Courier Adolf Hitler: 1914 – 1918

 

DOWNLOAD THE BOOK IN PDF FORMAT

 

By His War Comrade Balthasar Brandmayer

 

Translated from the rare German original, Meldegänger Adolf Hitler: 1914-1918, published in 1931. It was written by one of Adolf Hitler’s closest war comrades, Balthasar Brandmayer, who served in the same courier squad from 1915 to 1918. This first-hand account by a man who fought at Adolf Hitler’s side on the bloody western front – published before Hitler came to power – is certainly of historic interest to any student of the most influential man of the twentieth century or, for that matter, of the First World War.

Idea and Appearance of the Empire

Source: SS Leitheft, No. 7. 1943

 

The idea of the nationalist state must be defeated

 

As clear as the struggle for the defence of our homeland against the onslaught from the East is, so clear are the outlines of a new organisation of Europe, outlines that no longer follow the borders assigned to them by a nationalist conception. What calls millions of men to arms in Europe today is not only the struggle for raw materials and living space, but also the will for a radical reorganisation of this continent for which it is worth living and dying. The fact that thousands of Norwegians, Dutchmen, Flemings and Walloons are fighting on the Eastern Front in the ranks of the Waffen SS can only be seen as a symptom of an awakening of energy among the Germanic peoples, who, beyond the boundaries of the political order in which they have lived up to now, are seeking the path to a new future. There can be no doubt that our vision of what Europe will be one day when this harsh and relentless struggle is over already takes us far beyond the limits of the old nationalistic conception. No thinking mind in Europe believes that at the end of this bitter struggle, as fate will decide for ever, the restoration of the old political order can take place. Just as the sacrifices of the present war legitimize, at its conclusion, the creation of an order which corresponds to the breadth and depth of the National Socialist revolution accomplished in the heart of the continent. This new order can only be established on the basis of the idea of race. The Dutch, the Flemings, the Walloons, the Scandinavians, who today are fighting alongside us in the ranks of the Waffen SS, are not only defending their homes against the Asian wave, they are also the pioneers of a reorganisation of Europe on the foundations of the Germanic idea. In this way, a process similar to that which led to the creation of Bismarck’s Reich seventy years ago is taking place on the European territory. 

 

A young Danish volunteer with the face of a child.

 

Heinrich Himmler visits his SS on the Eastern Front in 1941.

 

The SS unites many European nationalities under its runic emblem.

 

At that time, the German principalities, under the influence of the nationalist principle, joined together to form an Empire. The National Socialist revolution has absorbed the nationalist idea and replaced it with the idea of race. Therefore, at the end of this war, a new European order must be established on the basis of Germanic solidarity. The nationalist idea flourished in Bismarck’s Reich. At the moment when the innumerable waves of Asia are attacking the borders of Europe, the continent is turning back to that great historical construction which it had already built centuries earlier on the basis of Germanness. We have reached a point in evolution where the concept of race begins to become a historical and political reality. The people and the nation appear more and more as particular expressions of this concept. The revolution in political thought which first took place within our Empire soon extended its effects beyond the borders of the old Reich. It can no longer be contained; it is sweeping away the old errors of the old liberal doctrine with the same unyielding rigour with which it is tearing down the small artificial states created by the English policy of balance. The test of the war against the Asiatic enemy no longer permits the survival of the system of States which was born at Versailles. And now we find ourselves in the hour of struggle and danger before a new European organisation; we are witnessing the birth of a racial Empire.

 

This is the aim of our struggle. All those are called who are influenced in their attitude by the same blood. The German feels, of course, that he is the heart of this Empire which must embrace the whole area of our race. But he must not regard this Empire as an extension of the nationalist idea. The German nationalist idea acquired a new dimension in 1938. Our opponents want to persuade the peoples of Europe of the idea that everything that followed was only the consequence of German imperialism. Here too they have failed to understand the National Socialist revolution. It could not lead to imperialism but must, according to its principles, integrate the national state of the Germans into a vast Germanic Empire. All attempts to define in legal-political terms the future relationship of the Germanic states to the Empire can only fail because existing concepts such as federation, federal system, federalism belong to the realm of the past and miss the revolution in our thinking brought about by the concept of race. The German revolution is becoming a Germanic revolution. On the battlefields of the most terrible war that has ever been waged against a hostile world trying to smother the germ of a new vital order accomplished by the German revolution, there is a powerful appeal to the Germanic peoples to form a Germanic Empire of their own.

