November 12, 1944
National Socialists!
Party Comrades!
The
requirements for waging total war have compelled me to postpone the
commemoration from November 9 to the next available Sunday. Likewise, work at
the headquarters does not allow me to leave it even for a few days at this time.
Besides, I regard it less as my task today to give speeches than to prepare and
implement those measures that are necessary to force our way through this fight.
After all, as in the time of crisis in the year 1923, I am today moved by only
one dominating thought: now really to risk everything for the necessary success!
And just as the dead comrades were rightly told ten years later that the victory
was theirs in the end, so the victory must and will belong in the end to the
fighting front and the no less heroically fighting homeland in the great
struggle of to be or not to be.
In the past, I repeatedly
pointed out that it is necessary for a nation to appreciate and honour its great
men. Especially in grave times, a despairing nation can gather courage and
strength for the present from its behaviour in the past. How much more does this
apply to a nation that behaves as boundlessly bravely as the German one! It will
be able to learn the only correct lesson for the present from the struggle of
its great men, namely, that Providence in the end helps only him who does not
despair and takes up the struggle against the adversities of the time and,
therefore, in the end decides his own destiny.
Insofar as the Almighty
opened our eyes in order to grant us insight into the laws of His rule, in
accordance with the limited capabilities of us human beings, we recognize the
incorruptible justice which gives life as a final reward only to those who are
willing and ready to give a life for a life. Whether man agrees to or rejects
this harsh law makes absolutely no difference. Man cannot change it; whoever
tries to withdraw from this struggle for life does not erase the law but only
the basis of his own existence.
As the National Socialist
movement began its struggle to win over the German human beings, every
insightful person realized the impending internal collapse of the Volk and
nation. The inevitable consequence of this was an increasing threat to our
national existence, a slow decline in our birthrates, together with a slow
national death many times the number of the dead of the World War. After all,
this corresponded to the objective of our enemies. By economic strangulation of
the Reich, they intended to destroy the basis for the material existence of the
German nation. Thereby, they hoped to realize Clemenceau’s demand for the
reduction of the German Volk by twenty million people. The struggle of the years
1914 through 1918 cost two million people their lives, but there were twenty
million that had to be taken out of our Volk according to the wishes of the
democratic benefactors of mankind. Today, this demand has gone up to forty
million. However, since it is not up to people themselves to stop backward
movements in the life of a nation whenever there is a need for it, nobody could
say when this process of shrinking the substance of our Volk would come to an
end. In the same matter, another natural realization forces itself on us: the
world does not know any empty spaces! Nations which are numerically or
biologically too weak and no longer able satisfactorily to fill their Lebensraum
will in the most favourable scenario be put on a reservation that corresponds to
their value and size. Other life will flow into the now empty spaces. In
accordance with Providence’s law, other nations-and, regrettably, often
primitive races-will then take up the fight for existence in an area that an
aging nation has lost due to cowardice and weakness, that is, unfitness for
life. So, in the year 1919, we faced the realization that only a reform of our
Volk from head to foot would in the long run enable it to resume successfully
this struggle for existence. Only a complete turning away from the phraseology
of the democratic corruption of nations and the Bolshevik destruction of nations
could return to our Volk its natural vitality and thus secure the conditions for
a successful defence of life in the future.
According to this
realization, the National Socialist movement entered the fight. Confronted with
these great objectives, the proletarian as well as the bourgeois state of
classes had to pale in insignificance. What still appears as the ideal to the
existing classes had, in the eyes of the young movement, already proven to be
insanity, a deadly poison for our Volk. The intention to erect, for the first
time in our history, a Volksstaat encompassing all Germans could be realized
only by the mobilization of the entire strength of the nation. By so doing, the
synthesis between nationalist and socialist ideas was best able to produce that
strength necessary as a prerequisite for such a fight. The proclamation of the
young nationalist and socialist Volksstaat immediately elicited the hatred of
all those opponents at home and abroad who had represented the earlier system of
Germany’s fragmentation and impotence: the parties, small parties, groups,
ranks, professions, organizations, classes, and finally creeds as the main
beneficiaries of the inner-German divisions, and abroad, the democratic-Marxist
world hostile to us as the main party interested in Germany’s impotence. The
hatred of this conspiracy of our enemies at home and abroad has since then
loyally followed the movement throughout the years of fighting, before and after
the seizure of power. It has persecuted us with the refinement and brutality of
which that system was capable at the time. Since the march on the
Feldherrnhalle, thousands of murdered National Socialists and tens of thousands
of wounded have become the victims of this only true aggression.
