Adolf Hitler - New Year’s Proclamation to the National
Socialists
and Party Comrades
Fuhrer
Headquarters, January 1, 1945
German Volk! National Socialists! My Volksgenossen!
Only the turn of the year causes me to speak to you
today, my German Volksgenossen. The times had demanded more than speeches from
me. The events of the past twelve months, in particular the incident on July
20, forced me to devote my attention and my capacity for work to a single task,
for which I had lived for many years: the fateful struggle of my Volk. Although
our enemies had proclaimed our collapse every New Year, they placed particular hopes
on the year 1944. Never before did victory seem so close to them, as in those
days of August of last year when one catastrophe had followed another.
Now
that we have managed, as so many times before, to bring about a turn of events,
credit is due not only to the struggle and work of all my Volksgenossen in the
homeland and at the front, but also to my own work and my own commitment. By so
doing, I have only acted in the spirit of a statement that I made at the
memorable Reichstag session of September 1, 1939, declaring that Germany
would never be defeated by the force of arms or time, and that a day like
November 9 would never repeat itself in the German Reich.
Whoever
knew Germany
only from this time of decline could perhaps hope that this state would not be
granted a resurrection nor the strength to hold its own against a world of
enemies.
That
is how the Jewish-international conspiracy has lived on hopes from the first
day. Every time when the nations began to become suspicious, these hopes were
transformed into prophecies. With a certain rabble-rousing audacity, they were
portrayed to the masses as certainties, as matters of course.
This
propaganda used two methods, even though it has short wings as all lies do. On
the one hand, it set dates by which the German collapse was certainly to be
expected, in order to calm the impatient masses. On the other hand, it dealt
with questions whose solution would become necessary for the Allies following
this collapse. Before the war ever started, the first English statement was
already published, declaring that the joint Anglo-French declaration of war would
lead within seven to eight days, at the latest, to an internal revolution and
thereby to the collapse of the German Reich. With nearly astronomical regularity,
this was followed by ever new assurances every winter, spring, autumn, and
sometimes even between the seasons [sic], that the unconditional German
collapse and surrender-both would mean the same thing-was imminent. Already in
the autumn of 1939, one such assurance followed hot on the heels of the other.
One minute it was “General Mud,” the next “General Hunger,” and then again
“General Winter” who were supposed to defeat us.
Particularly
the beginning of 1940 witnessed such Allied declarations galore.
After
the campaign in France, new
prophecies were made, namely that if Germany was not be able to end the
war in two months, by September at the latest, then the German collapse would
inevitably come in the spring of 1941.
Spring
had barely passed when new goals were set for the summer, and new deadlines for
our certain destruction were finally set for the winter of 1941.
Since
this time, the game has repeated itself every year. At one time it was said that
the war would be over before the leaves fall; another time that Germany would
be ready to capitulate before the next winter. With the assuredness of a sleepwalker,
they called August 1944 the deadline for the unconditional surrender and,
shortly afterwards, they planned to arrange a joint meeting of the leading
[Allied] statesmen in Berlin
just before Christmas. Not long ago, it was rescheduled for January and then
March 1945. Right now, they are cautiously declaring that, in view of the
rapidly approaching two months, it would be August. In July, they will surely
talk about the winter of 1946, provided that the war does not actually end in
the meantime, not with a German capitulation, which will never come, but with a
German victory! Parallel to these prophecies-in order to stress the correctness
of these assumptions psychologically-followed the theoretical appointment of
ever new commissions for the treatment of European questions after the war, the
foundation of societies for the regulation of food supplies after the German collapse,
in other words the resurrection of those profiteer institutions (Schieberinstitutionen)
that we know from the World War, the proclamation of economic agreements,
the setting up of traffic networks and air bases, as well as the drafting and
promulgation of sometimes truly idiotic laws on the treatment of the German
Volk. They always acted as though they had already won the war, as though they
could now already consider at their leisure all the measures necessary for
ruling Europe for those who have themselves
set a sorry example of how not to rule people. Of course, you can practice this
propagandistic maneuver with the unenlightened masses in the democratic states
for a surprisingly long time, but even there it will one day become obvious
that this is nothing other than the usual swindle in these countries. Should
one or the other of the leading men in these western democratic states
nevertheless truly believe all that is told the people, then there are only
three possible explanations for this:
1.
