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Goebbels' Total War Speech (18 Feb 1943)
By: Long Knives 88 Date: January 4, 2016, 2:18 pm
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H κατά γενική
ομολογία
πιο δυνατή
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Δρος
Γκέμπελς
From LANDMARK SPEECHES OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM
Only three weeks ago I stood in this place to read the Führer’s
proclamation on the 10th anniversary of the seizure of power,
and to speak to you and to the German people. The crisis we now
face on the Eastern Front was at its height. In the midst of the
hard misfortunes the nation faced in the battle on the Volga, we
gathered together in a mass meeting on the 30th of January to
display our unity, our unanimity and our strong will to overcome
the difficulties we faced in the fourth year of the war.
It was a moving experience for me, and probably also for all of
you, to be bound by radio with the last heroic fighters in
Stalingrad during our powerful meeting here in the Sport Palace.
They radioed to us that they had heard the Führer’s
proclamation, and perhaps for the last time in their lives
joined us in raising their hands to sing the national anthems.
What an example German soldiers have set in this great age! And
what an obligation it puts on us all, particularly the entire
German homeland! Stalingrad was and is fate’s great alarm call
to the German nation! A nation that has the strength to survive
and overcome such a disaster, even to draw from it additional
strength, is unbeatable. In my speech to you and the German
people, I shall remember the heroes of Stalingrad, who put me
and all of us under a deep obligation.
I do not know how many millions of people are listening to me
over the radio tonight, at home and at the front. I want to
speak to all of you from the depths of my heart to the depths of
yours. I believe that the entire German people has a passionate
interest in what I have to say tonight. I will therefore speak
with holy seriousness and openness, as the hour demands. The
German people, raised, educated and disciplined by National
Socialism, can bear the whole truth. It knows the gravity of the
situation, and its leadership can therefore demand the necessary
hard measures, yes even the hardest measures. We Germans are
armed against weakness and uncertainty. The blows and
misfortunes of the war only give us additional strength, firm
resolve, and a spiritual and fighting will to overcome all
difficulties and obstacles with revolutionary élan.
Now is not the time to ask how it all happened. That can wait
until later, when the German people and the whole world will
learn the full truth about the misfortune of the past weeks, and
its deep and fateful significance. The heroic sacrifices of
heroism of our soldiers in Stalingrad has had vast historical
significance for the whole Eastern Front. It was not in vain.
The future will make clear why.
When I jump over the past to look ahead, I do it intentionally.
The time is short! There is no time for fruitless debates. We
must act, immediately, thoroughly, and decisively, as has always
been the National Socialist way.
The movement has from its beginning acted in that way to master
the many crises it faced and overcame. The National Socialist
state also acted decisively when faced by a threat. We are not
like the ostrich that sticks its head in the sand so as not to
see danger. We are brave enough to look danger in the face, to
coolly and ruthlessly take its measure, then act decisively with
our heads held high. Both as a movement and as a nation, we have
always been at our best when we needed fanatic, determined wills
to overcome and eliminate danger, or a strength of character
sufficient to overcome every obstacle, or bitter determination
to reach our goal, or an iron heart capable of withstanding
every internal and external battle. So it will be today. My task
is to give you an unvarnished picture of the situation, and to
draw the hard conclusions that will guide the actions of the
German government, but also of the German people.
We face a serious military challenge in the East. The crisis is
at the moment a broad one, similar but not identical in many
ways to that of the previous winter. Later we will discuss the
causes. Now, we must accept things as they are and discover and
apply the ways and means to turn things again in our favor.
There is no point in disputing the seriousness of the situation.
I do not want to give you a false impression of the situation
that could lead to false conclusions, perhaps giving the German
people a false sense of security that is altogether
inappropriate in the present situation.
The storm raging against our venerable continent from the
steppes this winter overshadows all previous human and
historical experience. The German army and its allies are the
only possible defense. In his proclamation on 30 January, the
Führer asked in a grave and compelling way what would have
become of Germany and Europe if, on 30 January 1933, a bourgeois
or democratic government had taken power instead of the National
Socialists! What dangers would have followed, faster than we
could then have suspected, and what powers of defense would we
have had to meet them? Ten years of National Socialism have been
enough to make plain to the German people the seriousness of the
danger posed by Bolshevism from the East. Now one can understand
why we spoke so often of the fight against Bolshevism at our
Nuremberg party rallies. We raised our voices in warning to our
German people and the world, hoping to awaken Western humanity
from the paralysis of will and spirit into which it had fallen.