 

The Eternal Empire

 

The idea of a Nordic Empire is not a product of our time. It accompanies our entire historical existence as the image of an ordered world which invites the man of our race, on the strength of his creative artistic power, his inventive gifts, and his ability to found a cohesive organic system on the model of the Empire. The proud centuries of the history of the German

 

Empire are still close enough to us to remind us that all states owe their foundation to the energy of Nordic leaders: the state of the Cheruscan Armin, of the Battalion Civilis, of Marbod, that of the Burgundians, of the Vandals, of Theodoric and Charlemagne, the creator of the Germanic West, the state of the Varegues which extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea, that of the Vikings and that of the Normans. The history of these Germanic peoples is our own history. We can experience today that in the ranks of the Waffen SS there are prominent representatives of the Germanic ethnic group who for centuries have waged a difficult and united struggle against the forces of the foreigner and who speak of the Empire as an idea which they have defended with arms and safeguarded. This is proof that the historical structures of the past still have an active influence and that the idea of empire outside the German state has been kept alive. It is now a matter of revising this historical image which hostile propaganda and false schooling have aroused in the Germanic populations of the West and the North and of re-establishing historical relationships such as those which conceded to the Dutch, Flemish, Walloons, and Scandinavians for centuries while they were members of the Reich, a civilised, free and flourishing life. We must think in terms of centuries. Enemy propaganda has profoundly changed the original face of these countries. The state organisations which the French Revolution and the English policy of equilibrium built up with such artifice and tenacity are condemned by the iron law of history. The political creations of the 19th century are now definitively collapsing. The idea of Empire, on the other hand, is being reborn, like the phoenix from its ashes; it is being reborn among all peoples of Germanic blood who no longer believe in the possibility of a political existence distinct from the Reich, if not directed against it. The idea of Empire is the strongest tradition on the continent and, therefore, the most decisive real force for a lasting historical order.

 

The Empire and Europe

 

We agree today that the political creations of the Germans in the past could only be ephemeral, for the energy of the race, a feeling of inexhaustible wealth, was diluted in a foreign ethnic group. The idea of the race makes it our duty in the future to preserve and concentrate our energy in the strictest possible way. The tragic division that dominated the Middle Ages Empire arose from its dispersal and from an often deficient or too narrow consciousness. This alone explains why the Europe of the time, already structured according to the Germanic principle, succumbed to the universalism of imperial Rome and Christianity, and why precious blood was shed for ideas that were at odds with its history and way of thinking; it is necessary to acknowledge the faults of the past if the future is to take shape.

 

It must therefore be made clear that a lasting order in Europe can only be established by the Empire. The destiny of Europe in the future will be as it was in the past, determined by the destiny of the Empire. Europe was a unit, the centre of human civilisation, as long as the Empire was great and powerful. At the time when it reached the height of its power, the kings of England and France considered themselves vassals of the German Empire. But Europe was disturbed and left to the aggression of powers outside its area, when the Empire broke up. We must remember that the name as well as the historical reality we imply in the word “Europe” is a creation of the Nordic race. That is why the Empire is also in the future the European heart and bridgehead, the magnetic centre that attracts and holds together the Germanic peoples. It is not our task to define the political structure that the future holds for the community of European peoples. The answer to the question raised by the situation of the Dutch, Walloons and Scandinavians in relation to the Empire can only be given at the end of the war and in the light of the Fiihrer’s decision. It will certainly result from an examination of the participation of these peoples in the struggle for the regeneration of this continent. It will by no means be formed on the basis of a fixed scheme, valid for all; nor will it proceed from the methods and vocabulary of liberal nationalist and legal theories. What will emerge will be a true community order, within which each one will have a place and a rank according to the results and sacrifices made for the whole and the specificity and particularities of its own being. The position of a particular Germanic people’s unit within this Empire will be determined in accordance with the political and spiritual energy which radiates from it. The ultimate decision will not be taken at a conference table, but on the battlefields where the Germanic peoples under German leadership are fighting for their future as equal members of the future Empire. The Waffen SS has been given the task by the Führer of cultivating the Germanic idea. It is its immediate duty to prepare the way for the new Reich, for which members of all Germanic peoples are fighting and dying in its ranks.