They do not know the German Volk at all. Above all, they do not realize that
the past three hundred years of German history did not give an accurate picture
of the essence of the German Volk, but reflected only the consequences of its
inner conflicts at home. Since this German Volk made its appearance in history,
it has not only been one of the decisive factors in European and world history
but even the most decisive one. It remains so today and will continue to be so
even more in the future.
2.
They are ignorant about the National Socialist state. They do not have an
inkling of the essence of this Volksidee. The accomplishments that the National
Socialist regime secured under the most difficult conditions have remained
concealed from most of the people in the countries surrounding us.
Perhaps
they had to be concealed from them because public life and opinion there is
informed by the Jews, that is, everything is distorted and reported wrongly.
They are apparently not yet aware that neither Bolshevism nor the democratic-plutocratic
world of ideas-insofar as you can speak of one-can replace the National
Socialist state, since both have proved themselves to be unfit for Germany in
terms of their achievements, and the results of their activities in their own
countries serve only as the most deterrent example.
3.
In these countries they have known something that the majority of the masses of
the healthy German Volk are not aware of, namely a small coterie of drawing-room
politicians and drawing-room generals who, in complete ignorance of their own
mental, political, and military insignificance, have tried to convince the
world that they will one day seize power in a coup and will then be in a
position to offer capitulation without further notice, much as in Italy,
Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The less our enemies were familiar
with the German Volk, the less they were aware of the essence of the National
Socialist state, the more readily they placed their hopes in the assurances of
these spineless characters, believed their fantastic chains of reasoning and
outpourings to be true, and rewarded them not only with a strong faith but also
with ready cash.
In
opposition to that, at the turn of a year which has given us ample opportunity
to prove that this Volk, this state, and its leading men are unshakable in
their will and staunch in their fanatical determination to fight this war out
under any circumstances, even putting up with setbacks imposed on us by the
fickleness of fate, I would like to state again what arises for us from the
past and present, and what is necessary for the world to know in the future.
1.
We know the objectives of our enemies from the past
and the present.
We
are aware of what the Anglo-American statesmen plan to do with the German
Reich, what measures the Bolshevik rulers and the international Jews, who in
the end are behind them, plan to take against the German Volk. Their successful
implementation would not only lead to the German Reich’s being torn to pieces,
the transport of fifteen to twenty million Germans to foreign countries, the
enslavement of the remnants of our Volk, the corruption of our German youth,
but it would also and above all bring with it the starvation of our masses of
millions. Aside from this, you either live in freedom or die in slavery.
In
opposition to that, we are determined to do anything necessary. The world
should realize that this state will therefore never capitulate. The present German
Reich, like all great states of the past, may meet with setbacks on its path,
but it will never stray from this path. The world should realize that the present
leadership of the state shares the worries and sufferings of its people, but it
will never capitulate under these worries and sufferings. On the contrary, it
is determined to make the utmost effort to face every crisis, make up for what was
lost through carelessness with reinforced eagerness to work, so that it will be
able not only to express its great appreciation to every individual German who
does his duty, but also to assure him that his contribution to the existence of
our Volk will one day be rewarded. On the other hand, it will destroy anybody
who tries to escape making his contribution or lowers himself to becoming a
tool of foreign powers. Since we know the objectives of our enemies-because
they themselves offer the necessary enlightenment thanks to their
propagandistic garrulousness from the mouths of their statesmen and journalists-the
entire German Volk knows what its fate would be if it lost this war. It will
therefore not lose this war. It must and will win it. After all, what our
enemies are fighting for, they do not know themselves, aside from their Jews.
Yet what we are fighting for is clear to all of us. It is the preservation of the
German human being, it is our homeland, it is our two-thousand-year-old culture,
it is the children and grandchildren of our Volk. It is, in short, everything
that makes life worth living for us. For this reason, the Volk has developed
the spirit and attitude that justify its belief in its own future and its request
for a merciful appreciation of its struggle by Providence.
