Berlin, October
6, 1939
Delegates!
Men of the
German Reichstag!
In a fateful time, you, my delegates, convened here as
representatives of the German folk on September 1st of this year. Back then, I
had to inform you of the difficult decisions that had been forced upon us
through the intransigent, provocative bearing of a state. Since then, five
weeks have now passed. If I now had you summoned here again, then it happened
in order to be able to give you an accounting over the past and the necessary
insight into the present and, insofar as possible, into the future.
For
two days, our cities, markets and villages have been decorated with the flags
and symbols of the new Reich. Amidst bell chiming, the German folk celebrates a
great, in its nature historically unique, victory. A state of still 36 million
people, an army of around 50 infantry and cavalry divisions, had assembled
against us. Their intentions were far-reaching, the confidence in the
annihilation of our German Reich was considered self-evident.
Eight
days after the outbreak of this struggle, however, the dice of war had fallen.
Wherever Polish troops collided with German formations, they were thrown back
or smashed. The daring structure of Poland’s strategic offensive collapsed
already in the first 48 hours of this campaign. Death defying on the attack and
with incomparable march performances, our German divisions, the air and the
panzer arm as well as the units of the navy, snatched the law of the initiative;
it could no longer be snatched away from them at any moment.
After
14 days, the largest portions of the Polish army were either scattered,
captured or surrounded. The German armies, however, had during this period
covered distances and occupied spaces for whose overcoming more than 14 months
were required 25 years ago. Even though a number of especially inventive
newspaper strategists of the other world nonetheless sought to portray the
tempo of this campaign as disappointing for Germany, we all know, after all,
that there has previously hardly ever been a greater accomplishment of highest
soldiery in military history. That the last remnants of the Polish armies
managed to hold out in Warsaw, Modi in and in Hela up to October 1st, was not
the result of their ability, rather is to be ascribed solely to our cool
cleverness and our consciousness of responsibility. I forbade sacrificing more
people than was unconditionally necessary, this means, I have intentionally
freed the German military leadership from the opinion still prevailing in the
World War that for the sake of prestige it had to solve certain tasks under any
circumstances in a set period. What is unconditionally necessary to do, happens
without regard for sacrifice. But what can be avoided, is foregone. It would
have been no problem for us to break the resistance of Warsaw from the 10th to
12th just like we broke it from September 25th to 27th. I just wanted, first,
to spare German lives and, second, surrender myself to the - even if deceptive
- hope that on the Polish side, for at least once, responsibility conscious
reason instead of irresponsible lunacy could triumph.
But
here in a smaller framework, precisely the same stage play repeated itself,
which we had to previously experience on a larger scale. The attempt to
convince the responsible Polish military leadership, insofar as such a thing
existed at all, of the senselessness, yes, the lunacy of a resistance precisely
in a city of a million people, failed. A generalissimo, who himself took flight
in a hardly glorious manner, forced upon its land’s capital a resistance that,
at best, had to lead to its destruction. In the knowledge that the
fortification of the fortress Warsaw alone could not withstand the German
attack, one transformed the city as such into a fortress, cross-crossed it with
barricades, erected battery positions on all squares, in streets and
courtyards, built thousands of machinegun nests and asked the whole populace
for participation in the fighting.
Simply
out of pity for women and children, I then offered the rulers in Warsaw to at
least allow the civilian populace to evacuate. I let an armistice take effect,
secured the necessary evacuation routes, and we all waited just as futilely for
an emissary as at end of August for a Polish negotiator. The proud Polish city
commandant did not even honor us with a reply. I had the periods extended in
any case, instructed bombers and heavy artillery to attack only clearly
military objects, and repeated my demands: it remained in vain again. I
thereupon offered not to bombard at all the whole city district of Praga,
rather to reserve it for the civilian population in order to give it an
opportunity to withdraw to there. Even this proposal was punished with Polish
contempt. I endeavored a second time to then at least remove the foreign
colonies from the city. This finally succeeded with many difficulties, with the
Russian one only at the last minute.
I
now ordered for September 25th the beginning of the attack. This same defense,
which first found it beneath its dignity to even just go into the humane
proposals, then, however, changed its bearing extremely fast. On the 25th, the
German attack began, and on the 27th, it capitulated! It did not dare with
120,00 men, like once our German General Litzmann with far inferior forces at
Brzeciny, to make a daring sortie, rather it now preferred to lay down its
arms.
One
should hence make no comparison here to Alkazar. Spanish heroes there
heroically defied the heaviest attacks for weeks and thereby really
immortalized themselves rightfully. But here, one submitted a large city to
destruction in an unscrupulous manner and then, after 48 hours, capitulated.
The Polish soldier individually fought bravely at many places. His leadership,
however, starting at the top, can only be characterized as irresponsible,
unscrupulous and incapable.
In
front of Hela as well, I had ordered not to sacrifice a single man before the
most thorough preparation. There as well, the surrender occurred at the moment when
the German attack was finally announced and took its start.
I
make these statements, delegates, in order to preempt the historical formation
of legends. For if a legend may form around anybody in this campaign, then only
around the German musketeer, who, attacking and marching, added a new page to
his immoral, glorious history. It can form around the heavy weapons that rushed
to the aid of this infantry amidst unspeakable exertions. The black men of our
armor branch are worthy of this legend, who, with daring determination, without
regard for superior forces and resistance, again and again carried the attack
forward anew, and, finally, the legend may glorify those death-defying pilots
who, knowing that any being shot down that did kill them in the air had to mean
their terrible massacre on earth after parachuting, observed with undaunted
perseverance and attacked with bombs and machinegun wherever the attack was
ordered or a target showed itself. The same is true for the heroes of our
U-boat branch.
If
a state of 36 million inhabitants and this military strength is totally
destroyed in four weeks, and if in this period not a single setback came for
the victor, then one can see in this not the mercy of a special good luck,
rather the proof of the highest training, best leadership and most
death-defying valor.
German
soldiery has now again firmly placed upon its head the laurels that had been
treacherously robbed from it in 1918. We all stand with deeply felt gratitude
before the many unknown, nameless valiant men of our folk. They have now
assembled for the first time from all the provinces of Greater Germany; the
commonly shed blood, however, will bind them to each other even more strongly
than any state legal construction.
The
awareness of this strength of our Wehrmacht fills all of us with self-confident
calm, for it has proven its strength not only on the attack, rather also in the
holding of the acquired. The exemplary training of the individual officer and
enlisted man has proven itself to the extreme. To it is to be ascribed this far
lower number of losses, which, even if individually painful, overall
nonetheless lie far below what we believed we had to expect. However, the total
sum of these losses provides no picture of the severity of the individual
battles; for there were regiments and divisions which, attacked by a supreme
force of Polish formations or themselves on the attack colliding with them, had
to make very heavy blood sacrifices.
