as read by Propaganda Minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels
Berlin, April 6,
1941
Soldiers of the Southeast Front:
Since early this morning the German people are at war with the Belgrade
Government of intrigue. We shall only lay down arms when this band of ruffians
has been definitely and most emphatically eliminated, and the last Briton has
left this part of the European Continent. These misled people realize that they
must thank Britain for this situation, they must thank England, the greatest
warmonger of all time.
The German people can enter into this new struggle with the inner
satisfaction that its leaders have done everything to bring about a peaceful
settlement.
We pray to God that He may lead our soldiers on the path and bless them as
hitherto.
In accordance with the policy of letting others fight for her, as she did
in the case of Poland, Britain again tried to involve Germany in the struggle
in which Britain hoped that she would finish off the German people once and for
all, to win the war, and if possible to destroy the entire German Army.
In a few weeks, long ago, the German soldiers on the Eastern Front swept
aside Poland, the instrument of British policy. On April 9, 1940, Britain again
attempted to reach its goal by a thrust on the German north flank, the thrust
at Norway.
In an unforgettable struggle the German soldiers in Norway eliminated the British
within a period of a few weeks.
What the world did not deem possible the German people have achieved.
Again, only a few weeks later, Churchill thought the moment right to make a
renewed thrust through the British Allies, France and Belgium, into the German
region of the Ruhr. The victorious hour of our soldiers on the West Front
began.
It is already war history how the German Armies defeated the legions of
capitalism and plutocracy. After forty-five days this campaign in the West was
equally and emphatically terminated.
Then Churchill concentrated the strength of his Empire against our ally,
Italy, in Africa. Now the danger has also been banned from the African theater
of the war through the co-operation of Italian and German units.
The new aim of the British warmongers now consists of the realization of a
plan that they had already hatched at the outbreak of the war and only
postponed because of the gigantic victories of the German Army. The memory of
the landing of British troops at Salonika in the course of the first World War
also caught little Greece in the spider web of British intrigue.
I have repeatedly warned of the attempt by the British to land troops in South-eastern
Europe, and I have said that this constitutes a threat to the German Reich. Unfortunately,
this warning went unheeded by the Yugoslav nation. I have further tried, always
with the same patience, to convince Yugoslav statesmen of the absolute
necessity for their cooperation with the German Reich for restoration of
lasting peace and order within Yugoslavia.
After long effort we finally succeeded in securing the cooperation of
Yugoslavia by its adherence to the Tripartite Pact without having demanded
anything whatsoever of the Yugoslav nation except that it take its part in the
reconstruction of a new order in Europe.
At this point the criminal usurpers of the new Belgrade Government took the
power of the State unto themselves, which is a result of being in the pay of
Churchill and Britain. As in the case of Poland, this new Belgrade Government
has mobilized decrepit and old people into their inner Cabinet. Under these
circumstances I was forced immediately to recall the German national colony
within Yugoslav territory.
Members and officers of the German Embassy, employees of our consulates in
Yugoslavia were daily being subjected to the most humiliating attacks. The
German schools, exactly as in Poland, were laid in ruins by bandits.
Innumerable German nationals were kidnaped and attacked by Yugoslavs and some
even were killed.
In addition, Yugoslavia for weeks has planned a general mobilization of its
army in great secrecy. This is the answer to my eight-year-long effort to bring
about closer co-operation and friendship with the Yugoslav people, a task that I
have pursued most fastidiously.
When British divisions were landed in Greece, just as in World War days,
the Serbs thought the time was ripe for taking advantage of the situation for
new assassinations against Germany and her allies.
Soldiers of the Southeast Front: Now your zero hour has arrived. You will
now take the interests of the German Reich under your protection as your
comrades did a year ago in Norway and on the West Front. You will do just as
well on the Southeast Front.
In doing this, your duty, you will not be less courageous than the men of
those German divisions who in 1915, on the same Balkan soil, fought so
victoriously. You will be humane only in those places where the enemy is humane
toward you. Where the enemy confronts you with utter brutality you will beat
them back with the same weapon.
The fight on Greek soil is not a battle against the Greek people, but
against that archenemy, England, which is again trying to extend the war far
into the Southeast Balkans, the same as he tried far in the north last year.
For this reason, on this very spot in the Balkans, we shall fight shoulder to
shoulder with our ally until the last Briton has found his Dunkerque in Greece.
If any Greeks support this British course, then those Greeks will fall at
the same time as the British.
When the German soldier shall have proved himself, shall have proved that
he is capable of beating the British in the Balkans, in the midst of snow and
mountains, then also he will have proved that he can beat the British in the
heat of the desert in Africa.
However, we will pursue no other ultimate aim than to win freedom for our
German people and to secure a living space for the German family.
The
prayers and thoughts, the very life of all Germans, are again in the heart of
every German soldier.
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