That
this struggle is so endlessly difficult is the result of the essence of the abovementioned
objectives of our enemies. After all, since they intend to exterminate our
Volk, they are already applying this method in the war by means that civilized
mankind has not known hitherto. By wrecking our cities, they hope not only to
kill German women and children but also and above all to eliminate the
documents of our thousand-year-old culture, to which they have nothing to
compare of equal quality. That was also the idea behind the war of annihilation
against the cultural sites in Italy,
the actual intention behind the continuation of the present fight in France, Belgium,
and the Netherlands.
Alas,
like a phoenix from the ashes, so the strong German will all the more rise up
anew from the ruins of our cities. It has taken hold not only of millions of our
soldiers, but also of millions of male and female workers, of women, even of
children. The suffering inflicted on them individually is immeasurable, but equally
immeasurable is the greatness of their attitude. Once this time of suffering is
over, every German will be incredibly proud of being allowed to be a member of
such a Volk. Likewise, the day will come when our enemies will regard the
defilement of culture, which they are presently undertaking and which will
continue to burn in our memories, as shameful.
I
know, my dear Volksgenossen, the demands this war makes on you.
There
may be no man in any large country of the world who knows his people and their
homeland better than I know Germany.
Not only did I become infinitely close to all the German cities that are now
being wrecked in whatever concerns their life and their history but also in
whatever concerns my personal life. For decades I was tied to them not only by
the love of their history and culture and of their human feelings, but I was
also the most strongly involved in the fate of their future development. This
alone makes this suffering somewhat easier for me to bear, because I know
better than anybody else that, with its will, the German Volk as such not only
always rose up from the most profound misery, but also that this time will end
with the German cities again rising up from the debris as new sites attesting
to the magnificence of our German cities.
Within
a few years, the National Socialist state with its energy and initiative will
rebuild all that is being destroyed today. The outward appearance of our cities
will be mightier and more beautiful than ever before. Healthier homes for the
German human beings will take the place of the destroyed tenement barracks. Our
social and cultural demands will then receive greater consideration than was
possible before.
However,
we will neither possess many of the unfading documents of art and culture nor
be able to restore them. More importantly, we cannot replace the sacrifice of
countless precious human beings and the loss of their collected souvenirs which
became dear to them in the course of a long life. All these great treasures and
small remembrances will in the end be compensated for-even if they cannot be replaced-by
our Volk’s shared memory of a time of the hardest fateful struggle that a
nation ever had to bear and one that it bore with so much heroism.
The
year 1944 was the year of the greatest burdens in this mighty struggle.
It
was a year that again proved conclusively that the bourgeois social order is no
longer capable of braving the storms of the present or of the coming age.
State
after state that does not find its way to a truly social reorganization will go
down the path to chaos. The liberal age is a thing of the past. The belief that
you can counter this invasion of the people by parliamentary-democratic half-measures
is childish and just as naive as Metternich’s methods when the national drives for unification were
making their way through the nineteenth century. The lack of a truly social,
new form of life results in the lack of the mental will to resist not only in
the nations but also in the lack of the moral power of resistance of their
leaders. In all countries we see that the attempted renaissance of a democracy
has proved fruitless. The confused tangle of political dilettantes and military
politicians of a bygone bourgeois world who order each other around is, with
deadly certainty, preparing for a plunge into chaos and, insofar as Europe is
concerned, into an economic and ethnic catastrophe. And, after all, one thing
has already been proved: this most densely populated continent in the world
will either have to live with an order that gives the greatest consideration to
individual abilities, guarantees the greatest accomplishments, and, by taming
all egotistical drives, prevents their excesses, or states such as we have in
central and western Europe will prove unfit for life, which means that their
nations are thereby doomed to perish! In this manner-following the example of
royal Italy-Finland, Romania,
Bulgaria, and Hungary
collapsed during this year. This collapse is primarily the result of the
cowardice and lack of resolve of their leaders. They and their actions can be
understood only in light of the corrupt and socially amoral atmosphere of the
bourgeois world. The hatred which many statesmen, especially in these
countries, express for the present German Reich is nothing other than the voice
of a guilty conscience, an expression of an inferiority complex in view of our
organization of a human community that is suspicious to them because we
successfully pursue goals that again do not correspond to their own narrow
economic egotism and their resulting political shortsightedness.