I
believe I may mention to you only two episodes from the great series of so
rapidly following battles and combats as example for many. When, to cover
Senior General von Reichenau’s army advancing toward the Vistula, on his left
flank the divisions of the army of Senior General Blaskowitz advanced against
Warsaw staggered with the assignment to fend off the attack by the Polish
central army against the flank of General von Reichenau’s army, there suddenly
occurred, at a moment when one presumed the Polish armies were generally
already on the retreat toward the Vistula, their thrust into General
Blaskowitz’s marching army. It was a desperate attempt by the Poles to burst
the ring closing around them. Four Polish divisions and some cavalry formations
threw themselves at one single German active division, which, itself spread
out, had to cover a line of almost 30 kilometers. Despite five and six-fold
enemy superiority and despite the exhaustion of its own troops, fighting and
marching for days, this division parried the attack and in part threw it back
in the most bloody hand-to-hand combat and did not bend or waiver until the
necessary reinforcements could be brought up. And while the enemy radio already
triumphantly spread the news of the breakthrough to Lodz, the division general,
his shot up arm in a splint, reported to me the course of the attack, the
prevention of the breakthrough, the valiant conduct of his soldiers. Here, the
losses were admittedly great.
A
German militia division, along with other small formations, had the assignment
to push the Poles into the northern corridor, take Gdingen and advance in the
direction of the Hela peninsula. This militia division was opposed by Polish
elite formations, naval troops, ensign and non-commissioned officer schools,
naval artillery and cavalry. With calm certainty, this German militia division
went at the solution of its assignment, which have as enemy a numerically as
well far superior opponent. In a few days, however, the Pole was thrown back
from position to position, 12,600 prisoners were taken, Gdingen liberated,
Oxhoeft stormed and another 4,700 men pushed back and cut off on the Hela
peninsula. When the prisoners marched off, a moving picture presented itself:
the victors, for the large part older men, many with the decorations of the
Great War on their chest, and drawing past them columns of prisoners, young
people of the age of 20 to 28 years.
Since
I will now announce to you the number of our dead and wounded, I ask you to
stand up.
Even
though this number, thanks to the training of our troops, thanks to the effect
of our weapons and the leadership of our formations, constitutes hardly a
twentieth of what we believed we had to fear at the beginning of this campaign,
we nonetheless do not want to forget that each individual who has given his
life here, made the greatest sacrifice for his folk and our Reich that a man
can make for his folk.
According
to the figures of September 30, 1939, which will no longer experience any
significant changes, in the army, navy and Luftwaffe, including officers, there
were 10,572 men killed, 30,322 wounded and 3,404 missing. Of these missing, a
portion that fell into Polish hands must unfortunately likewise be viewed as
massacred and killed. To these victims of the Polish campaign belongs our
gratitude, to the wounded our care, to the family members are empathy and our
help.
With
the fall of fortress Warsaw, Modlin and the surrender of Hela, the Polish
campaign is finished. The securing of the land against wandering marauders,
robber bands and individual terrorists is being carried out with determination.
The result of the conflict is the annihilation of all Polish armies. The
dissolution of this state was the consequence. 694,00 prisoners have started
the “march to Berlin” so far. The booty in material is still totally incalculable.
Since
the outbreak of the war, the German Wehrmacht simultaneously stands in the west
in calm readiness and awaits the enemy. The Reich navy has fulfilled its duty
in the fighting for the Westerplatte, Gdingen, Oxhoeft and Hela, in the
securing of the Baltic Sea and the Bay of Heligoland, our U-boat branch,
however, fights worthy of the former, unforgettable heroes.
In
view of this historically unique collapse of a so-called state structure, there
arises for each the question of the cause of such a process. The cradle of the
Polish state stood in Versailles. From immeasurable bloody sacrifices - not
only of the Poles, rather also of the Germans and Russians - was this structure
born. What had previously for centuries already proven its inability for life,
was artificially conceived only in 1916 by a likewise life-incapable,
reality-alien German state leadership and in 1920 born no less artificially.
Amidst disregard of almost half a millennium of experience, without regard for
the fact of a several centuries long historical development, without respect
for the ethnographic conditions and amidst disregard of all economic
practicalities, a state was constructed in Versailles, which according to its
whole nature sooner or later had to become the cause of the worst crises. A
man, who is today unfortunately again on of our most fierce opponents, clearly
foresaw this back then, Lloyd George, and just like many others, he, too warned
not only during the emergence of this structure, rather also in the time of the
later expansion, which was undertaken against any reason and against any right.
Back then, he expressed the concern that in this state a whole series of
conflict material were created, which sooner or later could provide the reasons
for severe European conflicts.
Fact
is that this new so-called state could not be clarified down to the present day
in the structure of its nationalities. One must know the methods of Polish
census taking in order to know how totally reality-alien and hence meaningless
the statistics about the ethnic composition of this region were and are. In
1919, regions were claimed by the Poles in which they claimed to possess 95%
majorities, for example, in East Prussia, while the plebiscites later taking
place yielded a full 2% for Poland. In the state then finally created at the
cost of former Russia, Austria and Germany, the non-Polish folks were treated
and suppressed, tyrannized and tortured so barbarously that any vote was now
dependent on the favor of the respective Woiwoden and hence yielded the desired
or demanded falsified result. Just that the doubtlessly Polish element itself
received hardly any better treatment. If this structure was still addressed as
a democracy by the statesmen of our western hemisphere, then this was a mockery
of the foundations of their own systems. For in this land ruled a minority of
aristocratic or non- aristocratic large property-owners and wealthy
intellectuals, for whom their own Polish folk represented, in the most
favorable case, a mass of work forces. Behind this regime hence also never
stood more than 15% of the total population. To this corresponds the economic
state of emergency and the cultural nadir. In the 1919, this state took over
from Prussia and also from Austria provinces painstakingly developed through
centuries of work, yes, in part downright blossoming. Today, 20 years later,
they are about to become steppe again. The Vistula, the river whose sea mouth
was always so tremendously important for the Polish government, is already
today, due to lack of maintenance, unsuited for any actual commerce and
according to the season either a wild river or a dried-up stream. Cities and
villages have become desolate, the streets, with very few exceptions, run down
and decayed. Whoever views this land for the first time for two or three weeks
first gets an idea of the meaning of the expression: “Polish economy!”
