, pages 112 to 114. Reference of quote: Heinrich Himmler, Geheimreden 1933 bis 1945, edited by Bradley F. Smith and Agnes F. Peterson, Berlin 1974, pages 169 and following. Quote: Ich darf hier in diesem Zusammenhang und in diesem allerengsten Kreise auf eine Frage hinweisen, die Sie, meine Parteigenossen, alle als selbstverständlich hingenommen haben, die aber fr mich die schwerste Frage meines Lebens geworden ist, die Judenfrage. Sie alle nehmen es als selbstverständlich und erfreulich hin, da in Ihrem Gau keine Juden mehr sind. Alle deutschen Menschen abgesehen von einzelnen Ausnahmen sind sich auch darüber klar, daß wir den Bombenkrieg, die Belastungen des vierten und des vielleicht kommenden fünften und sechsten Kriegsjahres nicht ausgehalten hätten und nicht aushalten würden, wenn wir diese zersetzende Pest noch in unserem Volkskörper hätten. Der Satz Die Juden müssen ausgerottet werden mit seinen wenigen Worten, meine Herren, ist leicht ausgesprochen. Für den, der durchführen muß, was er fordert, ist es das Allerhärteste und Schwerste, was es gibt. Sehen Sie, natürlich sind es Juden, es ist ganz klar, es sind nur Juden, bedenken Sie aber selbst, wie viele auch Parteigenossen ihr berühmtes Gesuch an mich oder irgendeine Stelle gerichtet haben, in dem es hieß, da alle Juden selbstverständlich Schweine seien, daß bloß der Soundso ein anständiger Jude sei, dem man nichts tun dürfe. Ich wage zu behaupten, da es nach der Anzahl der Gesuche und der Anzahl der Meinungen in Deutschland mehr anständige Juden gegeben hat als überhaupt nominell vorhanden waren. In Deutschland haben wir nämlich so viele Millionen Menschen, die ihren einen berühmten anständigen Juden haben, daß diese Zahl bereits größer ist als die Zahl der Juden. Ich will das bloß ausführen, weil Sie aus dem Lebensbereich Ihres eigenen Gaues bei achtbaren und anständigen nationalsozialistischen Menschen feststellen können, da auch von ihnen jeder einen anständigen Juden kennt. Ich bitte Sie, das, was ich Ihnen in diesem Kreise sage, wirklich nur zu hören und nie darüber zu sprechen. Es trat an uns die Frage heran: Wie ist es mit den Frauen und Kindern? Ich habe mich entschlossen, auch hier eine ganz klare Lösung zu finden. Ich hielt mich nämlich nicht für berechtigt, die Männer auszurotten sprich also, umzubringen oder umbringen zu lassen und die Rächer in Gestalt der Kinder für unsere Söhne und Enkel groß werden zu lassen. Es mute der schwere Entschluß gefaßt werden, dieses Volk von der Erde verschwinden zu lassen. Für die Organisation, die den Auftrag durchführen mute, war es der schwerste, den wir bisher hatten. Er ist durchgeführt worden, ohne daß wie ich glaube sagen zu können unsere Männer und unsere Führer einen Schaden an Geist und Seele erlitten hätten. Der Weg zwischen den hier bestehenden Möglichkeiten, entweder roh zu werden, herzlos zu werden und menschliches Leben nicht mehr zu achten oder weich zu werden und durchzudrehen bis zu Nervenzusammenbrüchen, der Weg zwischen dieser Scylla und Charybdis ist entsetzlich schmal. Wir haben das Vermögen, daß wir bei den Juden beschlagnahmten es ging in unendliche Werte -, bis zum letzten Pfennig an den Reichswirtschaftsminister abgeführt. Ich habe mich immer auf den Standpunkt gestellt: Wir haben die Verpflichtung unserem Volke, unserer Rasse gegenüber, wenn wir den Krieg gewinnen wollen, wir haben die Verpflichtung unserem Führer gegenüber, der nun in 2000 Jahren unserem Volke einmal geschenkt worden ist, hier nicht klein zu sein und hier konsequent zu sein. Wir haben nicht das Recht, auch nur einen Pfennig von dem beschlagnahmten Judenvermögen zu nehmen. Ich habe von vornherein festgesetzt, da SS-Männer, auch wenn sie nur eine Mark davon nehmen, des Todes sind. Ich habe in den letzten Tagen deswegen einige, ich kann es ruhig sagen, es sind etwa ein Dutzend Todesurteile unterschrieben. Hier muß man hart sein, wenn nicht das Ganze darunter leiden soll. Ich habe mich für verpflichtet gehalten, zu Ihnen als den obersten Willensträgern, als den obersten Würdenträgern der Partei, dieses politischen Ordens, dieses politischen Instruments des Führers, auch über diese Frage einmal ganz offen zu sprechen und zu sagen, wie es gewesen ist. Die Judenfrage in den von uns besetzten Ländern wird bis Ende dieses Jahres erledigt sein. Es werden nur Restbestände von einzelnen Juden übrig bleiben, die untergeschlüpft sind. Die Frage der mit nichtjüdischen Teilen verheirateten Juden und die Frage der Halbjuden werden sinngemäß und vernünftig untersucht, entschieden und dann gelöst. Daß ich große Schwierigkeiten mit vielen wirtschaftlichen Einrichtungen hatte, werden Sie mir glauben. Ich habe in den Etappengebieten große Judengettos ausgeräumt. In Warschau haben wir in einem Judengetto vier Wochen Straßenkampf gehabt. Vier Wochen! Wir haben dort ungefähr 700 Bunker ausgehoben. Dieses ganze Getto machte also Pelzmäntel, Kleider und ähnliches. Wenn man früher dort hinlangen wollte, so hieß es: Halt! Sie stören die Kriegswirtschaft! Halt! Rüstungsbetrieb! Natürlich hat das mit Parteigenossen Speer gar nichts zu tun, Sie können gar nichts dazu. Es ist der Teil von angeblichen Rüstungsbetrieben, die der Parteigenosse Speer und ich in den nächsten Wochen und Monaten gemeinsam reinigen wollen. Das werden wir genauso unsentimental machen, wie im fünften Kriegsjahr alle Dinge unsentimental, aber mit großem Herzen für Deutschland gemacht werden müssen. Damit möchte ich die Judenfrage abschließen. Sie wissen nun Bescheid, und Sie behalten es für sich. Man