Since the day of the
seizure of power, the old enemies all the more refused to change. Instead, their
hatred increased. At the most, they adapted their methods to the new situation.
As the ultimate inspiring and driving force, Jewry has not allowed any
opportunity to pass since the year 1933, as at the time of the struggle for
power, in order to express its satanic will to persecute and destroy this new
concept of a state as such and its young state. It regarded them as the first
dawn of a general realization of its destructive work against the nations and as
an eminent danger. Perhaps times have changed, but the essence of the fight
forced on us has remained the same. What has remained is, first, our own
objective: the preservation of our Volk and the securing of its future by all
means; and, second, the objective of our enemies: the annihilation of our Volk,
its extermination, and the ending of its existence.
That this was not nor is it
now a slogan of National Socialist propaganda was proved by the fact of
Germany’s decline at home and, today, is proved by the proclamations of our
enemies. No National Socialist propaganda minister could put the objectives of
our enemies more plainly than the Jewish press has done for decades and does so
in particular today. Beyond this, the enemy statesmen above all do this publicly
through their ministers. The objective of our enemies has likewise remained the
same. Promoted by the democracies, Bolshevism at one time tried to destroy our
movement by terror at home.
Supported by the
democracies, the Soviet Union strives to destroy the Reich and exterminate our
Volk. That the bourgeois world, which at the time consciously or unconsciously
acted as the accomplice of Bolshevism at home, was struck with blindness by God
and headed for its own downfall does not change its behaviour. The fact that
today’s democracies would be dead with the victory of Bolshevism, which would
smash the democratic states with all their ideas against a wall, does not change
the reality of their present procedure. You can explain the incomprehensible
absurdity of their actions at the moment you realize that the Jew is always
behind the stupidity and weakness of man, his lack of character on the one hand,
and his deficiencies on the other. The Jew is the wire-puller in the
democracies, as well as the creator and driving force of the Bolshevik
international beast of the world (Weltbestie).
Even before National
Socialism, many at home already had an idea of this danger. However, an
effective fight against it only began after this anaemic insight became a
confession of flesh and blood, which found an organization of combat strength in
the National Socialist Party. An understanding of the necessity of rescuing
Europe from the Bolshevik monster today also exists on the part of numerous
foreign statesmen, parliamentarians, party politicians, and economists. This
understanding will only lead to a practical result if a strong European power
manages [to succeed], beyond these theoretical hopes, in successfully organizing
and fighting through this common struggle of life and death of all. Only the
National Socialist German Reich can and will do this.
Almost always, Europe
consisted of a multitude of competing nations and states. In spite of this,
Europe most of the time meant just one state or a community of related nations.
There was certainly a great advantage in the eternal conflict among the European
nations. Like any competition, it challenged the fitness and striking power of
the individual nations. However, in times of fateful struggle of life and death
for all, there was the great danger of a dissipation of the forces of this
continent confronted with the impending attack of the Central Asian east, this
eternally latent danger to Europe. In long periods of European history, the
thesis of the European balance of power was all too often regarded by the obtuse
west as a licence for allying itself with the impending danger, contrary to the
commandment of European solidarity, in order more easily to strangle one
unpleasant competitor or another. For centuries, the old Reich was forced to
wage its fight against Mongols and Turks alone, or with a few allies, in order
to spare Europe a fate whose consequences would have been as unthinkable as
realizing a Bolshevization would be today.
Even though this struggle
in the past centuries was accompanied by many setbacks and demanded the greatest
sacrifices of our Volk, it led to success in the end. It alone made possible the
development and existence, as well as the prosperity, of the European family of
nations. Besides, in confrontations of world-historical impact, it is not likely
that the outcome of the fight should be decided in months or years, but rather
over long periods, with perseverance. In these periods, divine Providence has
men line up to try them for what they are worth. It thereby decides whether they
deserve life or death. That our National Socialist state will today pass this
historic trial is already guaranteed by the stand of our movement up to now.