We tried to open their eyes to the horrible danger from Eastern
Bolshevism, which had subjected a nation of nearly 200 million
people to the terror of the Jews and was preparing an aggressive
war against Europe.
When the Führer ordered the army to attack the East on 22 June
1941, we all knew that this would be the decisive battle of this
great struggle. We knew the dangers and difficulties. But we
also knew that dangers and difficulties always grow over time,
they never diminish. It was two minutes before midnight. Waiting
any longer could easily have led to the destruction of the Reich
and a total Bolshevization of the European continent.
It is understandable that, as a result of broad concealment and
misleading actions by the Bolshevist government, we did not
properly evaluate the Soviet Union’s war potential. Only now do
we see its true scale. That is why the battle our soldiers face
in the East exceeds in its hardness, dangers and difficulties
all human imagining. It demands our full national strength. This
is a threat to the Reich and to the European continent that
casts all previous dangers into the shadows. If we fail, we will
have failed our historic mission. Everything we have built and
done in the past pales in the face of this gigantic task that
the German army directly and the German people less directly
face.
I speak first to the world, and proclaim three theses regarding
our fight against the Bolshevist danger in the East.
This first thesis: Were the German army not in a position to
break the danger from the East, the Reich would fall to
Bolshevism, and all Europe shortly afterwards.
Second: The German army, the German people and their allies
alone have the strength to save Europe from this threat.
Third: Danger faces us. We must act quickly and decisively, or
it will be too late.
I turn to the first thesis. Bolshevism has always proclaimed its
goal openly: to bring revolution not only to Europe, but to the
entire world, and plunge it into Bolshevist chaos. This goal has
been evident from the beginning of the Bolshevist Soviet Union,
and has been the ideological and practical goal of the Kremlin’s
policies. Clearly, the nearer Stalin and the other Soviet
leaders believe they are to realizing their world-destroying
objectives, the more they attempt to hide and conceal them. We
cannot be fooled. We are not like those timid souls who wait
like the hypnotized rabbit until the serpent devours them. We
prefer to recognize the danger in good time and take effective
action. We see through not only the ideology of Bolshevism, but
also its practice, for we had great success with that in our
domestic struggles. The Kremlin cannot deceive us. We had
fourteen years of our struggle for power, and ten years
thereafter, to unmask its intentions and its infamous
deceptions.
The goal of Bolshevism is Jewish world revolution. They want to
bring chaos to the Reich and Europe, using the resulting
hopelessness and desperation to establish their international,
Bolshevist-concealed capitalist tyranny.
I do not need to say what that would mean for the German people.
A Bolshevization of the Reich would mean the liquidation of our
entire intelligentsia and leadership, and the descent of our
workers into Bolshevist-Jewish slavery. In Moscow, they find
workers for forced labor battalions in the Siberian tundra, as
the Führer said in his proclamation on 30 January. The revolt of
the steppes is readying itself at the front, and the storm from
the East that breaks against our lines daily in increasing
strength is nothing other than a repetition of the historical
devastation that has so often in the past endangered our part of
the world.
That is a direct threat to the existence of every European
power. No one should believe that Bolshevism would stop at the
borders of the Reich, were it to be victorious. The goal of its
aggressive policies and wars is the Bolshevization of every land
and people in the world. In the face of such undeniable
intentions, we are not impressed by paper declarations from the
Kremlin or guarantees from London or Washington. We know that we
are dealing in the East with an infernal political devilishness
that does not recognize the norms governing relations between
people and nations. When for example the English Lord
Beaverbrook says that Europe must be given over to the Soviets
or when the leading American Jewish journalist Brown cynically
adds that a Bolshevization of Europe might solve all of the
continent’s problems, we know what they have in mind. The
European powers are facing the most critical question. The West
is in danger. It makes no difference whether or not their
governments and intellectuals realize it or not.
The German people, in any event, is unwilling to bow to this
danger. Behind the oncoming Soviet divisions we see the Jewish
liquidation commandos, and behind them terror, the specter of
mass starvation and complete anarchy. International Jewry is the
devilish ferment of decomposition that finds cynical
satisfaction in plunging the world into the deepest chaos and
destroying ancient cultures that it played no role in building.
We also know our historic responsibility. Two thousand years of
Western civilization are in danger. One cannot overestimate the
danger. It is indicative that when one names it as it is,
International Jewry throughout the world protests loudly. Things
have gone so far in Europe that one cannot call a danger a
danger when it is caused by the Jews.