 

Any Empire that is divided weakens. So, no Empire disappears without internal division. The building of a house and the creation of an Empire require the same unity.

 

Paracelsus

Richard Wagner - Parsifal

Written: 1877-1882; Germany

Date of Recording: 1981

Venue:  Bayreuth, Germany

Bayreuther Festspiele, 1981

Orchestra/Ensemble:  Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Staged by: Wolfgang Wagner

Conductor: Horst Stein

Amfortas: Bernd Weikl

Titurel: Matti Saminen

Gurnemanz: Hans Sotin

Parsifal: Siegfried Jerusalem

Klingsor: Leif Roar

Kundry: Eva Radnova

1st Knight of the Grail: Toni Krämer

2nd Knight of the Grail: Heinz Klaus Ecker

1st Squire: Marga Schiml

2nd Squire: Hanna Schwarz

3rd Squire: Helmut Pampuch

4th Squire: Martin Egel

Flower Maidens: Norma Sharp, Carol Richardson, Hanna Schwarz, Mari-Anne Häggender, Marga Schiml, Margit Neubauer

Alto Solo: Hanna Schwarz

Synopsis

Act 1

In a forest near the home of the Grail and its Knights, Gurnemanz, eldest Knight of the Grail, wakes his young squires and leads them in prayer. He sees Amfortas, King of the Grail Knights, and his entourage approaching. Amfortas has been injured by his own Holy Spear, and the wound will not heal.

Vorspiel

Musical introduction to the work with a duration of c. 9–13 minutes.

Scene 1

Gurnemanz asks the lead Knight for news of the King’s health. The Knight says the King has suffered during the night and is going early to bathe in the holy lake. The squires ask Gurnemanz to explain how the King’s injury can be healed, but he evades their question and a wild woman – Kundry – bursts in. She gives Gurnemanz a vial of balsam, brought from Arabia, to ease the King’s pain and then collapses, exhausted.

Amfortas arrives, borne on a stretcher by Knights of the Grail. He calls out for Gawain, whose attempt at relieving the King’s pain had failed. He is told that Gawain has left again, seeking a better remedy. Raising himself somewhat, the King says going off without leave („Ohn’ Urlaub?“) is the sort of impulsiveness which led himself into Klingsor’s realm and to his downfall. He accepts the potion from Gurnemanz and tries to thank Kundry, but she answers abruptly that thanks will not help and urges him onward to his bath.

The procession leaves. The squires eye Kundry with mistrust and question her. After a brief retort, she falls silent. Gurnemanz tells them Kundry has often helped the Grail Knights but that she comes and goes unpredictably. When he asks directly why she does not stay to help, she answers, „I never help! („Ich helfe nie!“). The squires think she is a witch and sneer that if she does so much, why will she not find the Holy Spear for them? Gurnemanz reveals that this deed is destined for someone else. He says Amfortas was given guardianship of the Spear, but lost it as he was seduced by an irresistibly attractive woman in Klingsor’s domain. Klingsor grabbed the Spear and stabbed Amfortas. The wound causes Amfortas both suffering and shame, and will never heal on its own.

Squires returning from the King’s bath tell Gurnemanz that the balsam has eased the King’s suffering. Gurnemanz’s own squires ask how it is that he knew Klingsor. He solemnly tells them how both the Holy Spear, which pierced the side of the Redeemer on the Cross, and the Holy Grail, which caught the flowing blood, had come to Monsalvat to be guarded by the Knights of the Grail under the rule of Titurel, father of Amfortas. Klingsor had yearned to join the Knights but, unable to keep impure thoughts from his mind, resorted to self-castration, causing him to be expelled from the Order. Klingsor then set himself up in opposition to the realm of the Grail, learning dark arts, claiming the valley domain below and filling it with beautiful Flowermaidens to seduce and enthrall wayward Grail Knights. It was here that Amfortas lost the Holy Spear, kept by Klingsor as he schemes to get hold of the Grail as well. Gurnemanz tells how Amfortas later had a holy vision which told him to wait for a „pure fool, enlightened by compassion“ („Durch Mitleid wissend, der reine Tor“) who will finally heal the wound.