Which bourgeois party would have been able to survive the collapse of November
9, 1923? Which party would have been capable, following such a complete
collapse, of reaching a total victory by an unprecedentedly hard fight? Even
though this fight may today appear to the superficial observer to have been
minimal compared with the present events, this only reveals his failure to
understand decisive values. After all, the struggle for the movement at the time
was just as much a fight for Germany as the fight of the present Reich is today.
It was a fight for our Volk and its future, which had first to be decided at
home before it could face our foreign enemies’ will to exterminate us. How
hopeless the fight of the party appeared to our adversaries was revealed by
their statements that, following November 9, 1923, National Socialism could be
regarded as dead and, herewith, the danger for the enemies of our Volk as
eliminated. In spite of this, only a few years later, this party, which was
thought to have been eliminated at the time, stood in the midst of the decisive
struggle for power. For nearly a decade, it waged this fight by the reckless
deployment of numerous men and women, suffered only passing setbacks, and
brought it to a victorious conclusion in the end. During this time, the movement
developed its mental attitude. It has proved that it is today capable of leading
the nation and having the Reich lead Europe. And just as we witnessed at the
time that the whole world of the bourgeois democratic party, corrupted by its
compromises and cowardly renunciations, slowly began to fall apart on its own,
and then finally to die, we today observe the same drama on a large scale.
Nations and, above all,
their statesmen, generals, and soldiers always find it easy to tolerate days of
happiness and visible successes. What is remarkable about the great men of world
history, as well as nations destined for great things, is their steadfastness in
days of trouble, their confidence at times when their situation appears
hopeless, their defiance and courage when they suffer setbacks. As National
Socialists, we were always happy about the short or long periods of prosecution
in our fight, because they rid the party of all that light ballast: fellow
travellers who surely would have boasted the loudest on the day of victory.
Likewise, in this mightiest struggle of nations of all time, we see those
elements desert us that are cowardly and unfit for life. That monarchs lose
their courage, in complete ignorance of their position, which today can only be
regarded as prehistoric, and that they thereby become traitors is the result of
their mental and moral incapacity produced by centuries of inbreeding. At such
times, nations need leaders different from these dynasties that have become ill
and morbid. That even so-called statesmen and generals are deluded by the view
that such a confrontation of life and death, and its impact on world history,
can be decided in their favour by cowardly capitulation likewise only proves the
experience of the ages that not too many great men live at the same time.
Wherever such a capitulation took place, or was considered, or may be considered
today, the result will not be a cheap slipping away from this crisis with its
impact on world history, but the inevitable and certain extermination of the
nations in question and the annihilation of its leading men.
After all, a first
consequence of this will be Bolshevik chaos and civil war in the interior of
these states. Second, there will be an extradition of the so-called war
criminals, in other words, first the most valuable men, then endless columns of
men who will set out for the Siberian tundra to fade away, all a result of the
weakness of the leaders of their states. Even though from the beginning the
consequences of these betrayals have, from a military point of view, been very
grave for Germany as the bearer of the main burden in this war, they have not
succeeded, neither in unbending the structure of the Reich nor in eliminating
its spirit of resistance. On the contrary, the nation hardened in its
willingness to fight and became all the more fanatical.
We are happy that in a
number of the nations which have shown signs of decay a number of elements of
resistance could be found: in Italy, they gather around the creator of the new
state, the Duce Benito Mussolini; in Hungary, around Szalasi; in Slovakia,
around the leadership of state president Tiso; in Croatia, around the Poglavnik
Ante Pavelich. All these men are the leaders of young nations.
We know that committees and
governments were likewise formed by other nations that have decided not to
recognize the capitulation and not to accept the extermination of nations simply
because a few spineless weaklings failed their honor and sense of duty, or
because some blockheads allowed themselves to be deluded by opportunities in
which they themselves no longer believe today. From the first day, our greatest
ally, Japan, recognized this fight for what it is: a decisive confrontation of
life and death. From this day on, it waged it with the bravery of a true nation
of heroes.
