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Adolf
Hitler Speech at the Berlin Sportspalast
January
30, 1942
My German Fellow Countrymen and Women, My Comrades!
At present everybody speaks before the forum which seems
to them the most fitting. Some speak before a parliament whose existence,
composition and origin are well known.
I believed that I should return again today whence I
came, namely to the people! Every person is a representatives of this nation,
with the one difference that you do not receive any salaries, and often it is
more difficult for you to come to such rallies, more difficult than for the
so-called qualified representatives of those democracies.
Before we enter the tenth year of the National Socialist
German Reich, it seems appropriate to look into our past, and once again
occupy ourselves with the principles of our existence, of our life, and of
our victory.
Quite often we hear today the remark that this war is
really the second world war. It means that this struggle is identified with
the first, which most of us lived through as soldiers. This is not only
correct in that this struggle, too, encompasses almost the whole world, it is
even more correct when we consider that it is a question of the same aims;
that the same powers which brought about the first world war are responsible
for the present one, and that these powers and states have the same aims
which they had at that time (although they remained hidden at first glance
then); they had the same intentions which are the true cause and purpose of
this struggle.
They are not only the same causes, but, above all, they
are the same individuals. And I can proudly say that the only exceptions are
the very nations which today are embodied as allies by the German Reich, by
Italy, by Japan, and so on. For certainly no one can deny that Churchill even
in 1914 was one of the most rabid war-mongers of his time; that Roosevelt was
then the disciple of President Wilson; that the capitalistic countries then
also had thrown the weight of their influence into the scales on the side of
war; just as no one can deny the reverse, that we were entirely innocent in
starting that war. We were all only very ordinary soldiers, just as you are
now, my dear wounded men sitting here before me. Unknown and nameless men,
whom duty had simply called, nothing else, and who in response had fulfilled
their duty as faithfully as they were able.
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ENGLAND
MOTIVATED BY IMPERIAL GREED NOT CONCERN FOR "DEMOCRACY"
The same
motive forces which were to blame for the first world war are now responsible
for the second. I want to start by saying one thing: Germany then was a
monarchy; in other words not a National-Socialist dictatorship. The Germany of
that period was democratic, that is, not a national-socialistic state, and the
Germany of that period was parliamentarian, that is, not what Germany is today,
to say nothing of all other differences. Therefore, there had to be
reasons which led to the attacks of these powers then as today, and which had
nothing to do with the respective forms of government, although both sides
pretend that it is just this which called them into the field of battle.
We
Germans cannot possibly imagine that if a country near us suddenly decides on a
certain form of government, we must declare war on this country just because
that particular form of government doesn't suit us. We can't understand this at all, and naturally the
others can't understand it either. They did not enter the war for this reason. They
did not enter and are not at war because they were irritated by the form of the
state. They are capable of embracing the vilest type of government when
necessary and of fraternizing with it. No, no, it is not a question of a
form of a government, but other reasons which have also previously
brought them into a war against the German state.
At that
time England was the principal initiator of this struggle, England, which over
a period of 300 years, through a continuous succession of bloody wars,
subjugated roughly a quarter of the globe. Because at that time it wasn't as if
one day a few Indian princes or Indian localities or Indian representatives
proceeded to London with the request "Britishers, come to India, reign
over us or lead us," but it was the English who went to India and the
Indian people did not want the British and tried to get rid of them by force.
They forced their way in and could not be gotten rid of through more force. Through
the use of force they subjugated this continent of over 380 million people, and
kept them subjugated.
Only
through force did they make one state after another pay them tribute and taxes.
Behind this force, of course, stood the other one, which scents business
everywhere where a state of disturbance exists: our international Jewish
acquaintances. In this manner England, over a period of a few hundred years,
has subjugated the world; and, to make secure this conquest of the world, this
subjugation of the people, England endeavors to maintain the so-called balance
of power in Europe.
This
means in reality that it endeavors to make sure that no European state is able
to gain over a certain measure of power and perhaps in this way rise to a
leading-role in Europe. What they wanted was a disunited, disintegrated Europe,
a Europe all of whose forces completely offset one another.
To reach
this goal, England conducted one war after another in Europe. She has seen
first its powerful position menaced by Spain. When they had finally conquered
Spain, they turned their attentions to the Netherlanders. When Holland seemed
to represent no further danger, British hate concentrated itself against
France. And when finally France was crushed with the help of all Europe, to be
sure, they then imagined that Germany must be, of necessity, the one factor
which might possibly be able to unify Europe.
Then it
was that the struggle against Germany began, not out of love for the nations or
their people, but only in their own most selfish, rational interests, behind
which, as previously said, stands the eternal Jewry, which, in every struggle
between nations, is capable of making profits and winning wherever there is
confusion and wrangling. It is well-known that they have always been the
instigators of unrest among the nations, because they were able to profit only
in time of unrest, and because a period of peace might lead to reflection and
hence, also, to an insight into the ways of these evil-doers of all nations.
When, in
1914, a world coalition against the German Reich of that time was first
brewing, they found justifications in these reasons. They then said,
"Germany must first of all be freed from its Kaiser." This, of
course, should have been of no concern to the English, but rather an internal
matter for the German people. But the English always feel concerned for other
nations, and for that reason they wanted to free Germany of its Kaiser, then as
now.
They
further said: "It is Germany's militarism which makes the German people
unhappy and oppresses them."
The
English are against the oppression and against the misery meted out today
everywhere. Finally, they said, "There shall be no more war. Therefore let
us wage war upon war." A wonderful, enticing, splendid perspective. If
only one wanted to apply it in retrospect. That means, if one wanted to say,
"We agree that war is an injustice because only brutal force decides war.
We will eliminate all coercion. Hence we will abolish everything arisen through
coercion up to now."
A very
difficult beginning, indeed, because the whole world hitherto has been built up
in accordance with the principle that might makes right. But still it would
have been wonderful if England had led the way to the rest of the world in its
abhorrence of war in this manner, that it would have liberated the fruits of
its own wars, that is, that it would have placed them again at the disposition
of the rest of the world. If England had done that, if it had therefore
declared: "We abhor war. Therefore, we will immediately return South
Africa; because we won it through war. We hate war. Therefore, we will return
the East Indies; we also won those in a war. For instance, we hate war.
Therefore, we will also leave Egypt; because this also we have subjugated through
force. We shall also retire from the entire Near East; because this also became
ours through force."
It would
have been a beautiful gesture, to have declared war on war in this fashion.
However, the struggle against war meant something entirely different in
England; namely, this war against war was interpreted to mean the impossibility
of making good the injustices already existing in this world: keep the power
with him who already has it, and deny all possibility of power from him who has
none.
ENGLISH
HYPOCRISY IN DOMESTIC POLICY
It is
about the same as the attitude we recognize also in domestic policy, when
people say: "We want no change in the social order. He who is rich is to
stay rich; he who is poor must stay poor. As things are, so are they willed;
and as they are willed, so they are to remain; for man should not rise against
that which is once willed, because it is so."