Despite
the unbearable conditions in this land, Germany has tried to establish a
bearable relationship with it. I myself tried in the years 1933 and 1934 to
find some kind of just, reasonable arrangement between our national interests
and the wish for the preservation of peace with this land. There was a time,
when Marshal Pilsudski still lived, in which it seemed to succeed, to be able
to achieve this hope - even if to a modest degree. Unprecedented patience and
even more self-control went with this. Because for many of the Polish Woiwoden,
the government agreement between Germany and Poland seemed to be just a license
for the only now really safe persecution and annihilation of Germandom there.
In the few years until 1922, over 1 ½ million Germans had to leave their former
homeland. They were chased away, often even without being able to bring along
the most essential clothing. When, in the year 1918, the Olsa region fell to
Poland, they proceeded with the same methods against the Czechs living there.
Many thousands of them, often within a few hours, had to leave their
workplaces, their residences, their apartments, their villages, hardly with
them being allowed to bring along even a suitcase or box with clothing. That is
how things went in this state for years, and for years we have looked on,
always striving to perhaps be able, through a restriction of our state
political conditions, to achieve an improvement in the lot of the unhappy
Germans living there. Only it could not be overseen that every German attempt
to come to an elimination of the bad conditions along this path was interpreted
by the Polish rulers as weakness, perhaps even as stupidity.
Since
the Polish government now went about gradually subjugating Danzig as well along
a thousand paths, I tried to secure a solution through suitable proposals,
which national- politically could integrate Danzig into Germany according to
the will of its population without damaging Poland’s economic requirements and
so-called rights. If someone claims today that here it was about ultimatum
demands, then this is a lie. For the solution proposals passed along to the
Polish government in March 1939 were nothing else than the suggestions and
ideas already discussed long in advance by me personally with Foreign Minister
Beck. Only that I believed, in spring 1939, I could ease the Polish
government’s acceptance of these proposals in the face of its own public
opinion through the offer to be able to grant it as compensation a share in the
security of its independence desired by Slovakia.
If
the Polish government back then now refused the acceptance of a discussion of
these proposals, then there were two reasons for this.
First:
The rebellious chauvinistic driving forces standing behind it did not think at
all about solving the problem of Danzig, rather, quite the opposite, they
already lived in the hope, later presented in text and speech, of acquiring
Reich territory far beyond Danzig, that hence meant being able to attack and to
conquer. And indeed, these wishes did not stop at East Prussia, no, in a flood
of publications and in a continued series of addresses and speeches, of
resolutions etc., beyond the annexation of East Prussia, the annexation of
Pomerania, Silesia, was demanded, the Oder as the minimum border, yes, in the
end, even the Elbe designated as the natural dividing line between Germany and
Poland.
These
demands, perhaps today sensed as crazy, but back then presented with fanatical
earnest, were motivated in a downright ridiculous manner with the claim of a “Polish
civilizing mission” and portrayed as justified, because fulfillable, with the
reference to the strength of the Polish army. While I sent the then Polish
Foreign Minister the invitation to discussions about our proposals, the Polish
military magazines already wrote about the worthlessness of the German army,
the cowardice of the German soldier, the inferiority of German weapons, the
obvious superiority of the Polish armed forces and the certainty, in the case
of a war, of beating the Germans in front of Berlin and destroying the Reich.
But the man who wanted to “chop up” the German army in front of Berlin, was not
just any little Polish illiterate, rather the Generalissimo Rydz-Smigly
presently sitting in Romania.
The
injuries and insults that Germany and the German Wehrmacht had to suffer from
these military dilettantes would not have been tolerated by any other state,
however, they were also not to be expected from any other folk. No French and
probably also no English general would have ever allowed himself a similar
verdict over the German Wehrmacht and conversely no German one over the
English, French or Italian soldiers, such as we have heard and read for years,
and since March 1939, again and again from the Polish side. It took a lot of
self-control to be calm in the face of this fresh, impertinent vilification
despite the awareness that the German Wehrmacht would in a few weeks smash this
whole ridiculous state together with its army and sweep it off the world. Just
that this mental bearing, for which the leading stratum in Poland was itself
responsible, formed the first reason why the Polish government rejected even
debating the German proposals in a discussion.
The
second reason, however, laid in the wretched guarantee promise that one gave to
state that was not threatened at all, but which, now covered by two world
powers, very quickly became accustomed to the conviction of being able to
provoke a great power undisturbed and unpunished, yes, perhaps even hoped to
thereby be able to bring out the prerequisite for the realization of its own
crazy ambitions. For as soon as Poland knew itself in possession of this
guarantee, there began for the minorities living there a genuine regime of
terror. I do not have the task to speak of the lot of the Ukrainian or White
Russian folk elements; their interests lie today with Russia. But I have the
duty to talk about the lot of those hundreds of thousands of Germans, who for
many hundreds of years first brought culture to this land, whom one now began
to drive out, to suppress and to ravish, but who, since March 1939, were
surrendered to a genuinely Satanic regime of terror. How many of them had been
dragged off, where they are, cannot be ascertained even today. Towns with
hundreds of German inhabitants no longer have any men. They have been
completely exterminated. In others, one raped and murdered the women. Girls and
boys, ravaged and killed.
In
the year 1598, the Englishman Sir George Carew wrote in his diplomatic reports
to the British government that the most prominent character traits of the Poles
were cruelty and moral laxity. This cruelty has not changed in the past
centuries since then. Just as one first butchered tens and tens of thousands of
Germans and tortured them to death in a sadistic manner, so did one, during the
fighting, torture and massacre captured German soldiers. This lap child of the
western European democracies does not belong to the cultured nations at all.
For over four years, I was in the great war in the west. On none of the fighting
sides was anything similar ever done back then. But what has played out in this
land in the last months and transpired in the last four weeks, is a sole
indictment against the responsible doers of a so-called state structure, which
lacked any ethical, historical, cultural and moral prerequisite. If even one
percent of these atrocities were to be committed anywhere in the world against
Englishmen, then I would like to see the outraged philistines who today, in
hypocritical indignation, condemn the German or Russian action.
No!
To issue to this state and this state leadership a guarantee, such as this
happened, could only lead to the most severe misfortune. Neither the Polish
government nor the small clique bearing it nor the Polish state folk as such
were capable of measuring the responsibility that laid in such an obligation by
half of Europe in their favor.