wird vielleicht in ganz später Zeit sich einmal überlegen können, ob man dem deutschen Volke etwas mehr darüber sagt. Ich glaube, es ist besser wir, wir insgesamt haben das für unser Volk getragen, haben die Verantwortung auf uns genommen (die Verantwortung für eine Tat, nicht für eine Idee) und nehmen dann das Geheimnis mit uns ins Grab. My translation: Quote: I allow myself, in this context and in this most restricted circle, to point to an question that you, my fellow party members, have all taken for granted, but that for me has become the most difficult question of my life, the Jewish question. You all take it for granted and a pleasant fact that in your Gau there are no more Jews. All German people apart from some exceptions are also clearly aware that we wouldn’t have withstood or withstand the bombing war, the hardships of the fourth and maybe the fifth and sixth war year, if we still had this disintegrating plague in our body popular. The sentence: The Jews must be exterminated with its few words, my dear Sirs, is easily pronounced. For him who must carry out what is required it is the toughest and most difficult thing there is. You see, of course they are Jews, it is very clear, they are just Jews, but consider yourselves how many, also party members addressed their famous request to me or any other entity wherein it said that all Jews were swine of course, that only so-and-so was a decent Jew who was not to be harmed. I dare assert that by the number of requests and the number of opinions there have been more decent Jews in Germany than nominally existed at all. This because in Germany we have so many million people who had their famous one decent Jew that this number is already larger than the number of Jews. I only want to address this because you are able to observe in respectable and decent National Socialist individuals from the living area of your own Gau, that each of them also knows a decent Jew. I ask you that what I tell you in this circle you will really only hear and never talk about it. The question came up to us: What do to with the women and children? I decided to find a very clear solution also in this respect. This because I didn’t consider myself entitled to exterminate the men, that is, to kill them or to have them killed, and to let the children grow up as avengers against our sons and grandsons. The difficult decision had to be taken to make this people disappear from the earth. For the organization that had to carry out the task if was the most difficult we had so far. It has been carried out without, as I consider myself entitled to say, our men and our leaders having taken harm to their spirit and soul. The path between the possibilities existing here, to either become crude and heartless and no longer to respect human life or to become weak and collapse to the point of nervous breakdowns, the path between this Scylla and Charybdis is horrendously narrow. The patrimony that we confiscated from the Jews it reached endless values we have transferred to the last Pfennig to the Reich Minister of Economics. I have always held this position: We have the duty towards our people, our race, if we want to win the war, we have the duty towards our Führer, who has been given to our people this one time in 2000 years, not to be miserly and to be consequent in this respect. We don’t have the right to take even a Pfennig of the confiscated Jewish property. I have established from the very start that SS men will be punished by death if they take as much a one mark of it. In the last days I have thus, I have no problem saying this, signed about a dozen death sentences. In these things you must be tough lest the whole be affected by them. I have considered myself under the obligation to once speak with all openness to you as the main carriers of the will, the main dignitaries of the party, this political order, this political instrument of the Führer, also about this question and to tell you how it has been. The Jewish question in the countries occupied by us will be solved until the end of this year. There will remain only a few individual hidden Jews. The question as to Jews married to non-Jewish partners and the question of the half-Jews will be correspondingly and reasonably examined, decided upon and then solved. You will believe that I had great difficulties with economic institutions. I have cleared many Jewish ghettoes in the rear areas. In Warsaw we had four weeks of street fighting in one Jewish ghetto. Four weeks! We there took out about 700 bunkers. So this whole ghetto made fur coats, clothes and similar things. If you formerly tried to get at it, someone said: Stop! You are disturbing the war economy! Stop! Armament factory! Of course this has nothing to do with fellow party member Speer, you can do nothing about it. It is the part of alleged armament factories that fellow party member Speer and I will jointly clean up in the next weeks and months. We will do that as unsentimentally as everything in the fifth year of the war has to be done unsentimentally, but with a great heart for Germany. With this I want to conclude the Jewish question. You are now informed, and you will keep it to yourselves. Maybe a long time hereafter one may think about whether the German people is to be told more about it. I think it is better if we, we all together, have done this for our people, have taken the responsibility onto ourselves (the responsibility for a deed, not for an idea) and then take the secret with us to the grave.