On
this date, June 12, 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave a
speech denouncing Adolf Hitler.
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1941/410612b.html
PRIME MINISTER WINSTON CHURCHILL'S SPEECH TO
THE ALLIED DELEGATES
St. James's Place, London, June 12, 1941
[British Library of Information]
In
the twenty-second month of the war against Nazism, we meet here in this old
Palace of St. James's, itself not unscarred by the fire of the enemy, in order
to proclaim the high purposes and resolves of the lawful constitutional
governments of Europe whose countries have been overrun, and we meet here also
to cheer the hopes of free men and free peoples throughout the world.
Here
before us on the table lie the title deeds of ten nations or states whose soil
has been invaded and polluted and whose men women and children lie prostrate or
writhing under the Hitler yoke.
But
here also, duly authorized by Parliament and the democracy of Britain, are
gathered the servants of the ancient British monarchy and the accredited
representatives of the British dominions beyond seas of Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and South Africa, of the Empire of India, of Burma and of our colonies
in every quarter of the globe. They have drawn their swords in this cause. They
will never let them fall till life is gone or victory is won.
Here
we meet while from across the Atlantic Ocean the hammers and lathes of the
United States signal in a rising hum their message of encouragement and their
promise of swift and ever-growing aid.
What
tragedies, what horrors, what crimes has Hitler and all that Hitler stands for
brought upon Europe and the world! The ruins of Warsaw, of Rotterdam, of
Belgrade are monuments which will long recall to future generations the outrage
of unopposed air bombing applied with calculated scientific cruelty to helpless
populations. Here in London and throughout the cities of our island and in
Ireland there may also be seen marks of devastation. They are being repaid and
presently they will be more than repaid.
But
far worse than these visible injuries is the misery of the conquered peoples.
We see them hounded, terrorized, exploited. Their manhood by the million is
forced to work under conditions indistinguishable in many cases from actual
slavery. Their goods and chattels are pillaged or filched for worthless money.
Their homes, their daily life are pried into and spied upon by the all
pervading system of secret political police which, having reduced the Germans
themselves to abject docility, now stalks the streets and byways of a dozen
lands. Their religious faiths are affronted, persecuted or oppressed in the
interest of a fanatic paganism devised to perpetuate the worship and sustain
the tyranny of one abominable creature. Their traditions, their culture, their
laws, their institutions, social and political alike, are suppressed by force
or undermined by subtle, coldly planned intrigue.
The
prisons of the continent no longer suffice. The concentration camps are
overcrowded. Every dawn German volleys crack. Czechs, Poles, Dutchmen,
Norwegians, Yugoslavs and Greeks, Frenchmen, Belgians, Luxemburgers make the
great sacrifice for faith and country. A vile race of Quislings-to use a new
word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries-is hired to fawn
upon the conqueror, to collaborate in his designs and to enforce his rule upon
their fellow countrymen while groveling low themselves. Such is the plight of
once glorious Europe and such are the atrocities against which we are in arms.
Your
excellencies, my lords and gentlemen, it is upon this foundation that Hitler,
with his tattered lackey, Mussolini, at his tail and Admiral Darlan frisking by
his side, pretends to build out of hatred, appetite and racial assertion a new
order for Europe. Never did so mocking a fantasy obsess the mind of mortal man.
We
cannot tell what the course of this fell war will be as it spreads,
remorseless, through ever wider regions.
It
will not be by German hands that the structure of Europe will be rebuilt or
union of the European family achieved. In every country into which the German
armies and Nazi police have broken there has sprung up from the soil a hatred
of the German name and contempt for the Nazi creed which the passage of
hundreds of years will not efface from human memory.
We
know it will be hard; we expect it to be long, we cannot predict or measure its
episodes or its tribulations. But one thing is certain, one thing is sure, one
thing stands out stark and undeniable, massive and unassailable for all the
world to see. We cannot see how deliverance will come or when it will come, but
nothing is more certain that every trace of Hitler's footsteps, every stain of
his infected, corroding fingers will be sponged and purged and, if need be,
blasted from the surface of the earth.
We
are here, your excellencies, to affirm and fortify our union in that ceaseless
and unwearying effort which must be made if the captive peoples are to be set
free.
A
year ago His Majesty's Government was left alone to face the storm, and to many
of our friends and enemies alike it may have seemed that our days, too, were
numbered and that Britain and its institutions would sink forever beneath the
verge. But I may with some pride remind your excellencies that even in that
dark hour when our army was disorganized and almost weaponless when scarcely a
gun or tank remained in Britain, when almost all our stores and ammunition had
been lost in France, never for one moment did the British people dream of
making peace with the conqueror and never for a moment did they despair of the
common cause.
On
the contrary, we proclaimed at that very time to all men, not only to
ourselves, our determination not to make peace until every one of the ravaged
and enslaved countries was liberated and until the Nazi domination was broken
and destroyed.
See
how far we have traveled since those breathless days of June, a year ago! Our
solid, stubborn strength has stood an awful test. We are the masters of our own
air and now reach out in ever-growing retribution upon the enemy. The Royal
Navy holds the seas. The Italian fleet cowers, diminished, in harbor and the
German Navy largely is crippled or sunk.
The
murderous raids upon our ports, cities and factories have been powerless to
quench the spirit of the British nation, to stop our national life or check the
immense expansion of our war industry. Food and arms from across oceans are
coming safely in. Full provision to replace all sunken tonnage is being made
here, and still more by our friends in the United States. We are becoming an
armed community. Our land forces are being perfected in equipment and training.
Hitler
may turn and trample this way and that through tortured Europe. He may spread
his course far and wide and carry his curse with him. He may break into Africa
or into Asia. But it is here, in this island fortress, that he will have to
reckon in the end. We shall strive to resist by land and sea.
We
shall be on his track wherever he goes. Our air power will continue to teach
the German homeland that war is not all loot and triumph. We shall aid and stir
the people of every conquered country to resistance and revolt. We shall break
up and derange every effort which Hitler makes to systematize and consolidate
his subjugations. He will find no peace, no rest, no halting place, no parley.
And if, driven to desperate hazards, he attempts invasion of the British Isles,
as well he may, we shall not flinch from the supreme trial. With the help of
God, of which we must all feel daily conscious, we shall continue steadfast in
faith and duty till our task is done.
This
then, my lords and gentlemen, is the message which we send forth today to all
states and nations, bound or free, to all the men in all the lands who care for
freedom's cause. To our Allies and well-wishers in Europe, to our American
friends and helpers drawing ever closer in their might across the ocean, this
is the message-lift up your hearts, all will come right. Out of depths of
sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind.
*****
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Winston
Churchill's 1941 Great Declaration
Uploaded on Sep 17, 2008
Churchill's 1941 Speech to the
'coalition'
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTRL_QraUrA
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