At this moment, cries are heard from the Knights („Weh! Weh!“): a flying swan has been shot, and a young man is brought forth, a bow in his hand and a quiver of matching arrows. Gurnemanz speaks sternly to the lad, saying this is a holy place. He asks him outright if he shot the swan, and the lad boasts that if it flies, he can hit it („Im Fluge treff’ ich was fliegt!“) Gurnemanz tells him that the swan is a holy animal, and asks what harm the swan had done him, and shows the youth its lifeless body. Now remorseful, the young man breaks his bow and casts it aside. Gurnemanz asks him why he is here, who his father is, how he found this place and, lastly, his name. To each question the lad replies, „I don’t know.“ The elder Knight sends his squires away to help the King and now asks the boy to tell what he does know. The young man says he has a mother, Herzeleide (Heart’s Sorrow) and that he made the bow himself. Kundry has been listening and now tells them that this boy’s father was Gamuret, a knight killed in battle, and also how the lad’s mother had forbidden her son to use a sword, fearing that he would meet the same fate as his father. The youth now recalls that upon seeing knights pass through his forest, he had left his home and mother to follow them. Kundry laughs and tells the young man that, as she rode by, she saw Herzeleide die of grief. Hearing this, the lad first lunges at Kundry but then collapses in grief. Kundry herself is now weary for sleep, but cries out that she must not sleep and wishes that she might never again waken. She disappears into the undergrowth.

Gurnemanz knows that the Grail draws only the pious to Monsalvat and invites the boy to observe the Grail rite. The youth does not know what the Grail is, but remarks that as they walk he seems to scarcely move, yet feels as if he is traveling far. Gurnemanz says that in this realm time becomes space („Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit“).

Verwandlungsmusik (Transformation)

An orchestral interlude of about 4 minutes.

Scene 2

They arrive at the Hall of the Grail, where the Knights are assembling to receive Holy Communion („Zum letzten Liebesmahle“). The voice of Titurel is heard, telling his son, Amfortas, to uncover the Grail. Amfortas is wracked with shame and suffering („Wehvolles Erbe, dem ich verfallen“). He is the guardian of these holy relics yet has succumbed to temptation and lost the Spear. He declares himself unworthy of his office. He cries out for forgiveness („Erbarmen!“) but hears only the promise that he will one day be redeemed by the pure fool.

On hearing Amfortas’ cry, the youth appears to suffer with him, clutching at his heart. The knights and Titurel urge Amfortas to reveal the Grail („Enthüllet den Gral“), and he finally does. The dark hall is now bathed in the light of the Grail as the Knights eat. Gurnemanz motions to the youth to participate, but he seems entranced and does not. Amfortas does not share in taking communion and, as the ceremony ends, collapses in pain and is carried away. Slowly the hall empties leaving only the young man and Gurnemanz, who asks him if he has understood what he has seen. When the lad cannot answer, Gurnemanz dismisses him as just a fool and sends him out with a warning to hunt geese, if he must, but to leave the swans alone. A voice from high above repeats the promise: „The pure fool, enlightened by compassion“.

Act 2

Vorspiel

Musical introduction of c. 2–3 minutes.

Scene 1

Klingsor’s magic castle. Klingsor conjures up Kundry, waking her from her sleep. He calls her by many names: First Sorceress (Urteufelin), Hell’s Rose (Höllenrose), Herodias, Gundryggia and, lastly, Kundry. She is now transformed into an incredibly alluring woman, as when she once seduced Amfortas. She mocks Klingsor’s mutilated condition by sarcastically inquiring if he is chaste („Ha ha! Bist du keusch?“), but she cannot resist his power. Klingsor observes that Parsifal is approaching and summons his enchanted knights to fight the boy. Klingsor watches as Parsifal overcomes his knights, and they flee. Klingsor wishes destruction on their whole race.

Klingsor sees this young man stray into his Flowermaiden garden and calls to Kundry to seek the boy out and seduce him, but when he turns, he sees that Kundry has already left on her mission.