From
this incited passion on the one hand as well as from the feeling of security,
which, after all, Poland had been guaranteed under all circumstances, arose the
behavior of the Polish government in the period between the months of April and
August of this year. This also conditions the position toward my pacification
proposals. The government rejected these proposals, because it felt itself
covered or even driven on by public opinion, and public opinion covered it and
drove it along this path, because it had not been taught better by the
government and, above all, because it felt sufficiently secured in every act
toward the outside. So it had to come to the increase of the terrible acts of
terror against the German nationality, to the rejection of all solution
proposals and, finally, to ever greater violations of Reich territory itself.
Given such a mentality, however, it was probably also understandable that one
then viewed German patience only as weakness, this means that every German
concession was viewed only as proof for the possibility of further action. The
warning to the Polish government to no longer annoy Danzig with ultimatum notes
and, above all, to not definitively strangle the city economically, did not
lead to an easing of the situation, rather, quite the opposite, to the
transportation technical cutting off of the city. The warning to finally cease
the eternal shootings, mistreatment and torture of ethnic Germans and to take
action against these acts led to an increase of these cruel acts and to
escalated proclamations and agitation speeches by the Polish Woiwoden and the
military rulers. The German proposals, even at the last minute to bring about a
reasonable and rational agreement, were answered with general mobilization. The
German request, corresponding to the suggestion made by England itself to send
an emissary, was not followed and on the second day answered with a downright
ridiculous declaration.
Under
these circumstances, it was clear that, given further attacks against Reich
territory, German patience would now find its end. What the Poles had wrongly
interpreted as weak-ness, was in reality our consciousness of responsibility and
my will, if at all possible, to still come to an agreement. But since they
believed this patience and this forbearance, as weakness, would allow them
everything, there was nothing else left to do than to enlighten them about this
error and finally strike back with the means that they themselves had made use
of for years.
Under
these blows, this state has now, in a few weeks, col-lapsed and been swept
away. One of the most insane deeds of Versailles has thus been eliminated.
If
now, in this German advance, an interest community with Russia has arisen, then
this is based not only on the similarity of the problems that touch both
states, rather also in the similarity of the realization that has developed in
both states about the shaping of relations with each other.
I
declared already in my Danzig speech that Russia is organized according to
principles that are different from our own. Just that since it has been shown
that Stalin viewed no obstacle in these Russian-Soviet principles to nurturing
friendly relations with states of different view, National Socialist Germany as
well no longer sees any reason on its own side, say, to apply a different
yardstick.
Soviet
Russia is Soviet Russia; National Socialist Germany is National Socialist
Germany. But one thing is certain: at the same moment in which both states
reciprocally respective their diverse regimes and principles, the reason for
any mutually hostile bearing falls away.
It
has been proven in historically long-time frames of the past that the folks of
both these largest states of Europe were the happiest, when they lived in
friendship with each other. The great war that Germany and Russia once waged
against each other has become the misfortune of both lands. It is
understandable that especially the capitalist lands of the west today possess
an interest, if possible, in playing both states and their principles against
each other. For this purpose and to this degree, they would view Soviet-Russia
as sufficiently fit for good society to conclude useful military alliances with
it. But they consider it a perfidy, if this honorable approach is rejected and,
instead of it, an approach arises between both those powers that have every
reason to seek in mutual peaceful cooperation, in the expansion of their economic
relations, the happiness of their folks. I declared already a month ago in the
Reichstag that the conclusion of the German-Russian non-aggression pact means a
change in the whole of German foreign policy.
The
new, meanwhile concluded, friendship and interest pact between Germany and
Soviet-Russia will enable for both states not only peace, rather a fortunate
permanent cooperation. Germany and Russia will together remove its threatening
character from one of Europe’s most dangerous spots and contribute to the
welfare of the people living there and thus to European peace.
If
today certain circles, each per requirement, soon wants to see Russia’s defeat
or Germany’s defeat, then I wish to give them the following reply: One has for
many years ascribed to German policy goals that could at most stem from the
imagination of a high school student. At a moment, when Germany struggles for
the consolidation of a living space that encompasses only a few 100,000 square
kilometers, unabashed newspaper writers declare in states that themselves rule
40 million square kilometers that Germany, for its part, strives for world
domination. The German-Russian agreements would have to represent a tremendous
soothing for these concerned advocates of world peace, for they show them, in a
presumably authentic manner, that all these claims of Germany’s striving for
the Urals, the Ukraine, Romania etc. were only the product of their sick Mars
fantasy.
In
one thing, however, Germany’s decision is inalterable, namely: in our Reich’s
east as well to create peaceful, stable and hence tenable conditions. And
precisely here, German interests and wishes coincide with those of Soviet
Russia. Both states are determined to not allow that problematic conditions
arise between them, which contain within themselves the seed for domestic
unrest and hence also external disruptions that could perhaps unfavorably touch
upon the relationship of both great powers to each other. Germany and Russia
have hence drawn a clear line of the reciprocal interest spheres with the
decision to each concern itself in its part for peace and order and to prevent
everything that could inflict damage on the other partner.
The
goals and tasks that result from the fall of the Polish state, insofar as the
German interest sphere is concerned, are roughly as follows:
First,
the establishment of a Reich border that does justice to the historical,
ethnographic and economic facts.
Second,
the pacification of the whole region in the sense of the establishment of a
tenable peace and order.
Third,
the absolute guarantee of the security of not only Reich territory, rather of
the whole interest zone.
Fourth,
the new order, the new construction of economic life, of commerce and hence
also of cultural and civilizing development.
Fifth,
as the most important task, however: a new order of the ethnographic
conditions, this means a resettlement of the nationalities so that, at the
conclusion of the development, better lines of separation result than is the
case today.
In
this sense, however, it is not just about a problem that is limited to this
area, rather about a task that expands much farther. For the whole east and
southeast of Europe is in part filled with untenable splinters of the German
nationality. Precisely in them lies a reason and a cause for continued
intrastate disturbances. In the age of the nationality principle and the race
idea, it is utopian to believe that these members of a highly valuable folk
could simply assimilate. But it also belongs to the tasks of a far-sighted
ordering of European life to carry out resettlements here, in order to
eliminate in this manner at least a portion of the European conflict issues.
Germany
and the Union of the Soviet Republics have agreed to mutually support each other
here. The German Reich government will never allow it in the process that the
then resulting Polish remnant state could become a somehow disruptive element
for the Reich itself or even a source of disturbances between the German Reich
and Soviet Russia. If Germany and Soviet Russia undertake this reorganizational
work, then both states can rightfully point out that the attempt to solve this
problem with the methods of Versailles has totally failed. And it had to fail,
because this task could not be solved at all on a theoretical basis at all or
through simple decrees. Most of the statesmen who had to judge these
complicated matters in Versailles did not possess the slightest historical
education, yes, often not even the vaguest idea of the sense of the tasks put
to them.