My party comrades!
Volksgenossen! Since the breakthrough of the Russians at the Romanian Don front
in November 1942, since the ensuing complete disintegration of the Italian and
Hungarian units with all its terrible consequences for our waging of the war,
betrayal after betrayal hit our Volk hard. In spite of this, the hopes of our
enemies were not realized. Again and again, we managed to cushion our fronts and
halt the enemies. Only one hope remained for them: the stab in the back. As
always when they are otherwise unable to succeed against Germany, they try to
bring about a decision by stabbing us in the back from the inside. Spineless
creatures, a mixture of feudal arrogance, bourgeois deficiency, and former
parliamentary corruption came together-in the hope that they would immediately
receive a reward for this act of perjury (Meineidstat)-in order to cut the
German resistance off at its root.
They were right in one
respect: as long as I live, Germany will not submit to the fate of the European
states swept away by Bolshevism; as long as I have not breathed my last breath,
my body and soul will serve only one goal: to make my Volk strong in the
defence, for the attack on the deadly danger threatening it.
While wars used to be
fought out of dynastic or economic interests, the war we are fighting today is a
fight for the preservation of our Volk itself.
Therefore, all the
sacrifices in this war will lead, as a logical consequence, to the strengthening
of the German Volksstaat. If some outdated individuals are offended by this, I
cannot help them. The Volksstaat will pass over them and resume its agenda. If
individual subjects of outdated parties, classes, or other splinters in our Volk
think that the time has come for their resurrection, they will face their total
extermination at exactly this moment. The day after the seizure of power,
National Socialism, which was the victim of bloody persecution before, treated
its political opponents not only in a conciliatory manner, but generously.
Countless men who once persecuted me received pensions from me in this state, or
were appointed to new and higher offices: the justice minister of a land where I
spent thirteen months locked up in a fortress was nonetheless appointed German
Reich minister of justice by me. Prussian ministers and Reich ministers who
earlier were our cruellest persecutors received from me high pensions of charity
although I was not obliged to do so.
I felt that it was beneath
me to subject Social Democrats to hardship, just because they had opposed me as
ministers. Judges who had sentenced us were not hindered in their careers
because of this and often were even promoted.
Only those who threw down
the gauntlet to the new state in word and deed were treated by it according to
the law. Through the manner in which I took over power, I have moreover made it
easy for every German, especially every state official and officer, to do his
duty without throwing them into an inner conflict. For over a year and a half,
the departed Reich president was my superior and was accordingly treated by me
with admiration and great respect.
Whoever now believes that
he can throw others into inner conflicts, without ever having been forced into
one by me, should know that this means his end is dead certain. As long as these
people only persecuted me, I was able to magnanimously ignore and forget about
this persecution. Today, however, whoever raises the sword or bomb against
Germany will be ruthlessly and mercilessly annihilated. A few hours sufficed in
order to suffocate the attempted putsch of July 20. It took only a few months to
round up and completely eliminate this coterie of dishonourable Catilinarian
characters.
Just as I took the occasion
to cleanse the movement in the year 1934, after the revolt of a small group
within, this new revolt likewise started a thorough overhaul of the entire state
apparatus. The time for compromises and reservations is over for good. These
days the Reich war flag becomes the regimental flag of the German Wehrmacht, as
a symbol of the National Socialist idea of revolution and state. The German
salute is now in use in the Wehrmacht. The Volk grenadier division and the
German youth will help the National Socialist world of thought achieve a
completely victorious breakthrough. What most profoundly moved and rejoiced me
after the events of July 20 was the realization that the army, the navy, and the
Luftwaffe as a whole-the Waffen SS need not be considered here-had already
adopted the National Socialist spirit, even though this was regrettably not
outwardly visible before, so that hardly anything remained to be done other than
to expel the unworthy from party, state, and Wehrmacht in order to bring about a
complete agreement of opinions and will in party, Volk, state, and Wehrmacht.