Scene 2

The triumphant youth finds himself in a wondrous garden, surrounded by beautiful and seductive Flowermaidens. They call to him and entwine themselves about him while chiding him for wounding their lovers („Komm, komm, holder Knabe!“). They soon fight and bicker among themselves to win his devotion, to the point that he is about to flee, but then a voice calls out, „Parsifal!“ He now recalls this name is what his mother called him when she appeared in his dreams. The Flowermaidens back away from him and call him a fool as they leave him and Kundry alone.

Parsifal wonders if the Garden is a dream and asks how it is that Kundry knows his name. Kundry tells him she learned it from his mother („Ich sah das Kind an seiner Mutter Brust“), who had loved him and tried to shield him from his father’s fate, the mother he had abandoned and who had finally died of grief. She reveals many parts of Parsifal’s history to him and he is stricken with remorse, blaming himself for his mother’s death. He thinks himself very stupid to have forgotten her. Kundry says this realization is a first sign of understanding and that, with a kiss, she can help him understand his mother’s love. As they kiss Parsifal suddenly recoils in pain and cries out Amfortas’ name: he feels the wounded king’s pain burning in his own side and now understands Amfortas’ passion during the Grail Ceremony („Amfortas! Die Wunde! Die Wunde!“). Filled with this compassion, Parsifal rejects Kundry’s advances.

Furious that her ploy has failed, Kundry tells Parsifal that if he can feel compassion for Amfortas, then he should be able to feel it for her as well. She has been cursed for centuries, unable to rest, because she saw Christ on the cross and laughed at His pains. Now she can never weep, only jeer, and she is enslaved to Klingsor as well. Parsifal rejects her again but then asks her to lead him to Amfortas. She begs him to stay with her for just one hour, and then she will take him to Amfortas. When he still refuses, she curses him to wander without ever finding the Kingdom of the Grail, and finally calls on her master Klingsor to help her.

Klingsor appears and throws the Spear at Parsifal, but it stops in midair, above his head. Parsifal takes it and makes the sign of the Cross with it. The castle crumbles and the enchanted garden withers. As Parsifal leaves, he tells Kundry that she knows where she can find him.

Act 3

Vorspiel

Musical introduction of c. 4–6 minutes.

Scene 1

The scene is the same as that of the opening of the opera, in the domain of the Grail, but many years later. Gurnemanz is now aged and bent. It is Good Friday. He hears moaning near his hermit’s hut and discovers Kundry unconscious in the brush, as he had many years before („Sie! Wieder da!“). He revives her using water from the Holy Spring, but she will only speak the word „serve“ („Dienen“). Gurnemanz wonders if there is any significance to her reappearance on this special day. Looking into the forest, he sees a figure approaching, armed and in full armour. The stranger wears a helmet and the hermit cannot see who it is. Gurnemanz queries him and chides him for being armed on sanctified ground and on a holy day, but gets no response. Finally, the apparition removes the helmet and Gurnemanz recognizes the lad who shot the swan, and joyfully sees that he bears the Holy Spear.

Parsifal tells of his desire to return to Amfortas („Zu ihm, des tiefe Klagen“). He relates his long journey, how he wandered for years, unable to find a path back to the Grail. He had often been forced to fight, but never wielded the Spear in battle. Gurnemanz tells him that the curse preventing Parsifal from finding his right path has now been lifted, but that in his absence Amfortas has never unveiled the Grail, and lack of its sustaining properties has caused the death of Titurel. Parsifal is overcome with remorse, blaming himself for this state of affairs. Gurnemanz tells him that today is the day of Titurel’s funeral, and that Parsifal has a great duty to perform. Kundry washes Parsifal’s feet and Gurnemanz anoints him with water from the Holy Spring, recognizing him as the pure fool, now enlightened by compassion, and as the new King of the Knights of the Grail.

Parsifal looks about and comments on the beauty of the meadow. Gurnemanz explains that today is Good Friday, when all the world is renewed. Parsifal baptizes the weeping Kundry. Tolling bells are heard in the distance. Gurnemanz says „Midday: the hour has come. My lord, permit your servant to guide you!“ („Mittag: – Die Stund ist da: gestatte Herr, dass dich dein Knecht geleite“) – and all three set off for the castle of the Grail. A dark orchestral interlude („Mittag“) leads into the solemn gathering of the knights.