You know,
my comrades, our National Socialist concepts are against this. We see in
each situation and at each moment on this earth the evidence of an
uninterrupted life process. It is impossible to say at any given moment:
"Here the evolutionary process stops," for it is the nature of
the evolution of all things that every halt to this life process must lead to
extinction. On the contrary, it is the essence of Nature that again and again
those who are the most competent are chosen and lifted up, meaning therefore,
that one must open a pathway within the people so that those who are more
competent are not locked in by a static social structure, that one must not
allow financial circumstances of the people to halt the process. Instead, one
must take care to ensure that a continuous stream of fresh blood rises from the
bottom to the top and that everything above which is decadent, because it is
lazy, should die, because it must die, because it is ready to die. One should
not put a stop to this process.
And so
the talk of war on war has been proved quite false. The best proof for that is
that the moment the war was over, the conditions for a new war could by no
means be avoided, nor the instruments for waging the new war, either. It would
have been a wonderful gesture if after the disarmament of Germany, as it had
been promised in the treaty, England, America, and France had also disarmed. We
suggested it to them often, begged them to at the time of the Weimar Republic,
and still later demanded that they do it.
They did
not even consider it. On the contrary, the wars went on. Only the defeated
people, the German people, lost every prospect ever in this world to change its
condition once more for the better.
FALSE
PROMISES OF ENGLAND TO ITS ALLIES
The
methods which they used in the first World War were like those with which they
are fighting today. At first the war from outside, and war in the form of
creating coalitions. Here fits a piece of Churchill's shamelessness, who says
today: "England was never in a position to carry on war by herself alone
against Italy or Germany." But this same man has through his lieutenant year
after year given out promises of guarantee to the whole world. Then he
himself admits that they were never in a position to fight alone.
But they
guaranteed the Baltic states; they guaranteed the Balkans. They went on around:
Every state in the world, they declared, needs a guarantee. Great Britain will
put her whole strength behind them and will protect them. Today this same
arch-liar says: "But we were really never in a position to carry on the war
alone." But that is right; even in the World War they were not in a
position to carry on the war alone. Therefore they cooked up a coalition
against us of world-wide extent.
The
methods have likewise remained the same. Promises to all those of little faith,
the credulous, or stupid, who wanted to trust these promises, moreover, the
attempt to allow their own interests to be represented with as much other blood
as possible.
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David
Lloyd George meets Adolf Hitler
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BRITAIN
ENCOURAGES DIVISIONS IN GERMANY
It must
always be remembered that the British world empire in the 400 years since its
origin had to shed in countless wars barely 10% of the blood that Germany
needed to defend alone its bare existence, and in spite of that, we have always lost more and more. This truth
is connected with the second British method, that is, with the method of
division. In the time that the British Empire had its origin, Germany tore
herself apart. There were at that time modes of thought that we no longer
understand, modes of thought of a religious kind, that unfortunately were
fought out only with the sword, modes of thought that became horrible among the
people, that seem insufficient to us in their inner being. Only these grievous
internal struggles, that cost the German people endless blood, gave England the
opportunity, in this same period, to raise up a world claim that never belonged
to her either in number or in significance. Then I must always point out that
it is not true that we Germans are like upstarts, but if one wants to talk
about upstarts, then it is unconditionally the English and not ourselves! We
have an older history, and during the time when Europe had a powerful German
Empire, England was a quite insignificant, small, green island.
In the
last World War the possibilities of this dissolution lay in another sphere. The
religious problems did not provoke any more bloodshed, especially since the
priests themselves would not have been ready any more to sacrifice their lives
for these causes.
After
realizing the impossibility of involving the German people in a dark, dynastic
and domestic crisis, there evolved a new possibility of playing the political
parties' against one another. We lived through it then. The parties of the
right and the parties of the left, which further splintered; a dozen bourgeois
aspects, and a half dozen proletarian aspects. And having begun with these
parties, from the bourgeoisie of the Zentrum Party up to the KPD (Communist
Party of Germany), the German people were undermined and broken down
slowly from within. In spite of that, the course of the war was an immeasurably
glorious one. The years 1914-1918 - they proved one thing: not even the
opponents triumphed; it was a low, common revolt, plotted by
Marxian-Zentrum-Liberal-Capitalistic subjects. The driving force behind all of
it was the eternal Jew. They brought Germany to its collapse at that time.
PARLIAMENTARY
DEMOCRACY: THE ROOT OF GERMANY'S SURRENDER IN 1918
We know
this today from the verdict of the English themselves, that they in 1918
were exhausted, just before their own collapse, when perhaps a quarter hour
before 12 o'clock the revolt in Germany was realized. Only the cowardice of our
former rulers, their indecision, their halfway measures, their own uncertainty
brought it on. And so the First World War was lost not by the merit of our
opponents, but exclusively by our own fault.
The consequences of this collapse in November were not that world
democracies stretched out open arms to Germany, they were not concerned about
freeing the German people from its burdens and lifting the German people to a
higher standard of culture (an impossibility since they themselves had a much
lower one); the consequence was the most frightful collapse, politically
and economically, that a people has ever experienced.
AMERICAN
LIES
At that
time there came to us a man who has done the German people immeasurable harm,
Woodrow Wilson, the man who lied with a straight face. If Germany would lay
down her arms, then she would get a compassionate, an understanding peace! Then
she would not lose her colonies! But the colonial problems were fixed up, all
right! The man lyingly promised us that there would be a general disarmament,
that we would then be accepted on equal terms among nations, peoples, etc. with
equal rights! He lyingly promised us that then secret diplomacy would be done
away with, and that we too would then enter into a new age of peace, of
equality, of reason, etc.! This arch-liar's stooge was the President Roosevelt
of today! He was his right hand man. Our German folk believed this man. They
had no idea that they were dealing here with an American President, that is,
with a man who has no regard for truths; who, for example, can calmly say
before an election: "I shall vote against war," and after the
election can say: "I vote for war." And who, when he is then called
to answer for it, can explain as calmly as ever: "I said that then because
I thought that there would be stupid people who would take it for the
truth."
But we
had no idea of a thing like this, that we were in fact dealing with a paralysis
victim, with a madman, who was then head of this people, with which the German
people had never in their history had a conflict! So there came the hour of the
German people's worst disappointment: got its disappointment at the moment
when the German subordinate emissaries entered the car in the Compiegne forest,
now known to us for the second time. And there right away came the rude
question: "What are you gentlemen doing here?" There was an armistice
which in reality meant total defenselessness. And the sequel to this armistice
was then the peace treaty, the complete removal of our people's arms and
therewith the removal of its rights, and with that the plundering and ravaging
by an international financial combine which threw our people into the depths of
misery.