In spite of this, the
consequences of this day were bitter. In a fit of hope, our enemies gathered
their entire strength, filled with the belief that shortly they would be able to
overrun Germany. That they have not succeeded in this, I owe to the brave
behaviour of the Wehrmacht and, above all, the brave behaviour of the German
homeland, which is most worthy of praise. The response to the appeal for the
expansion of the Reich’s defence and the Volkssturm was only a symbol of the
increasingly evidenced German Volksgemeinschaft in this fateful struggle for the
future of the nation. Thus, next to the old grenadiers of the army, the soldiers
of the navy and Luftwaffe, the soldiers of the homeland step up in complete
equality of rank; not only its men, old men, and boys, but also its women and
girls. As I consider the total sum of all the unspeakable sacrifices that our
Volk makes today, all the suffering that the millions in our cities must bear,
the sweat of our men and women laborers, and our people in the countryside, I
would like to ask the criminals of July 20 only one question: with what right
can you demand these sacrifices if you do not have the sacred resolve, before
your conscience, to strengthen the Volksstaat at the end of this fight, develop
it ever the more, so that this greatest epoch of our Volk culminates in the
birth of a Reich that not only encompasses all Germans at the outside but also
makes them happy at home? By fighting for the National Socialist German
Volksstaat, I give the only possible moral and ethical meaning to this greatest
struggle in our history.
Whoever thinks of the
interests only of his class at such an hour, acts not only as a criminal but
also as an insane egotist. He must be insane because it takes incredible
narrow-mindedness to imagine that you can rally a nation for a fight of life and
death for over half a decade on behalf of a medieval feudal state.
My party comrades! As the
year 1923 ended I wrote Mein Kampf in prison.
I incessantly had in mind
the realization of the National Socialist Volksstaat.
For years after the seizure
of power, we fought for this idea and worked for it.
Rage and envy filled our
enemies in view of the accomplishments in all areas of our economic and social
life, the increasing culture and satisfaction of our classes. If so-called
social plans for the future are today published in other countries, then this is
only a pale imitation of what National Socialist Germany has already achieved.
So today I can only again pledge the continuation of this work. As an old
National Socialist, I will not waver in this fight for one second in the
fulfilment of the duties incumbent upon me. I did not choose this duty.
Providence imposes it on
every German: to do everything and not to neglect anything that can secure the
future of our Volk and make its existence possible.
We will respond to the most
severe blows of fortune with a defiant fury, incessantly filled with the
conviction that Providence often loves only those whom it chastises; and that it
tries human beings and must try them in order to arrive at a just appraisal of
their value. I have the unshakable will to set posterity a no less praiseworthy
example in this fight than the great Germans did ages ago.
My own
life does not play a role in this, which means that I will not spare my health
or my life in any manner in the fulfilment of this duty conferred to me as the
first German. If, at this time, I speak little and not very often to you, my
party comrades and the German Volk, then I do this because I work; I work to
fulfil the tasks with which time has burdened me and which must be fulfilled in
order to bring about a turn of events. After all, since I have this will and see
the loyal following of the German Volk, I do not doubt for a minute that, in the
end, we will successfully survive this time of trial and that the hour will come
when the Almighty again grants us His blessings as before. At the time, we
gained the greatest victories in world history but did not become arrogant. At a
time of setbacks, we will never bend and will thereby reaffirm in a positive
sense the portrayal of the character of the present German Volk for posterity. I
therefore believe with imperturbable confidence that, through our work and
sacrifice, the moment will one day come when our efforts will finally be crowned
by success. The goal of our struggle is no different from what we fought for in
the year 1923, and for which the first sixteen martyrs of our movement died: our
Volk’s rescue from misery and danger, the securing of life for our children,
grandchildren, and distant generations! In the shadow of our nation, a Europe
marches which feels that not only Germany’s fate is being decided today but also
the future of all nations that count themselves part of Europe and are
consciously disgusted by Bolshevik barbarism. So, I greet you from afar, my old
party comrades, through the person who will speak this confession of my faith,
in dogged determination, with my old unbending fighting morale and my unshakable
confidence. On this occasion, I again thank the fighters of twenty-five years
ago, who also have set us an example for the future of our Volk and the Greater
German Reich!