Scene 2

Within the castle of the Grail, Amfortas is brought before the Grail shrine and Titurel’s coffin. He cries out, asking his dead father to grant him rest from his sufferings and expresses the desire to join him in death („Mein Vater! Hochgesegneter der Helden!“). The Knights of the Grail passionately urge Amfortas to uncover the Grail again but Amfortas, in a frenzy, says he will never again show the Grail. He commands the Knights, instead, to kill him and end his suffering and the shame he has brought on the Knighthood. At this moment, Parsifal steps forth and says that only one weapon can heal the wound („Nur eine Waffe taugt“). He touches Amfortas’ side with the Spear and both heals and absolves him. Parsifal commands the unveiling of the Grail. As all present kneel, Kundry, released from her curse, sinks lifeless to the ground as a white dove descends and hovers above Parsifal.

Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 647, 27 January 1943

1. Germany.

 

The city of Eisenach.

 

– In the Middle Ages, the legendary Würzburg Castle served as the poetic centre of the Minnesingers (troubadours).

 

– Martin Luther spent his childhood here, and it was in Würzburg that he translated the New Testament into German.

 

– Richard Wagner made Würzburg the setting for his opera “Tannhäuser.”

 

– Traffic on the snow-covered streets of the city.

 

– Founded 900 years ago, Eisenach is one of the oldest cities in Thuringia.

 

– It is known as the place where many great Germans lived and worked; for example, it is the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

A torchlight procession in Berlin marking the 10th anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.

 

– Archival footage: Hitler at the window of the Reich Chancellery.

 

– Immediately after the new government took office, a campaign against unemployment began.

 

– Three million Germans were able to work again.

 

– Footage of Germans engaged in intensive labour.

 

– The curve showing the decline in unemployment.

 

– New bridges and highways in Germany.

 

– A sculptor at work.

 

– Works of “new art.”

 

– An art exhibition in Munich.

 

– New sports facilities.

 

– Construction of new buildings.

 

– Examples of “new” German architecture.

 

– New housing for workers. Construction of cottages for workers.

 

– Caring for children.

 

– At a kindergarten.

 

– Children with their teachers; children on vacation playing sports and swimming.

 

– View of a youth hostel.

 

– New German ships: the “Robert Ley” and others.

 

– Vacationers from the “Strength Through Joy” organization on board a ship.

 

– German ships and airplanes, tanks, soldiers.

 

2. The North Sea.

 

The pilot is in contact with air defence headquarters.

 

3. Tunisia.

 

Weapons are being transported on German ships in the Mediterranean.

 

– Italian flotillas escort the cargo ships.

 

– A smoke screen is laid over the ships.

 

– British torpedo bombers are approaching.

 

– Ship’s guns fire; the aircraft is hit and plunges into the sea.

 

– The crew are taken on board and captured.

 

– Unloading of weapons and ammunition from transport ships at one of the Tunisian ports.

 

– Guns unloaded from the ship.

 

– Coastal fortifications and guns captured from the French.

 

– Test firing of captured guns.

 

– In southern Tunisia, motorised and infantry units launch an offensive against de Gaulle’s forces, who hold key positions on the main roads running through the Atlas Mountains.

 

– They advance along the road with the infantry.

 

– Fighting.

 

– Destroyed Anglo-American vehicles.

 

– A column of British prisoners; over four thousand have been taken.

 

4. The Eastern Front.

 

Near Leningrad.

 

– German supply convoys on the road leading to the front line.

 

– A biting east wind has covered the road with a layer of ice.

 

– Infantrymen take up new positions. The terrain is covered with countless fortifications.

 

– An observer spots a new target.

 

– Artillery fires on a Soviet observation post.

 

– Assault troops advance on skis; they are to take up defensive positions on the enemy’s shattered positions.

 

– The frozen ground has to be cut through.

 

– Engineer units are restoring positions recaptured from Soviet troops, digging trenches and laying decking.

 

– The decking is covered with snow to provide camouflage against air raids.

 

– The firing point is rudimentary, but it provides good cover for the entire field.

 

– The attack is being repelled; machine-gunners are firing.