They told
us beforehand: "He who says that we intend to take away Germany's colonies
lies!" They took them away from us! They said: "He who says that the
intention is to take from Germany her merchant marine is not telling the truth!"
They took it away from us! They said beforehand: "He who says that we want
to take away part of the German people is inciting the people!" Later they
took away one part after another! They had broken all their promises! In a few
months the German people sank into a state of unimaginably deep despair and
despondency-starving people without any hope. A people that did not get its
prisoners of war back, even after the armistice and peace-treaty had been
signed! A people that was not given food, even after it was defenseless! A
people that was now repeatedly coerced,-if one carefully studies those
times-from whom re-subjection was again and again demanded, extorted by some
new repression. Even today, when one reflects upon this, one falls into a state
of burning hatred and rancor against a world in which anything like this is
possible.
BIRTH OF
NATIONAL SOCIALISM
Now it
was at that time, my comrades, when everything was shattered, when the highest
leadership of the Reich had fled abroad, when others were surrendering, when
the armed forces had to give up their weapons, when the people themselves
voluntarily disarmed; at that time when agitation could rage against Germany
from within our borders, that one could read in the newspapers: "It is a
good thing that we lost the war," that men without character could
declare: "We were not able to win the war," it was at that moment,
when anyone who even thought of Germany, or spoke about it, trembled to stand
up, at that time, when the renunciation of life was being preached as an ideal,
so to speak, and when one was ashamed to face the world as a German altogether,
it was at that very time, my comrades, that I entered my political career with
the determination to resurrect Germany!
It was
such a mad determination in the eyes of those others, that my closest friends
did not understand me. I found the strength for this determination only from my
insight into the population. If, at that time, I had only known the upper ten
thousand, believe me, my German people-I would not stand before you today, I
would never have found courage for this thought which is capable of
revolutionizing a people: Determination and Faith. I knew first and foremost
the people itself; I knew my comrades; I knew that these men, who for years have
done what could not be left undone, who have done work without precedence,
could be trusted,-I knew that if they only would have had the right leadership,
that they never would have agreed to a capitulation, not these comrades, since
each knew that so many comrades had already fallen for what I was fighting for.
I could not abandon that, for it would have been to betray my own comrades, who
were just as badly treated by life as I myself, who had also contributed their
lives to the cause.
I have
come to know the great mass of the German people, ladies and gentlemen, from
living with them. And these masses have not only upheld my belief in the
people, but have restored it, and constantly strengthened it through all the
years since then, in the face of contrary circumstances, or when any misfortune
seemed to threaten the realization of my plans. It was clear to me that this
whole development, just as in the last 20 years or 30 years before the war,
could lead only to collapse. But I had already formed the resolve to declare
war on this whole development. That is not merely to declare: "I will get
a German Wehrmacht, I will get an army or an air-force"; it was clear
to me that the inner structure of the social order must be altered, so that in
the dead body of our people the blood would flow up from the bottom again, and
that society should hold firmly to the goal.
I have
always looked upon this undertaking as possible, as within the power of the
country. But I was of the conviction that strength could only be given to a
body in which the sight and the essence of the new condition was already
incorporated. Therefore, I was resolved to build up a small movement, beginning
with those people who should already have within themselves that which appeared
later as really essential to the whole of society. And this was perhaps not so
hard as I thought, inasmuch as I was already on guard against the danger of
unworthy place-seekers or selfish persons joining my ranks.
For
whoever joined this movement in those years from 1919-23 had to be a boundless
idealist. Any other kind of man would only
say: "He is an utter fool. He wants to build a new people, to found a new
state, to organize a new Wehrmacht, to make the Germans free again-and he
hasn't even a name, no money, no press, no political clique, nothing. The man
is mad." They had to be boundless idealists who came to me then, for we
had nothing at all to gain, but always only to lose, always to sacrifice. And I
can say that of all my followers, all of them who at that time and later
supported me: they had nothing to win, and everything to lose. And how many
have lost everything, even their lives, for my sake. I have now begun this
battle, first against stupidity, stupidity and inertia, under the so-called
higher strata; I have begun it against the cowardice which spreads caste far
and wide, the cowardice which always pretended to be cleverness and came around
and said: "We must submit; we must be patient"; or, as Herr Erzberger
said, "We must sign everything, we must sign everything they put before
us; then they will forgive us; then it will be all right again." Against
this immeasurable cowardice which did everything rather than take a stand, I
had to fight then, in small and gradually larger circles. Often we have experienced
that this part of society says, "But why do you go demonstrate on the
streets? Can you not see that us others don't want this and that it leads
inexorably to more conflict? Why? Because you are provocative, so stop
provoking them, stand back, be quiet" And we were not quiet. I then formed
the program: "The German street belongs to the German, not the Jew."
And I have won the streets back for these German masses, not by the cleverness
of the cowards, but the bravery of these daredevils who at that time attached
themselves to me and who were ready to liberate the streets from our enemies,
and carry the German colors back through these German streets, to the German
markets, villages and cities. And I had at that time to fight on further
against selfish interests of manyl individuals. The man of the Left said to me:
"You are going against my interests" or "You are going against
my interests. My interests are class interests. And these class interests
oblige me to slay the other fellow." And the other spectrum said to me:
"Sir, keep away from our interests. We have the interests of station, we
too have our interests, stay away. Do not come in here!" I had to turn
against both sides. And above the interests which seemed to be found in station
or in class, stood the interests which lie in the people themselves, in that
community which cannot be torn apart. All this appears today to be so obvious a
thing to get all these truisms into the cross-grained skulls of our people from
the Left and Right.
One group
did not want to accept this idea, from pure doggedness, because they said:
"What? We will break our enemies' heads in", and the others did not
want to accept it because of their limitations or stupidity, because of
sluggish thinking, when they said: That was not until now, why should we change
now? You cannot demand of me that I should have anything to do with these
persons who come from the people: That I cannot do.
Eventually
you will even demand of me that I should add switch positions. We want to be a
people as brothers, but with enough distance, with enough distance, gentlemen,
not too close, and only during elections, not every day.
All that
was thus not so simple, slowly to draw one thing after another out of this
people, and how many have quite simply run away from it. It was not, indeed, my
national comrades, as if every one who came to me at that time, on that account
also remained with me. Many a time I had to bring fifty or sixty somewhere and
three months later they were again only seven or eight. All the others were
gone again. And one had to begin again. I made a calculation at that time. If I
win a hundred over, and have only ten remain to me, and the other ninety always
leave me, then gradually they will become a hundred if I win a thousand. If I
win ten thousand, they will be a thousand, and gradually the number of those
who remain will grow ever larger. And if one had departed for the second or
third time, perhaps, then perhaps he will be embarrassed to go the fifth time,
and then he too will remain.
And thus,
with unbelievable patience and with perseverance and persistence I will slowly
build up a group that is a majority in the German Reich itself. The others may
laugh or mock as much as they wish. It does not matter. They may go against us.