But
they also bore no responsibility of any kind for the consequences of their
action. The realization that their work might perhaps not be right after all
was without significance, because, in practice, the path to a real revision did
not exist. For in the Versailles Treaty, it was indeed foreseen that the
possibility of such revisions had to remain open; just that, in reality, all
the attempts to come to such a revision failed, and they had to fail all the
more so as, after all, the League of Nations, as the authorized court, ceased
to be able to claim the inner justification for the execution of such a
procedure.
After
first America refused to sanction the peace treaty of Versailles or even to
join the League of Nations, but later other folks as well believed they could
no longer reconcile their presence in this organization with the interests of
their lands, this organization sank ever more into the circle of the interested
parties of the Versailles dictate. It is a fact, at any rate, that none of the
revisions recognized from the start as necessary were carried out by the League
of Nations.
Since,
in the present time, the practice has taken root that a fled government is
still viewed as existent, even if it consists of just three members, insofar as
they have just brought along so much gold that they do not become an economic
burden to their democratic host lands, it is to be presumed, after all, that
the League of Nations as well will valiantly continue to exist, even if only
two nations sit together in it, yes, in the end, perhaps even only one does it!
According to the law of the League, however, any revision of the Versailles
clauses would still be exclusively subject to this illustrious association,
this means, in other words, practically be impossible.
Now
the League of Nations is not a living thing, rather al-ready today something
dead. But the affected folks are not dead, rather they live, and they will
achieve their life interests even if the League of Nations should be incapable
of seeing, comprehending or considering them.
National
Socialism is hence also not a manifestation that grew up in Germany with the
malicious intent of preventing the League of Nation’s revision efforts, rather
a movement that came because, for 15 years, one prevented the revision of the
suppression of the natural human and folk rights of a great nation. And I
personally wish to forbid it, if a foreign statesman now stands up and declares
I have broken my word, because I have now carried out these revisions. Quite
the opposite, I have given the German folk my sacred word to eliminate the
Versailles Treaty and to return to it the natural life right as great nation.
The extent to which I secure this life right is a modest one. If 46 million
English in the mother land claim the right to rule 40 million square kilometers
of the earth, then it is probably no injustice, if 82 million Germans demand
the right to live in 800,000 square kilometers, to cultivate their cropland
there and to pursue their trades. And if they further demand that one gives
back to them that colonial possession that was once their own, which they took
from nobody through robbery or war, rather which they acquired honestly through
purchase, swap and treaties.
I
furthermore tried with all the demands that I made to always first achieve the
revisions along the path of negotiations. But I refuse to present the German
life right to any international, unauthorized consortium as most servile
request. As little as I presume that Great Britain requests the respect of its
life interests, just as little should one expect the same from National
Socialist Germany. But I have - I must declare this here in a solemn manner -
extraordinarily limited the extent of these revisions of the Versailles peace
treaty. Especially everywhere I did not see my folk’s most natural life
interests threatened, I myself have advised the German folk to be modest or to
renounce. But these 80 million must live somewhere. For even the Versailles
Treaty was not able to remove from the world one fact: it did, indeed in an
unreasonable manner, dissolve states, rip apart economic regions, severe
transportation lines etc.; but the folks, this means the living substance of
flesh and blood, have remained, and they will remain in the future as well.
Now
it cannot be contested that, since the German folk has received and found its
resurrection in National Socialism, a clarification of the German relationship
to the surrounding world has set in to a large degree. The uncertainty that
today burdens the coexistence of folks does not stem from German demands,
rather from the publicized accusations from the so-called democracies. The
German demands themselves have been presented very clearly and precisely. But
they have not found their fulfillment thanks to the insight of the Geneva
League of Nations, rather thanks to the dynamics of the natural development.
The goal of the Reich’s foreign policy led by me, however, was in no case a
different one than to ensure for the German folk existence and hence life, to
eliminate the injustices and lunacies of a treaty that, after all, has
economically destroyed not only Germany, rather dragged the victor nations
exactly the same into ruin.
Furthermore,
however, the whole work of the Reich’s reconstruction was one aimed inwardly.
In no other land in the world was hence the yearning for peace also greater
than in the German folk. It is a good fortune for mankind and no misfortune
that I managed, without domestic political burdening of the foreign statesmen, to
peacefully eliminate the most insane impossibilities of the Versailles treaty.
That this elimination may in details be painful for certain interested parties,
is understandable. Just that all the greater is probably the credit that the
new regulation in all cases, with the exception of the last, took place without
bloodshed. The last revision of this treaty, however, could have taken place
exactly the same way along peaceful path, if the two circumstances mentioned by
me had not worked out for the opposite. But the blame for that is born
primarily by those who were not only not highly pleased by the previous
revisions, rather who, quite the opposite, complained about seeing a new
central Europe building itself along peaceful path, and indeed a central Europe
that could gradually again give its inhabitants work and bread.
I
have mentioned that it was a goal of the Reich government to bring clarity to
the relations between us and our neighbors. And I may here now refer to facts
that cannot be removed from the world by the writings of international press
liars:
First,
Germany has concluded non-aggression pacts with the Baltic lands. Its interests
there are of a purely economic nature.
Second,
already earlier, Germany has had no conflicts of interest or even points of
dispute with the Nordic states, and today it has them just as little. Sweden
and Norway have both been offered non-aggression pacts by Germany and only
rejected them, because they themselves felt in no way threatened.
Third,
Germany has drawn no consequences toward Denmark in regard to the separation of
German territory undertaken in the Versailles treaty, rather, quite the
opposite, established a loyal and friendly relationship with Denmark. We have
raised no kind of demands for a revision, rather concluded a non-aggression
pact with Denmark. The relationship with this state is hence directed at an
inalterable loyal and friendly cooperation.
Fourth,
Holland: The new Reich has sought to continue the traditional friendship with
Holland, it has adopted no difference between both states and has created no
new differences.
Fifth,
Belgium: I tried immediately after the assumption of state business to shape
the relationship to Belgium more friendly. I have renounced any revision, any
revision wish. The Reich has placed no demands that would have been somehow
suited to be felt as a threat in Belgium.
Sixth,
Switzerland: Germany takes the same stance toward Switzerland. The Reich
government has never given even the slightest cause for a doubt of its wish for
a loyal shaping of the relations between both lands. Furthermore, it has never
itself brought a complaint about the relationship between both lands.