 

– Heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns are firing.

 

– In front of the trenches lie several dozen destroyed Soviet tanks; most of them were blown up by infantrymen in close combat.

 

– A tank that has fallen into a trench.

 

 

USSR. Military operations in the Velikie Luki area.

 

– A firefight.

 

– German guns firing.

 

– German soldiers in front of the camera; close-ups of the faces of the heroes of Velikie Luki following their successful breakout from the encirclement.

 

At positions south-east of Lake Ilmen.

 

– German soldiers in a trench, sentry posts.

 

– Changing of the guard.

 

– The enemy fires shells with remote fuses.

 

– A soldier in a trench tries to eat frozen bread.

 

– Very little time is allowed for lunch.

 

– The artillery is ordered to open barrage fire; a firefight ensues.

 

– Soldiers carry a wounded man on a stretcher.

 

– Self-propelled artillery has been ordered to launch a counter-attack in conjunction with the tanks.

 

– Reconnaissance vehicles are moving forward.

 

– The route passes through an abandoned village.

 

– Infantrymen are waiting ahead in the woods; the attack is about to begin.

Adolf Hitler - Proclamation to the German Folk, 6 April 1941

 

Since British imperialism set out to conquer the world, it was its endeavor to entangle Europe and its folks in ever new internal wars and to thereby weaken them. England has in the process all too often found in part blinded, in part bribed statesmen and folk leaders, who put their lands into the service of British world domination. For centuries, the simultaneously biggest beneficiary of these wars incited by England was Jewish high finance. Under the slogan “democracy”, this conspiracy of imperialism and capitalism has led the world, and particularly Europe, into countless entanglements.

 

In the year 1914, these forces managed to attack the old Germany and force it into a fight. The goal was the destruction of German economic life and the plundering of German economic strength as well as the making defenseless of the nation.

 

But the fight back then was not aged against the National Socialist Third Reich, rather against the constitutional-democratic German federal state.

 

Hardly had it been possible, after a 1 ½ decade long, terrible decline of the German economy and of German life, to lift up the German folk through the energy of the National Socialist movement and lead it to a new ascent, when the same forces immediately proclaimed their old goal again: the independent Germany reconstructing itself had to be destroyed again!

 

And again - like before - one believed to be best able to trigger the conflict through hired forces.

 

Poland was selected to start a fight with Germany without any reason and to reply with violence to the efforts to secure a peaceful cooperation through reasonable compensation.

 

This attack was thwarted in a few weeks by the strength of the meanwhile emerged new German Wehrmacht of the Third Reich.

 

Now Great Britain tried to be able to execute via Norway the thrust into the right German flank. With a few hours head start, this blow could be intercepted and in weeks long heroic struggle likewise brought to failure. German soldiers stand from Kirkenes to the German Bay and thereby certain German living space.

 

These defeats forced Churchill to look for new opportunities. So he came to the decision to advance through Belgium and Holland, allied with England, into to the heart of the German economy. This time, France was selected to bear the main burden of the fight. In a historically unique triumphant march, the German Wehrmacht thwarted this attack as well and cleansed Europe’s west of the English!

 

Rejecting my renewed peace proposals, Churchill now decided to turn the might of the British Empire against Italy and, above all, to get the North African coast into his hands with the help of New Zealand and Australian troops. This attempt as well can already now, thanks to the coordination of German and Italian forces, be viewed as failed.

 

Since the beginning of the war, it was England’s constant endeavor to be able to gain the Balkans as a war theater. British diplomacy, with reference to the example in the World War, actually managed to first snare Greece through a guarantee offered to it and then finally to misuse it for its own purposes.

 

The today published documents provide an insight into the practice of a procedure that again and again tries, according to oldest British recipes, to let others fight and bleed dry for English interests.

 

I have conversely always stressed:

 

First, the German folk has no quarrel at all with the Greek folk, but that we

 

second, will never allow that, like in the World War, a power entrenches itself on Greek territory with the goal of being able from there at the given time to thrust from the southeast into German living space. We have swept the northern flank free of the English; we are determined not to tolerate such a threat in the south as well!