That does not matter; then we will defend ourselves. We will not capitulate. We
will not get off the street, we will not give up our places until we have the
upper hand, or until others force us out themselves.
The
feeling of the National Socialist is today obvious to us. However at that time,
these were new ideas, new learnings, which were neither understood, nor of
course, accepted by many. And another thing was added to this, a cursed
tradition, this question of education, into which every single man believes he
was born differently, behind which there lies a much more serious problem
than any other; one individual could not bring himself to mix with the broad
masses of the people, because he didn't belong to them socially; while another
could not because he also came from others. It was a fight against traditions,
and also, naturally, against the elements of cultural up-bringing.
Some
said, "I, as a cultured person, cannot be made to expect to associate with
such a village organization, in which a day-laborer leads the way." I had
to first of all make them understand that leadership had nothing to do with an
abstract learnedness, which had been pumped up in an institution of studies.
One is studied, taught, hammered in, in God knows how many homework hours, and
the other is innate and will always come to the fore, and will know how to find
a following among his natural and necessary talents of leadership. It was a
struggle against almost all of the things which we were accustomed to in life.
Besides this, there was a fight against certain natural interests. "If I
should really join you, I shall lose my business," (said one) and another
would say: "It would be scandalous, because my colleagues would not stand
for this." Can you imagine, my countrymen, what a hero one had to be to be
the first National Socialist in any group, in any factory, and also, I concede,
to be the first National Socialist in any salon? For some, they are bodily, the
others because they are spiritually threatened. I do not know what is more
evil, a bodily threat rather than a spiritual suppression which can perhaps
break down a person even faster than a physical threat. There have been heroes
who have come forward at that time. And I should like to explain something about
that: These heroes have in reality continued the war of 1914-1918. One sees
them yet so displayed as if they were soldiers (in my eyes) and their party,
no, that the soldiers have been once, and indeed the best soldiers. They were
the best soldiers that have ever been, who would not and could not bear the
acquiescence, thus we recognize it today, that a really good National Socialist
will also be always the best soldier.
And now
came the organized opponents. There were originally approximately 46 or 47
parties, who hesitated accordingly to unite together the bicyclists, or the
small gardeners, or cottagers, or other people. But there were some 48 parties.
An Allied Opposition. And here above all the party secretaries, their
functionaries, who saw in us the ruin of their existence. For where, after all,
was a civil party position to arrive, represented by its syndics, party
secretaries, and so on, and where a proletarian party itself, represented by
trade-union leaders and again party secretaries, if now suddenly someone comes
and says: "All that rubbish is again plain madness. You are fighting here
for something that can be of no use to anyone. You will both have to get off
your high horse. In the long run you cannot do without each other. It is more
sensible for you to come to an intelligent agreement with each other than that
you should each bring about the other's ruin." One could say that, of
course, to the individual, but to a secretary it meant making the man think,
immediately, that then his entire existence was over. If I say, religion is not
a topic of political debate, what happens to the followers of the Zentrum
Party? If I say, I cannot fight politically for economic interests, which must
be solved, rationally, in economic terms, where, then, do the trade-union
secretaries and the syndics get? And most of all, where then do the dear Jews
get, who had, indeed, their interests so much in both camps, who on the one
hand directed capital, and on the other hand led the anti-capitalists, and
often, indeed, as one family with two brothers in both camps.
My dear
comrades! When at that time I began this fight, I knew very well that it was a
fight against an entire condition of things, and how hard it was only my
fellow-fighters can know.
I can say
that for me, the war has not ended since 1914. I have gone up and down the
country, and from city to city, and have spoken and labored again and again,
always with the single thought to loose the German people from this bond, to
deliver them from their lethargy, and gather them together once more.
Not only
have I found comrades in arms, but also countless people in the course of these
years, who have now helped us, women and men, who have given all, for whom the
Party, in particular, was everything. The other wretched bourgeois, especially,
cannot understand that. Only those can understand who belong to National
Socialism, for whom the movement means everything, so that they have thought of
their movement the whole day, so that they have risked all, and have offered
every sacrifice. Now the whole nation understands it; what then counted not
even a thousand, today totals millions of fellow countrymen, who are going to
the gathering places, and are giving, for the National Socialist Union, their
last fur and pullover.
This good
fortune, to be able to give, to be able to sacrifice for it, that millions
today have, was had formerly by only the few National Socialists of our
movement. How great the good fortune was only those can measure, apparently,
who today can say of themselves: "I am doing everything for my people,
everything for our soldiers, so that they may stand fast."
Now, my
fellow countrymen, from this small beginning has sprung the German Union.
Slowly, it is true, but it was well so; it needed time, but it came into
existence. This movement exists today; it was not an uninterrupted growth, but
there were then again also days of the most severe distress and of doubt, dark
days.
I need
only remember the year 1923. The enemy stood in the Ruhr district, Germany was
in inflation, the whole German people ruined, and seemed to be going under in
unparalleled misery. And the Jews triumphed over everything. They ruined our
country and they profited by our misfortune. And then I tried at that time to
grab in my hand the power to bring misfortune to a stop. And at the moment when
I might have believed that I would get the power, then fate struck me down, and
I came, instead of into power, into prison.
And then,
at this time, then the movement had to prove itself, and, of course, I had to
prove myself as well. And I may now say that at this moment, when I had yet
scarcely come to my senses, I did not lose my head for a minute, but had soon
recovered my faith. My enemies said, "Now he is dead! One need not hesitate
further about it, one need never mention him again, National Socialism is
dead!" After 13 months I came back and began again. And I think that this
was maybe the most important thing for our party: any weakling can bear
winning, but only the strong can bear the strokes of misfortune that fate
deals!
Back
then, I was the recipient of first major crisis within our movement. It was
done with a few years later. Then after the first hard blow I got great
increases in the movement. What that cost in work is known only to those who
were there then. But I kept then also my boundless faith, faith in my own
person, too, that nothing can break my composure. I took to heart the
saying of a German philosopher: "The blow that does not kill you makes you
stronger."
WESTERN ALLIES
ABUSE THEIR OWN CREATION, THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC
At this
time the rest of the world took no notice at all of us. The rest of the world
listened to the Diplomats, and the diplomats moved in circles which at that
time we National Socialists could not move in, were absolutely forbidden to
move in, and as far as I am concerned, didn't have to move in. These diplomats
sent wonderful reports to their governments, in which they depicted the
political games within the Reich, and ignored the powers that would take over
this entire Reich some day. They treated the Germany of that day as though
there never would exist, or never had existed a National Socialism.