Seventh,
I informed Yugoslavia immediately after the accomplished annexation that the
border with this state as well is from now an inalterable for Germany and that
we only wish to live in peace and friendship with it.
Eighth,
A many years long tradition bond of close and hearty friendship connects us to
Hungary. Here, too, the borders are inalterable.
Ninth,
Slovakia itself directed the wish for help to Germany on the occasion of its
emergence. Its independence is acknowledged by the Reich and not impugned.
But
not only with these states has Germany clarified and regulated the relations,
still in part burdened by the Versailles treaty, rather also with the great
powers.
In
union with II Duce, I have produced a change in the Reich’s relationship with
Italy. The borders existing between both states have been solemnly acknowledged
by both empires as inalterable. Any possibility of opposing interests of
territorial nature was eliminated. The former opponents of the World War have
meanwhile become sincere friends.
It
did not stop with a normalization of relations, rather this led in the
following period to the conclusion of an ideologically and politically based
close pact, which has had the effect of a strong element of European
cooperation.
But
I have, above all, undertaken to decontaminate the relationship with France and
to make it bearable for both nations. I have presented here in the utmost
clarity the German demands, and I have never deviated from these demands. The
return of the Saar region was the sole demand that I viewed as the
unconditional prerequisite for a German-French reconciliation. After France
itself loyally solved this problem, any further German demand on France fell
away; no such demand still exists, and such a demand will also never be raised.
This means: I have rejected even just bringing to discussion the problem of
Alsace-Lorraine - not because I would have been compelled to it, rather because
this matter is no problem at all that could ever stand between the
German-French relationship. I have accepted the decision of the year 1919 and
rejected sooner or later again going to a bloody war for a question that stands
in no relationship to the German life necessities, but is indeed suited to
plunge every second generation into a wretched conflict. France knows this. It
is impossible that whatever French statesman stands up and declares I had ever
put a demand to France whose fulfillment would have been incompatible with
French honor or with French interests.
But
I have indeed put to France, instead of a demand, always just one wish, to bury
the old hostility forever and to let both nations with their great historical
past to find the path to each other. I have done everything in order to
exterminate in the German folk the idea of an inalterable traditional hostility
and in its place to implant respect for the great accomplishments of the French
folk, of its history, just like every German soldier has the greatest respect
for the accomplishments of the French armed forces.
No
lesser were my efforts for a German-English reconciliation, yes, beyond that,
for a German-English friendship. Never and at no point have I really opposed
British interests. Unfortunately, only all too often did I have to defend
myself against English inventions into German interests, even where they did
not touch England in the least. I have downright felt it a goal of my life to
bring both folks closer to each other, not only rationally, rather also
emotionally. If my effort failed, then only because there existed a downright
shocking hostility toward me personally in a portion of the British statesmen
and journalists, who made no secret of it that it was their sole goal, for
reasons that are inexplicable for us, to again take up the fight against
Germany at the first opportunity offering itself. The less objective reasons
these men have for their plan, the more they try to fake the motivation for
their action with empty slogans and claims. But I still believe even today that
a real pacification in Europe and in the world can only exist, if Germany and
England reconcile. From this conviction, I have very often taken the path
toward reconciliation. If this, in the end, nonetheless did not lead to the
desired result, then it was really not my fault.
As
final thing, I have now tried to normalize the Reich’s relations with Soviet
Russia and finally put them on a friendly basis. Thanks to Stalin’s same
thinking, this has now also succeeded. With this state as well, a permanent
friendly relationship has now been established, whose effect will be beneficial
for both folks.
So
overall, the revision of the Versailles treaty carried out by me has not
created chaos in Europe, rather, quite the opposite, the prerequisite for
clear, stable and, above all, bearable conditions. And only the person who
hates this order of European conditions and desires disorder, can be an enemy
of these actions.
But
if one believes, with hypocritical bearing, to have to reject the methods
through which a bearable order has arisen in the central European region, then
I can only reply that, in the final analysis, not so much the method is
decisive as the practical success.
Before
my assumption to power, Europe was sinking, and indeed, not only Germany,
rather also the surrounding states, in the distress of cheerless unemployment.
Production fell, and hence people’s consumption invariably also decreased. The
living standard sank, distress and misery were the results. None of the
criticizing foreign statesmen can dispute that, not only in the old Reich,
rather also in all regions united with it, it has been possible to eliminate
these symptoms of decay, and indeed, under the most difficult circumstances. It
has hence been proven that this central European region is capable of life only
if united and that the person who divides it commits a crime against millions
of people. To have now eliminated this crime is not a breach of faith, rather
my honor, my pride and a great historical achievement. Neither the German folk
nor I took an oath to the treaty of Versailles, rather I only took an oath to
the well-being of my folk, whose agent I am, and to the well-being of those
whom fate has put in our living space and thereby indissolubly bound to our own
well-being. To secure for all of them existence and thus life, is my sole care.
The attempt to criticize, to judge or to reject my action from the rostrum of
an international obstinacy, is un-historical and leaves me personally ice cold.
The German folk has summoned me through its trust and is only strengthened in
this stance toward me through any such attempt of a foreign criticism or
intervention.
Furthermore,
I first disseminated proposals before each individual revision. I tried, along
the path of negotiations, to achieve and secure the unconditionally necessary.
I also succeeded in this in a series of cases. In other cases, however, my will
for negotiation, and often also the small extent of my demands, the modesty of
my proposals, was, unfortunately, interpreted as weakness and hence rejected.
This could hurt nobody more than me myself. Just that there exist in the life
of folks necessities which, if they do not find their solution along peaceful
path, must then achieve their realization through strength. This may be
regrettable; but this is true just as much for the life of the individual
citizens as for the life of the community.
The
principle that the largest interest common to all cannot be harmed by the
obstinacy, or even the malicious will, of individuals and individual
communities, is irrefutably correct.
I
presented the most moderate proposals to Poland as well. They did not fall to
mere rejection, rather, quite the opposite, they led to the general
mobilization of this state with a justification that makes perfectly clear that
one believed to see precisely in the modesty of my proposals the confirmation
for my weakness, yes, in the end, even for my fear.
Actually,
this experience would have to make one reluctant to still present at all
reasonable and moderate proposals. These days as well, I already read in
certain newspapers that any attempt for a peaceful arrangement of the
relationship between Germany on the one side and England and France on the
other is out of the question, and that any proposal in this direction only
proves that, filled with fear, I see before me Germany’s collapse, hence that I
make it only out of fear or from a bad conscience.