For
us, my German Volksgenossen, this, however, represents a new obligation to
recognize ever more clearly that the existence or nonexistence of a German
future depends on the uncompromising organization of our Volksstaat, that all
the sacrifices which our Volk must make are conceivable only under the
condition of a social order which clears away all privileges and thereby makes
the entire Volk not only bear the same duties but also possess the same vital
rights. Above all, it must mercilessly destroy the social phantoms of a bygone
era. In their stead, it must place the most valuable reality there is, namely
the Volk, the masses which, tied together by the same blood, essence, and
experiences of a long history, owe their origin as an individual existence not to
an earthly arbitrariness but to the inscrutable will of the Almighty. The insight
into the moral value of our conviction and the resulting objectives of our
struggle for life give us and, above all, give me the strength to continue to wage
this fight in the most difficult hours with the strongest faith and with an unshakable
confidence. In such hours, this conviction also ties the Volk to its leadership.
It assured the unanimous approval of the appeal that I was forced to direct to
the German Volk in a particularly urgent way this year.
Millions
of Germans of all professions and ranks, men and women, boys and girls, even
children, took up the spade and the shovel. Thousands of Volkssturm battalions
were created or are in the process of being created.
Divisions
were newly formed; Volk artillery corps, mortar brigades, selfpropelled assault-gun
brigades, as well as fighter groups were conjured up out of nothing and
provided with new equipment. Above all, our German factories showed singular
achievements with the help of both male and female German workers. They, I may
say so today, are being joined by more and more thoughtful people from other
nations who, as workers in Germany,
understand the essence of our social community. And so what our enemies
shattered was rebuilt with superhuman diligence and unequaled heroism. This
rebuilding will continue until what our enemies began will end one day. The
German spirit and the German will shall bring this about by force! This, my
Volksgenossen, will one day go down in history as the miracle of the twentieth
century! A Volk that accomplishes, suffers, and endures so many incredible
things at the front and in the homeland can therefore never perish.
On
the contrary: it will emerge from this furnace of trials stronger and firmer than
ever before in its history. However, the power to which we owe all this- the
Jewish-international enemy of the world-will not only fail in this attempt to
destroy Europe and exterminate its nations but
will also end by annihilating itself.
At
the end of this year, as the spokesman of the nation and, at this moment, also
as the Fuhrer of its fate, I would like to thank the countless millions of my Volksgenossen
with an overflowing heart for all they have suffered, endured, done, and
accomplished, men and women, down to the level of our children in the Hitler
Youth, in the cities and small market towns, in the villages and in the countryside.
I would like to ask them not to let up in the future either, to trust the
leadership of the movement, and to fight this most difficult struggle for the future
of our Volk with the greatest fanaticism. What I can do to promote this success,
I will do in the future as I did in the past. I am speaking less these days, not
because I do not wish to or cannot speak, but because my work leaves me little
time for speaking, and because I believe that I am now obliged every hour to
think about and seek to increase the power of resistance of our armies, introduce
better weapons, form new units, and assemble whatever forces can be mobilized
from among my Volk. My enemies are perhaps now seeing the light already and are
realizing that I have not been asleep all this time! For the rest, I wish to
assure you, my Volksgenossen, again today, as in the many years of the struggle
for power, that my faith in the future of our Volk is unshakable. Whomever Providence subjects to so
many trials, it has destined for the greatest things! It is therefore my only
concern to do my utmost to lead the German Volk through this time of misery and
open the gate for it to that future in which we all believe, for which we fight
and work.
I
cannot close this appeal without thanking the Lord for the help that He always
allowed the leadership and the Volk to find, as well as for the power He gave
us to be stronger than misery and danger. If I also thank Him for my rescue,
then I do so only because through it I am happy to be able to continue dedicating
my life to the service of the Volk. In this hour, as the spokesman of Greater
Germany, I therefore wish to make the solemn avowal before the Almighty that we
will loyally and unshakably fulfill our duty also in the new year, in the firm
belief that the hour will come when the victory will favor for good the one who
is most worthy of it, the Greater German Reich!