And how
they treated this Germany! Their Germany, their democratic Germany. The child
which they had suckled. This freak of parliamentary democracy, constitution of
Weimar and body of laws from Versailles! How they mishandled this
monster-child, oppressed it, wrung it out. If today they act as though they are against us National Socialists, or
turn against National Socialist Germany, still, did they not also turn against
formerly democratic Germany? Only there is one difference: they cannot hurt us
at all, but unfortunately they could hurt the democratic Germany. To us it
makes no difference what their opinion of us is: I have never, even to the
slightest degree, counted on having foreign countries agree with or like
me; that doesn't matter to me in the least. If it should come to pass
that my enemies should praise me, then the German nation can send me to the
devil.
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Adolf
Hitler on the devil going to church.
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/551226]
|
So to me,
and to us, it doesn't matter; but they mistreated democratic Germany, that
Germany, which crept, which was satisfied with a few crumbs which fell from the
tables of these so-called "moneyed classes." They were treated like
beggars, but they at least should have had the honor of sitting in Geneva. They
were refused every human right, but they should have had the right, now and
then, to participate in an international conference, or even to preside there.
They
misused the right of self-determination of the German nation, they didn't worry
about anything, but they should at least have been allowed to speak on the
subject of the rights of self-determination of other nations at the League of
Nations in Geneva, and they would have been satisfied and happy with that.
The
disarmament: If today it is said, that our Germany, this National Socialist
Germany, forced us to arm (putting aside the fact of how often I asked them to
disarm) There was once a Germany which had no arms at all. But why didn't they
disarm then? They could have done it, or does anyone believe that perhaps
Stresemann or Marx, or any one of these men, Wirth, Bauer, Eberth, Scheidemann,
would have declared the might of war? Well, that cannot be told anyone. They
didn't believe that themselves. That is when they should have disarmed. They
didn't do it; on the contrary, they pushed the war on farther. Some of them got
themselves well-fixed in one place, some in another. The English didn't worry
any further about their Allies; they betrayed the Arabs on the subject of their
self-determination, as for the Indian people, whom they needed in the war, they
later on abruptly took away everything they had promised them. They knew very
well why Germany had to be disarmed. They added all of this to the name
Democracy. Everything crumbled piece by piece. And then the terrible
unemployment.
Where
were the miracle workers then? If today they can lie so in the newspapers, so
that President Roosevelt declares that America will give the world a new economic
order. It may very well be a new order, but a very miserable one. Such is the
system, a system with which he has himself gone bankrupt, so that he now
believes that only through a war can he preserve himself from the justice of
the people.
Politico-economically,
the German people has not received what was promised it before the days of the
Versailles Treaty. On the contrary, as the other world went to pieces
progressively, unemployment grew and continued to grow greater. The years 1913
to 1930 are years of continuous experimentation, continuous economic ruin, an
uninterrupted prostitution of the political sovereignty of the German people;
also an abandonment of economic materials. And we had to witness all this.
At that
time I fought, but during those years, my countrymen, there were many setbacks:
our Party was forbidden, I was gagged for two years, local groups were
dissolved, then again, in all German states the movement was forbidden.
In short, there was a continuous fight against uninterrupted setbacks.
Then,
finally, came September, 1930, and we walked into the Reichstag with our 106
mandates-another was added-107 mandates. Then we should have been given part in
the government, but that was when the real opposition (sidetracking) came, and
it grew greater uninterruptedly. It was a continuous battle. How many party
members did we lose at the time? Many were foully murdered, over 40,000
wounded, we could count in these few years. Then came the year 1932. The first
presidential election, again a setback. The second presidential election, the
party caught itself, and so the fight for the inside power in this state has
continued in battle after battle. It was a fight in which all was at stake.
Many persons again had to pay with their lives that year. Many persons went to
prison. And then came July, with an incredible victory. Then everyone cried:
"This is the hour in which to take over power," and again the hour
passed by, it had to go by.
And then
came another reversal. And then-a final battle. And finally the day, the memory
of which we are celebrating.
Now, my
compatriots, I have related this to you only very briefly, in order to show you
above all else that: the victory which we are celebrating today, did not come
to us at that time as an easy gift, which fell into our laps. This victory was
bound up with great efforts, with sacrifices, with deprivations, with unceasing
labors, and also with setbacks. And if you had asked anyone on January 15,
"Do you believe that this person"-that was I at that time-"will
get into power?" everyone would have answered you, even on the 25th and
the 28th, "Never." And when we did get into power on the 30th, then
many a wise man said:-"It's only for six weeks." Today, it is nine
years.
And now I
must mention something else. I told you what I found conditions to be in the
year 1919 to 1920, when I brought the party into existence; I have depicted for
you the situation, after my first great defeat.
But I
must recall to your memory, in just a few sentences, what I had taken upon
myself on that 30th of January. It was a heritage which hardly anyone wanted
any more to take over at all.
Everything
ruined, the economy destroyed; 7,000,000 people without a living, and it was
increasing from week to week; 7,000,000 part-time workers. The Reich finances
an enormous deficit of nearly three billions. The states had incredible
deficits, the communities were in debt, the peasantry was completely ruined and
on the verge of having their land auctioned off, commerce came to a standstill,
our shipping no longer in existence. In general, everything in Germany seemed
now to be dead.
But I
took that over. It was no bright heritage, but I looked upon it as an honor to
take over something not at the moment when it is flourishing, but to take it
over at the moment when others say: "Everything is already ruined. No one
can help."
I
ventured it then. It was altogether clear to me that if it did not succeed I
would probably be stoned. I would have been beaten to death, I dared and I won.
Within a few years I had solved all the problems.
In 1933
and 1934 I started by cleaning Germany up domestically. First I got rid
of the parties and similar silliness. Then I began to stabilize the German currency by relentless pressure
from above. I began, however, to stabilize it not just by pressure from above,
but by guaranteeing it and backing it up with German production. All that is
easy to tell today, but it was not so easy then, for if it had been so easy,
why did my opponents not do it?
I
immediately began with the repression of all the foreign elements in Germany; I
mean our cosmopolites. I began also at this time to bring individual provinces
into the Reich. When the year '34 came, I had really got through with the most
essential internal preparations toward getting for the German people at last
the benefit of its labor. Instead of numberless economic organizations a
combination of all in one single bureau. At first, of course, everyone
complained whose interests were thereby threatened. But one thing no one can
dispute, from either the right or left: In the end everything went better than
before. And moreover what an individual perhaps had to give up for the moment
he got back again, got back through reason which lay at the bottom of all
transactions, through insight into what was necessary.
In '35
the freedom began already to permeate to external relations. You remember all
that: introduction of military service; in '36 the throwing off of these
oppressive Versailles shackles in regard to the Rhineland; recovery of our
sovereignty; in '37 and '38 the completion of our armament, not without my
having previously made numerous offers to the others, to obviate this armament.
For one thing, my comrades, you must all admit, wherever you come from: Everywhere
today you see works of peace which we could no longer continue on account of
war. Everywhere you see great buildings, schools, housing projects, which the
war has kept us from carrying on. Before I entered upon this war, I had begun a
gigantic program of social, economic, cultural work, in part already completed.