If
I now nonetheless announce my thoughts on this problem, then I hence take it
upon myself of being seen in the eyes of these people as coward or as
desperate. I can also do this, because the verdict over me in history, thank
God, will not one day be written by these pitiful scribblers, rather stands
from through my life work and because it is rather indifferent to me, which
judgement I now receive at the moment from these people. My prestige is great
enough in order to allow myself such a thing. For whether I now announce my
following thoughts really out of fear or desperation, that, after all, the
later course of things will prove in any case. Today I can, at most, regret
that the people who, in their thirst for blood, cannot see enough war,
unfortunately are not where the war is really fought out, and even already
earlier were not where there was shooting. I understand very well that there
are interested parties who earn more from war than from peace, and I further
understand that, for a certain species of international journalists, it is more
interesting to report about war than about the actions or even the cultural
creations of peace, which they cannot gauge and cannot comprehend; and,
finally, it is clear to me that a certain Jewish-international capitalism and
journalism does not sympathize with the folks at all, whose interest they
pretend to represent, rather as Herostratus of human society see the greatest
success of their life in arson.
But
I also believe, for yet another reason, to have to raise my voice here. If I
today read certain international press organs or hear the speeches of various
hot-headed war glorifiers, then I believe I speak and reply in the name of
those who must provide the living substance for the intellectual activity of
these war goal setters - that living substance to which I, as unknown soldier,
also belonged for four years in the Great War. The effect is splendid, if a
statesman or journalist stands up and proclaims in glowing words the necessity
of the elimination of the regime in another country in the name of democracy or
of something similar. The execution of this glorious slogan, however, then
looks quite different. Today newspaper articles are being written that can be
sure of the enthusiastic agreement of a genteel reading public. The realization
of the demands contained in them, however, has a much less enthusiastic effect.
I do not want to say anything here about the judgment or ability of these
people. But whatever they may write: the real nature of such a conflict is not
touched by it. Before the Polish campaign, these scribblers wrote the German
infantry was perhaps not bad, just the armored branch - the motorized
formations over all - were inferior and would simply fail in any action. - Now,
after Poland’s destruction, the same people write with straight face that the
Polish armies collapsed only because of the German panzers and the rest of the
Reich’s motorization, but that, in comparison, the German infantry, in a
downright amazing manner, had deteriorated and came up short even in the clash
with the Poles. Such an author writes this literally - one rightly sees therein
a favorable symptom for the conduct of the war in the west, and the French
soldier will notice this.
I
believe that as well, insofar as he really faces it and can still remember it
later. He will then presumably take this military soothsayer by the ears. But,
unfortunately, that will also be impossible again, because these people, after
all, never test the competence or inferiority of German infantry personally on
the battlefield at all, rather only describe it in their editorial offices. Six
weeks - what then! - fourteen days of drum-fire, and the gentlemen war
propagandists would quickly come to a different view. They also talk about
necessary world political events, but they do not know the military course of
things. Just that I know it all the better, and hence I also consider it my
duty to speak here, even at the risk that the war agitators again see in this
my speech just an expression of my fear and a symptom for the degree of my
desperation.
Why
then should this war take place? For Poland’s restoration? The Poland of the
Versailles treaty will never rise again! The two greatest states on earth
guarantee that. The final shaping of this region, the question of the
restoration of a Polish state, are problems that are not solved through war in
the west, rather exclusively by Russia in one case and by Germany in the other.
Furthermore, any elimination of both these powers in the regions in question would
not produce a new state, rather total chaos. The problems that are to be solved
there will be solved neither at the conference table nor in editorial offices,
rather in decades long work. It simply does not suffice that a few statesmen,
who, in the final analysis, are disinterested in the fate of the affected
people, come together and issue decrees, rather it is necessary that somebody
who is himself involved in the life of these regions takes over the work for
the restoration of a really permanent condition. The ability of the western
democracies for the creation of such orderly conditions, leastwise in the
recent period, has been proven by nothing. The example of Palestine shows how
it would be better to occupy oneself with the existing problems and to
rationally solve them than to concern oneself with problems that lie within the
life and interest sphere of other folks and can be better mastered by them. At
any rate, Germany has not only secured peace and order in its protectorate
Bohemia and Moravia, rather, above all, also laid the foundation for a new
economic blossoming and for ever more close agreement between both nations.
England will still have very much to do before it will be able to point to
similar results in its Palestinian protectorate.
One
furthermore knows quite precisely that it would be an absurdity to destroy
millions of human lives and ruin hundreds of billions in assets in order, say,
to again set up a structure that, already at its first emergence, was
designated a miscarriage by all non-Poles. So what else should be the reason?
Has Germany put any demand to England that, say, threatens the British World
Empire or puts its existence into question? No, quite the opposite! Neither to
France nor to England has Germany directed any such demand. But if this war
should really only be waged in order to give Germany a new regime, this means,
in order to again smash the present Reich and consequently create a new
Versailles, then millions of people will be pointlessly sacrificed, for neither
will the German Reich break nor will a second Versailles emerge!
But
even if, after a three or five- or eight-year war, that should succeed, then
this second Versailles would for the following period already again become a
source for new conflicts. In any case, however, a regulation of the problems of
the world without consideration of the life interests of its strongest folks
would, in five or ten years, end no differently at all than this attempt ended
20 years ago today. No, this war in the west regulates no problem at all, be it
the ruined finances of a few armaments’ industrialists and newspaper owners or
other international war profiteers.
Two
problems today stand to discussion:
First,
the regulation of the questions arising from Poland’s disintegration and
second,
the problem of the elimination of those international concerns that politically
and economically hamper the life of the folks.
What
then are the goals of the Reich government in regard to the ordering of the
conditions in this region, which west of the German Soviet Russian demarcation
line is recognized as German sphere influence?
First,
the creation of a Reich border, which - as already emphasized - corresponds to
the historical, ethnographic and economic facts,
second,
the arranging of the whole living space according to nationalities, this means
a solution of those minority questions that touch not only this region, rather,
beyond that, affect almost all southern and southeastern European states,
third,
in the connection, the attempt of an arranging and regulation of the Jewish
problem,
fourth,
the rebuilding of commercial and economic life for the benefit of all people
living in this region,
fifth,
the guarantee of the security of this whole region and
sixth,
the creation of a Polish state that, in its construction and its leadership,
offers a guarantee that neither a new fire against the German Reich arises nor
an intrigue central against Germany and Russia is formed.
Beyond
that, it must immediately be attempted to eliminate the effects of the war, or
at least to mitigate them, this means soothing the excessive suffering present
through practical aid activity.