 

In the sense of a genuine consolidation of Europe, it was my endeavor from the day of the rise to power to establish, above all, with Yugoslavia, a friendly relationship. I intentionally forgot everything that had once happened between Germany and Serbia. In the process, I offered the hand of the German folk not only to the Serbian folk, rather, beyond that, strove as honest broker to help with the bridging over of all the difficulties the existed between the Yugoslavian state and individual folks allied with Germany.

 

Actually, it also seemed to succeed, instead of an unbearable atmosphere, to pave the way for a not only politically, rather, above all, also economically fruitful cooperation. And what other goal could Germany have had in a region in which it put neither territorial nor political demands or championed interests?

 

In order to take from Yugoslavia any feeling as if the policy taken by Germany could now or in the future change to its disfavor, I had tried to integrate the Yugoslavian state into that power group that is determined, in shared work, in calm and peace, to build up the European continent in the future according to the principles of the consideration of the justified interests of all. 1 believed to thereby be able to best counter the Yugoslavian fears as if, in this goal toward Yugoslavia, say, a difference between Germany and Hungary existed or were to be feared in the future.

 

I did this even though the leadership of the Yugoslavian state as well as that of the Greek - as is known to us from French documents - supported in an irresponsible manner the interests of the western democratic war agitators.

 

On March 25, 1941, Yugoslavia’s entry into the Axis Pact was solemnly carried out in Vienna.

 

I and the whole German folk were happy about this; for an expansion of the war to the Balkans thereby seemed to be prevented and perhaps the faint hope justified to be able, in the end, to solve the already existing conflict in a rational settlement.

 

But hardly had the treaty signing minister arrived in Bel-grade, when the elements in English pay of an eternally coup d’etat organizing military clique prepared the counterstrike.

 

The government striving for peace with Germany was overthrown, and indeed with the public declaration that was necessary due to its stance toward Germany. Beyond that, however, steps now took place that in the life of folks represent a shame, and which the German Reich as a great power is not willing to patiently accept. The German emissary was insulted, the German military attaches attacked, an officer as aide of the military attaches injured, numerous officials, representatives of firms etc., publicly mistreated, German exhibit rooms, businesses, office buildings as well as schools demolished and ransacked, countless women and men, especially our ethnic Germans as well, beaten, their businesses and residences in part looted, a number of ethnic Germans murdered in the process.

 

The events were instigated by the same creatures who, al-ready in the yea 1914, through the assassination in Sarajewo, had plunged the world into nameless misfortune. And so, like back then, this military criminal clique was financed and incited by the English Secret Service.

 

If these events as well are the same as back then, then something has nonetheless changed:

 

The now attacked state is not the Austria of back then, rather the present-day German Reich!

 

The new Serbian government has ordered general mobilization. It has admitted that for days already this has already been the case in secret. It has thereby given to be recognized that it believes to be able to replace peaceful relations with the German Reich with violence!

 

The violence that it has summoned will now destroy it!

 

The German folk has no hatred against the Serbian folk. The German folk sees, above all, no reason to fight against Croats and or Slovenians. It wants nothing from these folks.

 

But the German folk will now settle accounts with that Serbian criminal clique, which believes it can for a second time put the Balkans at the disposal of the British assassination at-tempt against European peace.

 

Since I must again experience that eight years of efforts to build a friendship have again been futile, I have decided, for the restoration of bearable relations and an order also just to folkish principles in this part of Europe, in agreement with the views of my ally, to entrust the further representation of German interests to that force, which - as it again turns out - is apparently solely in the position to take right and reason under its protection.

 

The German Reich finds itself since this morning in the fight against the usurpers of Belgrade and in the fight against those formations that Great Britain again tries to be able to send ahead from the Balkans against Europe’s peace.

 

The German Wehrmacht will only then lay down weapons in these regions, when the Belgrade conspirator clique is definitively overthrown and the last Briton has left the continent in these regions as well.

 

May the unhappily blinded folks recognize that they owe this only to the worst “friend”, whom the continent for three hundred years possessed and possesses: England!

 

The German folk, however, can enter this fight with the inner knowledge that its leadership has done everything that is at all humanly possible in order to spare it this conflict. From Providence, however, we now only want to ask that it guards and blesses the path of our soldiers like previously!

 

Berlin, April 6, 1941

Signed Adolf Hitler