But everywhere I had in mind new plans, new projects.
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This arch-liar today shows that Britain never
was in a position to wage war alone. This gabbler, this drunkard Churchill. And
then his accomplice in the White House, this mad fool. – Adolf Hitler
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/525119]
|
When, on
the other hand, I look at my opponents, what have they really done, now? They
could rush easily enough into war. War did not rob them of a peaceful state,
for they have accomplished nothing. This prattler, this drink-bold Churchill,
what has he in reality accomplished in his life? This perfidious fellow is a
lazybones of the first order.
If this
war had not come, the centuries would have spoken of our generation and also of
all of us and also of myself as the creator of great works of peace. But if
this war had not come, who would speak of Churchill? Now he will one day be
spoken of, to be sure, but as the destroyer of an empire, which he and now we
destroyed. One of the most pitiful phrase-mongering natures of world history,
incapable of creating anything, of accomplishing anything, or of performing
creative acts, capable only of destroying.
Of his
accomplice in the White House I would rather not speak at all, moreover-a
wretched madman.
To be
sure, the more we worked, the more we put Germany in order, the greater grew
the hatred, unfortunately. For now there came something in addition. Now came
the stupid hatred of the social strata abroad, who believed that the German
model, the socialistic German model, could break in on them also, circumstances
permitting. I have often heard that those in other countries said themselves:
"Well, you know, for us those National Socialist ideas are, of course, not
practicable."
But I do
not even demand at all that they should be carried out. On the contrary, I am
not here to concern myself with the happiness of other peoples, but I feel
myself responsible exclusively for my own people. That is what I work for. To
my sleepless nights I will not add a single one for other lands.
FAILURE
OF ROOSEVELT'S NEW DEAL
And yet
right away they say: "And the example, your example, that's just it, the
example that is offered. The example ruins the good morals"; that means in
this case the bad habits and bad qualities. They said "They travel with
their ships among us, we cannot permit that no yachts should land among us. Why
not? That only spoils our working class." How will that spoil our working
class? They do not perceive that the German workingman has worked more than
ever before; why should he not then recover? Is it not above all a joke when
that man from the White House says: "We have a World Program and this
World Program will give mankind freedom and the right to labor." Mr.
Roosevelt, open your eyes, we have had that in Germany for a long time already.
Or when he says that care will be taken of illness. Go and look at the
battle-cry of our party program that is National Socialistic, not its doctrine,
my dear sir, those are high ideas like those of a Democrat.
Or when
he says: "We wish to raise (the standard of) prosperity, even for the
masses. Those are prominent things in our program." He could have done
that much more easily if he had not started a war. For we have also done that
without a war. You have a war! No, this capitalistic babble does not even think
of doing such a thing. They see in us only the bad example, and in order to
tempt their own people, they must meddle in our party program and there snatch
out single sentences, these pitiful blunders, and even then they do it badly.
We have
had a united world against us here, naturally, not only from the right but also
from the left, as those on the left say to us, "If that succeeds; this
experiment, it actually creates, it brings it about, that it does away with
homelessness. It makes it ready and establishes a school system whereby every
talented youngster, irrespective of what kind of position. He completes it and
makes a lawyer out of a former farm worker. He completed it, and really
introduced universal health care for the aged, the man who finally brings it
about, who brings them to an ordered, assured standard of living, what will we
do then? Why, we live by the fact that that does not exist. We do live by that.
War, then, against this National Socialism."
We have
now been at the helm for nine years. Bolshevism has now been at the helm since
1917, nearly 25 years. This struggle will render the verdict, if this Russia is
compared with Germany. What have we created in nine years, what is the aspect
of the German people, and what has been created there? I do not even want to
talk about the capitalist states, they are not at all concerned about their
unemployed for that reason. To the
American millionaire the unemployed person is something natural, something he
does not have to see at all, since he does not go to the neighborhoods where
they are, and they do not come to the neighborhood where he sits; they
under-took a hunger march on Washington, to be sure, to the White House or to
the Capitol, but they are dispersed somewhere by the police before they can do
it with rubber truncheons and tear gas, and so on, all of them things which do
not exist in autocratic Germany. We have not used these measures against our
people at all, we manage without rubber truncheons and without these things,
without tear gas. We are resolute in our renunciation of them, while in the
case of the enemy it is understood that at the moment of taking power they
increased it and therein refuses to introduce a definite foreign policy. You
know them already from my fighting period.
I wanted
a close relationship with three countries, with England, with Italy and with
Japan.
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Adolf
Hitler predicts the fall of the British Empire
|
ENGLAND
REBUFFS GERMAN OFFERS OF FRIENDSHIP
Every
attempt to come to an understanding with England was altogether to no purpose.
It did not seem that one could rid them any more of that crazy, mad ideology,
prejudice and obstinacy. They saw in Germany an enemy, and that the world had
changed essentially since the time of their great Queen Victoria, that people
did not know at all that Germany never threatened England but that this England
could be maintained only when she had found a close cooperation with Europe.
This they did not realize. On the contrary, they fought on every occasion
against Europe. This they did not realize.
The man
who I have mentioned several times already, Churchill, every attempt, even to
offer this man the thought of an understanding failed, at his chair: "I
want a war." It was impossible even to talk to this man and surrounding
him was this clique of Duff Cooper. It is sad to even mention the name, they
are such boneheads! It is quite interesting as they themselves, when one of
their men arrives, are thrown out immediately. But this doesn't mean
anything. These are unbreakable eggs. Wherever they step they remain somewhere
again, among enemies. On the whole they have been in the cold too long. They
have been individually, generation, genders and even individual men, not
mentioning the Jews in this Connection, (they are our old enemies as it is,
they have experienced at our hands an upsetting of their ideas' and they
rightfully hate us. just as much as we hate them) we are well aware that this
war could eventually only end that they be out-rooted from Europe or that they
disappear.
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Today
I will once more be a prophet. If the international Jewish financiers, inside
and outside Europe, succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war,
then the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the
victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1344571] & http://soldierexecutionerprolifer2008.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/the-jewish-question-speech-by-adolf.html] |
They have
already spoken of the breaking up of the German Reich by next September, and
with the help of this advance prophesy, and we say that the war will not end as
the Jews imagine it will, namely, with the uprooting of the Aryans, but the
result of this war will be the complete annihilation of the Jews. Now for the
first time they will not bleed other people to death, but for the first time
the old Jewish law of 'An eye for an eve, a tooth for a tooth,' will be
applied. And the further this war spreads, the more antisemitism will spread.
It will find strength in every prison camp, and in every family, which
will understand that its sacrifices are because of this antisemitism. And the
hour will come when the enemy of all times, or at least of the last thousand
years, will have played his part to the end.
My
attempt to explain this to England was useless, and all my actions and
explanations did not convince them.