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler – address
to the Wehrmacht:
January 1, 1945
Soldiers!
The decisive significance for the world of the war that
we are fighting today is clear to the German Volk: a merciless struggle for
existence or nonexistence, that is, a struggle for life or death! Because the
goal of the Jewish-international world conspiracy opposing us is the
extermination of our Volk.
As
I pronounced this realization in the year 1939, some among you may have thought
it was an exaggeration. Because of its constant repetition in the course of the
following years, it may have appeared to be “noisy propaganda.” Today, nobody
can doubt the intention of our enemies. It is not only proved by the activities
of subordinate organs, the public media, but also confirmed by the enemy
statesmen opposing us. It is further evidenced by the way the war has been
waged, as well as by the political preparations which our enemies are making
for the postwar period. The Jewish-eastern Bolshevism reflects in its exterminationist
tendencies the goals of Jewish-western capitalism. In any event, the plan is to
enslave all free nations. Mr. Churchill declares that all of eastern Germany
shall be ceded at least to Poland-in truth, that means to the Soviet
Union-namely, not only East Prussia and Danzig but even Pomerania and Silesia.
He dismisses the potential population problems by expressing the hope that he
will be able to kill another six or more million Germans, that is, women and
children, through bomb warfare. His protege de Gaulle again demands that
western Germany be placed
under French control and the remainder of Germany dissolved. This exactly
corresponds to the program and statements of the Stalinist house Jew (Hausjude)
Ehrenburg, who goes further and announces that the German Volk
must be smashed and exterminated. And this again is the same goal that is being
pursued in the plans for the future by the American cabinet member and Jew
Morgenthau. These thoughts do not come as a surprise for me. They
always existed with our enemies. Only in order to prevent their implementation
did I strive to make the German Volk strong and resistant. Internally and
externally, it should have the strength that is necessary to defend its life.
We have been fighting this struggle of life and death for over five years now.
Perhaps it will even be harsher in its demands in the sixth year of war. It
has, however, passed its zenith.
Up
to the present day, the German Volk and its Wehrmacht have successfully
resisted our enemies’ attempts to strangle us, despite numerous crises and many
setbacks. In the coming year also, we will succeed in parrying the enemy’s
offensive operations and in finally breaking them through counterblows. If we
have not been spared great setbacks in this mighty struggle, which is not only
being fought for Germany but also for the future of all of Europe, then the
reason for that does not lie with the German Volk and its Wehrmacht but on the
side of our European allies. Starting with the collapse of the Romanian-Italian-Hungarian
front at the Don River and their later complete
dissolution, to the sabotage of the joint conduct of the war by the Italian
royal house and the putsch against the Duce’s Fascist Italy, which was on our
side, there is a straight line of treason. It has found its prolongation in the
pitiful capitulation of the Finnish state leadership, the breach of faith of
the Romanian king and his entourage, the giving up of Bulgaria, as
well as in the disgraceful behavior of the former Hungarian regent. The
consequences for the political and military conduct of the war were grave.
In
addition, there was the perfidious attack at home in the last year, committed
by dishonorable criminals who were however defeated within a few hours and,
since that time, have been relentlessly dealt with. Although July 20 had
especially depressing military consequences at the fronts and, regrettably, helped
to shake the faith in the German power of resistance with friend and enemy, it
must be seen as a turning point of the German fate. After all, this attempt to
destroy the social German Volksstaat at the time of its most bitter fight
through a plot at home and to surrender Germany to the international conspiracy
has failed once and for all. I can assure you that this was the last attempt of
its kind. Thereby, however, my declaration of September 1, 1939, is reconfirmed,
namely, that the German Volk cannot be defeated by force of arms or time in
this war, and that, above all, a November 1918 will never be repeated.
This
resolve, my soldiers, means heavy sacrifices for the entire German Volk and, in
the first place, for you. It alone will save the nation in the future! A nation
would surely be doomed by the misery that Germany has to endure today, if it
gives itself up for lost, because this giving up means at the same time a
renunciation of any claim to life in the future.