These
tasks - as already emphasized - can indeed be dis-cussed at a conference table,
but never solved. If Europe is at all concerned about calm and peace, then the
European states would have to be grateful that Russia and Germany are ready to
now turn this trouble spot into a zone of peaceful development, that both lands
assume responsibility and hence also make sacrifices. For the German Reich,
this task, since it cannot be taken imperialistically, means an activity for 50
or 100 years. The justification for this German work lies in the political
organization of the region as well as in the economic opening up. In the final analysis,
however, both benefit all of Europe.
The
second, and, in my eyes, far more important, task, however, is the creation of
not only the conviction, rather also of the feelings, of a European security.
Necessary for this it that
first,
an unconditional clarity about the goals of foreign policy in the European
states sets in. Insofar as Germany is concerned, the Reich government is ready
to provide a complete and total clarity about its foreign political intentions.
In the process, it puts at the top of this declaration the statement that the
Versailles treaty is viewed by it as no longer existing, this means that the
German Reich government, and with it the whole German folk, sees no reason for
any further revision outside of the demand for colonial possession due to and
corresponding to the Reich, hence, above all, the return of the German
colonies.
This
demand for colonies is justified not only in historical legal claim, rather,
above all, in the elementary legal claim to a participation in the earth’s raw
material sources. This demand is not an ultimatum, and it is not a demand
behind which force stands, rather a demand of political justice and of economic
common sense.
Second,
the demand for a real blossoming of the international economy, in connection
with the increase of trade and commerce, is preconditioned by the repair of the
domestic economies, this means of production inside the individual states. To
ease the exchange of this production, however, one must come to a new
arrangement of the markets and to a permanent regulation of the currencies in
order to gradually dismantle the obstacles to free trade.
Third,
the most important prerequisite, however, for an economic blossoming of the
European and extra-European economy is the creation of an unconditionally
guaranteed peace and of a feeling of security for the individual folks. This
security will be made possible not only through the final sanctioning of the
European status, rather, above all, through the reduction of armaments to a
reasonable, and also economically bearable, magnitude. To this necessary
feeling of security belongs, above all, however, a clarification of the
utilization and the range of utilization of certain modern weapons, which, in
their effect, are suited to strike at any time into the heart of each
individual folk, and which will hence leave behind an enduring feeling of
insecurity. I have already, in my earlier Reichstag speeches, made proposals in
this direction. Back then - probably already because they came from me -, they
fell to rejection. But I believe that the feeling of a national security in
Europe will only arrive, if in this area, through clear international and
binding obligations, an extensive fixing of the concept of allowed and not
allowed weapons utilization takes place.
Just
as the Geneva Convention once managed, leastwise among civilized states, to
prohibit the killing of wounded, the mistreatment of prisoners, combat against
non-belligerents etc., and just as it managed to help this ban, over the course
of time, to general adherence, so must it manage to so set down the use of air
force, the use of gas etc., of the U-boat, but also the concept of contraband,
so that war loses the terrible character of a fight against women and children
and against non-belligerents overall. The horror of certain actions will then,
on its own, lead to the elimination of the weapons then become superfluous. I
have endeavored, already in this war with Poland, to let the Luftwaffe be used
only against so-called military objects, this means only put in an appearance,
if active resistance is offered at a point.
But
it must be possible, with reference to the Red Cross, to find a fundamental,
commonly valid international regulation. Only under such preconditions,
especially in our densely populated continent, will a peace arrive, which then,
freed of mistrust and of fear, can provide the prerequisite for a real
blossoming of economic life as well. I believe there is no responsible European
statesman who does not, in the bottom of heart, wish for his folk’s blossoming.
A realization of this dream, however, is conceivable only in the framework of a
general cooperation of the nations of this continent. To ensure this
cooperation can hence only be the goal of every man really wrestling for the
future of his own folk, too.
In
order to reach this great goal, the great nations on this continent will have
to come together in order to work out, accept and guarantee in an extensive
regulation a statute that gives all of them the feeling of security, of calm
and hence of peace. It is impossible that such a conference convenes without
the most thorough preliminary work, this means without the clarification of the
individual points and, above all, without preparatory work. But it is just as
impossible that such a conference, which is supposed to decide the fate of
precisely this continent for decades, is active under the roar of canons or
also just under the pressure of mobilized armies. But if, sooner or later, this
problem must be solved nonetheless, then it would be more reasonable to get at
this solution before first millions of people have pointlessly bled to death
and billions in assets have been destroyed.
The
preservation of the present condition in the west is un-thinkable. Each day
will soon demand increasing sacrifices. Perhaps France will then one day, for
the first time, bombard Saarbrücken. German artillery, for its part, will crush
Mülhausen as revenge. France will then itself again, as revenge, put Karlsruhe
under the fire of cannons, and Germany again Straßburg. Then the French
artillery will shoot at Freiburg and the German at Kolmar or Schlettstadt. One
will then deploy farther reaching guns, and what finally cannot be reached by
the long-range guns, the pilots will destroy. And it will be very interesting
for a certain international journalism and very useful for the manufacturers of
planes, of weapons, of munitions etc., but horrible for the victims.
And
this war of annihilation will not just limit itself to the mainland. No, it
will stretch far out over the sea. Today there are no longer any islands.
And
the European national fortune will burst in shells and folk energy will bleed
to death on the battlefields. One day, however, there will nonetheless again be
a border between Germany and France. Only that on it, then, instead of
blossoming cites, fields of rubble and endless cemeteries will stretch.
Mr.
Churchill and his comrades may now calmly interpret this my view as weakness or
as cowardice. I do not have to deal with their opinions. I only provide this
explanation, because I naturally wish to spare my folk as well this suffering.
But if the view of Mr. Churchill and his entourage should remain successful,
then this explanation will simply have been my last one. We will then fight!
Neither
force of arms nor time will subdue Germany. A November 1918 will never again
repeat itself in German history. The hope for a disintegration of our folk, however,
is childish. Mr. Churchill may be of the conviction that Great Britain will
triumph. Not for a second do 1 doubt that Germany triumphs!
Fate
will decide who is right. Only one thing is sure: never yet in world history
have their been two victors, but often only defeated. Already in the last war,
this seems to me to have been the case.
May
those folks and their leaders now speak, who are of the same view, and may
those push back my hand, who believe they must see war as the better solution.
As Führer of the German folk and as chancellor of the Reich, I can only thank
the Lord at this moment that he has so wonderfully blessed us in the first
difficult fight for our right, and ask him to let us and all others find the
right path so that not only the German folk, rather all of Europe, is allotted
a new good fortune of peace.
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