ITALY
I was
more fortunate with the second state, with which I found some relationship.
That is actually no wonder. However, it would be a real wonder, if it were
otherwise. Because, already-as I said today-it is no accident, that two nations
in the course of nearly a hundred years go through the same experience and
fate.
A hundred
years ago, Germany fought its way to a renaissance as a state, and its
independence as a state, and Italy was fighting for its national unity. Both
states were progressing along similar lines. Then these two states separated,
and both nations fought without success and then came the revolutions, almost
simultaneously, for both, with ideals which are as similar as they can be with
two different peoples.
Both
Revolutions had about the same course; each one had severe setbacks, but
finally won the fight. Both nations brought about a socialistic, national
renaissance. Both revolutions adhered to the program they had committed
themselves to. Both nations concerned people who could not find their daily
bread on their own soil. Both nations found themselves one day standing
opposite the same people, without wanting to, against the same international
union, as already had occurred in 1935, when England suddenly turned against
Italy, without any sort of preliminary warning; Italy had taken nothing from
England, therefore it was for the reason that: "We do not wish Italy to
have its free right to life," just as it was, with Germany, for the reason
that: "We do not wish Germany to have its free right to life." What did
we take from England? What do we want from England? or from France, or from
America? Nothing. I offered each of them peace. But these are the kind of men
that just declare - Mr. Churchill said "I want war" - him and the
clique behind him, behind this drunk, corrupt man, the financial powers of his
international Jewish friends. On the other side, we have an old freemason, who
only believes in a war, to be able to salvage his bankrupt economy, perhaps, or
at least to gain time. Thus both states again stand face to face with the same
foe, and on the same front, and they are forced to fight with each other, to be
joined together in the same life-and-death struggle.
And then,
in addition, there is still a third thing-I have mentioned it today also: in
both cases they are men, two men, who have come from the people, started the
revolution, and led the states to victory. In the last few weeks, whenever I
had a couple of hours to myself, I read about the history of the Italian
Fascist Revolution, and it seemed to me as if I had the history of my own party
before me, so similar, so identical, the same enemies, the same opponents, the
same arguments, it is really a unique wonder, and now we are also fighting in
the same theaters of war, Germans in Africa, Italians also in the East; they fight
jointly, and let one not deceive oneself, this battle will be fought through to
a joint victory.
JAPAN
And now
finally the third state has joined us, another state with which we have always
wanted to have good relations for the past many years. You all know it from
"Mein Kampf"-Japan.
WORLD WAR
II: A STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE HAVE-NOTS (THE AXIS) AND THE HAVES (THE ALLIES)
Now the
three great Have-Nots are united, and now we shall see who gains in this
struggle, those who have nothing to lose, but everything to gain, or those who
have everything to lose and nothing to gain. For, what does England want to
gain? What does America want to gain? What do they want to gain? They have so
much that they do not know what to do with what they have. A few persons
per square kilometer need much more for all the cares which we are not the ones
to have. A single poor harvest means for our national decades plundered,
exploited, crushed, and in spite of that they could not eliminate their own
economic need. They have raw materials, as much as they are willing to use, and
they do not complete it, with their problems actually to found something
reasonable in society, to the one who has everything and the one who wants to
take from the other fellow who has hardly anything practically the last thing
he owns, or to the one who defends that which he honors as his last possession.
And if a British archbishop prays to God to send Bolshevism over Germany
and Europe as a scourge, I can only say: "It will not come over Germany
but whether it will come over England is a different question." And then
this old sinner and evil-doer can pray in an attempt to keep this British
hazard at bay.
We have
never done anything to England, France, we have never done anything to America.
Nevertheless there follows now in
the year 1939 the declaration of war, and now it has gone further.
Now
however you must out of my whole history understand me rightly. I once said something that foreign countries did not
understand. I said: "If the war is inevitable, then I should rather
be the one to conduct it not because I thirst after this fame; on the contrary,
I here gladly renounce that fame, which is in my eyes no fame at all. My fame,
if Providence preserves my life, will consist in works of peace, which I still
intend to create. But I think that if Providence has already disposed that I
can do what must be done according to the inscrutable will of the Providence,
then I can at least just ask Providence to entrust to me the burden of this
war, to load it on me. I will beat it! I will shrink from
no responsibility; in every hour I will take this burden upon me. I will bear
every responsibility, just as I have always borne them."
I have
the greatest authority among this people; it knows me. It knows that I had
endless plans in those years before the war. It sees everywhere the signs of
works begun, and sometimes also the documents of completion. I know that this
people trusts me. I am happy to know it. But the German people may be persuaded
also of one thing, that the year 1918, as long as I live, will never return.
AXIS
ALLIANCE
I am glad
that so many allies have joined our soldiers: in Sweden, Italy, then in the north, Finland and the many other nations
which are sending their sons here to the east, too, Rumanians and Hungarians,
Slovaks, Spaniards, we have many Frenchmen, and besides, the volunteers of our
German States out of the North and West. Already today, a European war, and
finally in the East, our a new ally: Japan. On this history will speak.
1939-the conquest of Poland; 1940-Norway and France and England, the
Netherlands and Belgium; 1941-the Balkans and then finally, the nation which
Mr. Cripps assured us a few days ago, in his loquacious manner, has been
preparing itself for a fight with Germany. I knew that. As soon as I had become
certain that there was false play going on here, in the instant that I became
aware that Mr. Churchill in his secret meetings was already considering this
ally, within the hour in which Molotov left Berlin, and took his leave because
he had been able to come to a shrewd agreement, at that moment, it became clear
to me, that this conflict was inevitable.
For this,
too, I thank fate, that it placed me at the head of the Reich, so that I was in
a position to strike the first blow. If one must fight, then I take the stand
that the first blow is the decisive one. And we didn't stop to think it over
very much.
We can
only wish Japan good luck, because instead of playing around for a long time
with this lying nation, it started to fight immediately.
Now, our
soldiers have been fighting in the East since June 22, a battle which will some
day go into the chronicles of history as a hero-song of our people. On the seas
our naval forces (battleships), our U-boats, which have put all of Roosevelt's
plans to shame. He meant to drive the German U-boats out of the oceans
gradually, by making new decrees of the American spheres of influence, and to
limit them to a very small territory, which the British would then take care of
with their naval forces. And, my fellow country-men, that is also the reason
for the regression of the number of U-boat sinkings, but not at all the number
of damages or sinkings by our U-boats. On the contrary, the latter has risen
greatly. Also not the lack of our occupational forces, nor the impossibility of
mobilizing, but exclusively the attempt to talk to us about our freedom of
action, by means of decrees. You will understand that it has been a vindication
for myself to decide whether one should finally conclude with the whole pack of
lies for the sake of peace, and to bind oneself to the new limitations to which
we must be subjected.
Japan has
finally eliminated this necessity. Now there are U-boats on all the oceans of
the world, now you will see how our submarines carry out their work, and
however they may look, we are armed for everything, from North to South, from
East to West.