My
soldiers! I know your sufferings and your sacrifices. I know what I had to ask
of you and what is being asked of you. Fate has set me-who at one time wanted
to build up Germany
as a first-rate social and cultural state-the most difficult task conceivable
for a human being. I bear my fate and realize that I owe gratitude to Providence, which has
found me worthy enough to take on such hard work in the history of our Volk, a
work which will decide its future. All the more after July 20, I lived only for
the preparations which would sooner or later allow us to go from the purely
defensive to the offensive. We are aware that the fortress of Europe
cannot be defended by German forces alone to the extent that this was possible
earlier. We were therefore forced, as the victims of the treason of our allies,
to pull in entire fronts and shorten others. However, I did not take any step
backward without putting up the fiercest resistance. Our enemies must know that
every kilometer in the direction of Germany will demand more blood of
them and that they cannot ever count on a relaxation or giving up of this
resistance. What you, my soldiers, accomplished on so many fronts, on the
ground, above or below water, and in the air, is superhuman. The sacrifices
made by the German homeland, especially its women, old men, and children, are
no less so. Finally, what we owe to the German male and female worker, to the
German male peasant and especially to the German female peasant, is for all of
us all the more a sacred obligation to do as soldiers everything possible, so
that these joint sacrifices are not in vain.
In
this spirit, I have gone through endless worries for years, worked, tortured myself
with decisions, and am today more than ever convinced that at the end of this
struggle will stand a glorious success, unique in our history.
Whoever
gained such victories as you, my soldiers, who was not broken by such terrible
setbacks, who so heroically endured and suffered as our homeland did, who
worked so diligently as our entire Volk, cannot be preordained to perish, but
is destined to live! Therefore, my confidence is today stronger than ever
before. In the end, we survived with success this worst year of setbacks in which
we were virtually abandoned by all our allies in Europe.
World powers have been trying for years now to bring about the collapse of the
German Reich. In the formerly allied, yet today betrayed countries, people are beginning
to realize that this struggle is a conflict of life and death and that no nation
can avoid a clear decision. Everywhere the hollowness and meaninglessness of
the assurances of our enemies reveal themselves. As soon as they occupy a
territory, order collapses and chaos ensues. Democracy is unfit to solve even
the smallest task on this continent. Its political anarchy is followed by
economic chaos, and with these two comes misery. The “liberated” areas of Europe at most lose their German order and gain instead
international unemployment with the usual hunger and need. After all, this most
densely populated continent in the world can live only through a planned
utilization of all its individual energies, and at the same time through a
strict taming of its egotistical drives. Only two leaderships in Europe have
honestly tried to deal with this problem: the National Socialist one in Germany and the Fascist one in Italy. To what extent the solution
of these questions succeeded in particular in Germany is best proved by the
discipline that we still have even in spite of the heaviest burdens in the
sixth year of the war. I will try to see to it, my soldiers, that, at home, the
leadership and initiative of the party supports your fight, that the nation is
provided with life’s necessities, and that all destructive forces, no matter
who they are and what posts they occupy, will be destroyed.
However,
I also expect of you, more than ever before, that you will do your duty
especially in this sixth year of the fight of life and death; that the officers
and men of the entire Wehrmacht, army, navy, Luftwaffe, and Waffen SS realize
that the existence or nonexistence of our Volk depends on their deployment;
that all the other organizations-at their head the newly-born Volkssturm-the
Reich labor service, and all the other formations of our movement in the
Wehrmacht’s service, as well as the women and girls at the fighting or
defending front, will follow your example. The year 1945 will demand of us the
utmost in courage and initiative. At the same time, it will be the year of the
historic turn of events. The soldiers of the allied European governments and
nations who march on our side represent the cells for a rebuilding
of this continent, which is our shared homeland, in which our ancestors lived,
in which they struggled with fate throughout the millennia, and which today
they defend unto death.
The
Almighty, who has led our Volk in its previous fight for life and weighed,
rewarded, and judged it in accordance with its merits, will this time encounter
a generation worthy of His blessings. You were the unfading witnesses for this
in the past years, my German soldiers, and you will be that all the more in the
coming year!
Adolf Hitler
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