But about
one thing they may be assured; as I have said before, today they are up against
a different German people; now they are again up against Fredrichian people; we
will fight where we stand, give no foot of ground, immediately push forward
again. And we are, in fact, happy to know since yesterday that our General
Rommel with his brave Italian and German panzers and men at the moment when
they had beaten him back, turned around right away and forced him back again.
That will continue to happen to them until the war has ended with our victory.
With
these two forces stands a third, our air-force. Its fame is immortal. What they
have accomplished in their efforts in the Arctic cold of the Far North, in the
East, or in the heat of the desert, or in the West, is everywhere the same, a
heroism that honors cannot glorify.
There is just
one thing which I must emphasize again and again; that is our infantry. And
behind these forces stands a gigantic communications organization with tens of
thousands of motor vehicles and railroads, and they are all going to work and
will master even the hardest problems. For it is self-evident that the
conversion from advance to defense in the East is not easy. It was not Russia
that forced us to defense, but only 38 and 40 and 42 and sometimes 45 degrees
below zero that did it. And in this cold, there, troops which are not
accustomed to it cannot fight as in the red heat of the desert during certain
months. But at this time, when the difficult transition was necessary, I again
looked upon it as my task to take upon my shoulders the responsibility for that,
too. I wanted thereby to save my soldiers from something worse.
And I
want to assure them at this point, insofar as those who are on that icy front
can hear me today: "I know the work you are doing. And I know also that
the hardest lies behind us. Today is January 30. The winter is the big hope of
the Eastern enemy.
It will
not fulfill this hope for him. In four months we had fought almost to Moscow
and Leningrad. Four months of Northern winter are now past. They have advanced
a few kilometers at individual points and have made great sacrifices in blood
and human lives there. They may be indifferent to that; but in a few weeks in
the South the winter is going to break, and then the spring will move farther
north, the ice will melt, and then the hour will come when the ground is again
hard and firm, and when the new weapons will again flow there from our
homeland, and when we shall beat them, and revenge those who now have fallen
such lonely victims of the cold.
For I can
tell you that the soldiers at the front have the feeling of superiority over
the Russians. To compare him with them would be an insult. The decisive thing
now is that this transition from attack to defense be successful, and I may say
that it has been.
These
fronts, as you shall see, where a few individual Russians break through, and
where they sometimes even believe that they are occupying localities, there are
no localities, there are only ruins. What does this mean, in comparison to what
we have occupied, what we are bringing in order, and what the next spring and
from then on, will bring into order? Behind this front there is today a
dignified German homeland. I have recently, the other day, in view of this cold
weather, appealed to the German people, for everything which had been prepared
for protection against the frost has not sufficed. I wanted to express
gratitude to the people themselves. This appeal then was also a plebiscite.
While the others talk of democracy, this is true democracy.
It has shown itself these days, when an entire people voluntarily sacrifices,
and I know that so many small people, but this time also, many, many people,
for whom this was difficult, and perhaps, formerly, seemed to find it
impossible to part with a precious piece of fur, have today given it, with the
knowledge that the most humble infantryman is of greater importance than the
most costly fur.
And I
have taken care, that things should not happen as they did in the first World
War, in which the homeland delivered troops, and as the furnisher of such
troops allowed itself a 2,260% dividend; in which the homeland had to furnish
leather-goods, for example, and paid the leather-goods profit organizations
2,700% dividends. Whoever makes profits on the war in the Third Reich dies.
It is not
a question of the hidden clothes, the poor infantryman who, perhaps, saves his
hands by having warm gloves, or could be kept from freezing by a warm vest,
which some one takes from home for him. I will here stand up for the interests
of the soldiers, and I know that all the German nation stands behind me in
this.
On this
January 30th, I can tell you that I am sure of only one thing. How this year is
going to end I don't know. Whether or not the war will end this year I do not
know; but I do know one thing. Wherever the foe may appear, he will this year
be fought as before. It will again be a year of great victories; and even as I
held the flag high before this, at all times, so I will hold it high even now
because I find myself in such a different position.
My German
countrymen, my soldiers. We have a full of fame and glory behind us. One likes
so much to draw analogies from it. In this fight German heroes have fought in
similar situations, which also seemed hopeless. We should not draw any
comparisons with former times, at all. We have no right to do so. We have the
strongest army in the world. We have the strongest air-force in the world.
Frederick the Great had to fight against a preponderance of power, which was
just as choking (in his time). As he waged the first Silesian war, he had
2,700,000 Prussians in the state of 15 million people. When he was compelled to
wage a third one, for 7 years, there stood 3 1/2 million, or 3,700,000, or even
3,800,000 million against 50 or 54 million others. A man with all his willpower
stood up in spite of all reverses so that he never despaired of his success,
and when he despaired, he wished to pull himself together again and then take
the flag in his strong hands. How do we wish to speak of that to-day?
We have
an opponent in front of us, who may have an immense numerical superiority, but
we will rival him at least in the birthrate by spring and also in regard to
weapons. And so it will be in all things, and above all we have Allies today.
It is also no more the time of the World War. What Japan is accomplishing in
the East alone, is, for us, beyond evaluation.
No other
way remains, but the way of battle and the way of success. That way may be
hard, or it may be easy. In no case, is it more difficult than the way our
forefathers went. It will not be any easier from now on, and we may not expect
that it should be less difficult than the task we have during the last few
battles. Thus we feel the entire sacrifice which our soldiers are making. Who
can understand that better than myself, who was once a soldier, too? I look
upon myself as the first Musketeer of the Reich. I know definitely that the
musketeer (Infantryman) fulfills his duty. I fulfill my own duties also,
unmistakably, and I understand all the sorrow of my comrades and know all that
goes on with them. I cannot therefore use any phrase which they will
misunderstand. I can only say one thing to them, the home-front knows what they
have to go through. The home-front can well imagine what it means to lie in the
snow and the frost in the cold of 35, 38, 40 and 42 degrees below zero
(Centigrade) and defend our homes for us. But, because the home-front knows it,
they will all do what they can to lighten your fate. They will work, and they
will continue to work, and I will demand that the German patriots at home work
and produce munitions, manufacture weapons, and make more munitions and more.
You remain at home, and many comrades lose their lives daily. Workers, work,
manufacture, continue to work so that our means of communication, our
transportation facilities can take them to the front from behind the lines. The
front will hold, they will fulfill their duty.
Thus the
home-front need not be warned, and the prayer of this priest of the devil, the
wish that Europe may be punished with Bolshevism, will not be fulfilled, but
rather that the prayer may be fulfilled: "Lord God, give us the strength
that we may retain our liberty for our children and our children's children,
not only for ourselves, but also for the other peoples of Europe, for this is a
war which we wage, not for our German people alone, but for all of Europe
and for all of humanity."
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