That does not stop us from drawing the necessary conclusions.
That is what we did in our earlier domestic battles. The
democratic Jewry of the “Berliner Tageblatt” and the “Vossischen
Zeitung” served communist Jewry by minimizing and downplaying a
growing danger, and by lulling our threatened people to sleep
and reducing their ability to resist. We could see, if the
danger were not overcome, the specter of hunger, misery, and
forced labor by millions of Germans. We could see our venerable
part of the world collapse, and bury in its ruins the ancient
inheritance of the West. That is the danger we face today.
My second thesis: Only the German Reich and its allies are in
the position to resist this danger. The European nations,
including England, believe that they are strong enough to resist
effectively the Bolshevization of Europe, should it come to
that. This belief is childish and not even worth refuting. If
the strongest military force in the world is not able to break
the threat of Bolshevism, who else could do it? (The crowd in
the Sportpalast shouts “No one!”). The neutral European nations
have neither the potential nor the military means nor the
spiritual strength to provide even the least resistance to
Bolshevism. Bolshevism’s robotic divisions would roll over them
within a few days. In the capitals of the mid-sized and smaller
European states, they console themselves with the idea that one
must be spiritually armed against Bolshevism (laughter). That
reminds us of the statements by bourgeois parties in 1932, who
thought they could fight and win the battle against communism
with spiritual weapons. That was too stupid even then to be
worth refuting. Eastern Bolshevism is not only a doctrine of
terrorism, it is also the practice of terrorism. It strives for
its goals with an infernal thoroughness, using every resource at
its disposal, regardless of the welfare, prosperity or peace of
the peoples it ruthlessly oppresses. What would England and
America do if, in the worst case, Europe fell into Bolshevism’s
arms? Will London perhaps persuade Bolshevism to stop at the
English Channel? I have already said that Bolshevism has its
foreign legions in the form of communist parties in every
democratic nation. None of these states can think it is immune
to domestic Bolshevism. In a recent by-election for the House of
Commons, the independent, that is communist, candidate got
10,741 of the 22,371 votes cast. This was in a district that had
formerly been a conservative stronghold. Within a short time,
10,000 voters, nearly half, had been lost to the communists.
That is proof that the Bolshevist danger exists in England too,
and that it will not go away simply because it is ignored. We
place no faith in any territorial promises that the Soviet Union
may make. Bolshevism set ideological as well as military
boundaries, which poses a danger to every nation. The world no
longer has the choice between falling back into its old
fragmentation or accepting a new order for Europe under Axis
leadership. The only choice now is between living under Axis
protection or in a Bolshevist Europe.
I am firmly convinced that the lamenting lords and archbishops
in London have not the slightest intention of resisting the
Bolshevist danger that would result were the Soviet army to
enter Europe. Jewry has so deeply infected the Anglo-Saxon
states both spiritually and politically that they are no longer
have the ability to see the danger. It conceals itself as
Bolshevism in the Soviet Union, and plutocratic-capitalism in
the Anglo-Saxon states. The Jewish race is an expert at mimicry.
They put their host peoples to sleep, paralyzing their defensive
abilities. (Shouts from the crowd: “We have experienced it!”).
Our insight into the matter led us to the early realization that
cooperation between international plutocracy and international
Bolshevism was not a contradiction, but rather a sign of deep
commonalities. The hand of the pseudo-civilized Jewry of Western
Europe shakes the hand of the Jewry of the Eastern ghettos over
Germany. Europe is in deadly danger.
I do not flatter myself into believing that my remarks will
influence public opinion in the neutral, much less the enemy,
states. That is also not my goal or intention. I know that,
given our problems on the Eastern Front, the English press
tomorrow will furiously attack me with the accusation that I
have made the first peace feelers (loud laughter). That is
certainly not so. No one in Germany thinks any longer of a
cowardly compromise. The entire people thinks only of a hard
war. As a spokesman for the leading nation of the continent,
however, I claim the right to call a danger a danger if it
threatens not threatens not only our own land, but our entire
continent. We National Socialists have the duty to sound the
alarm against International Jewry’s attempt to plunge the
European continent into chaos, and to warn that Jewry has in
Bolshevism a terroristic military power whose danger cannot be
overestimated.
My third thesis is that the danger is immediate. The paralysis
of the Western European democracies before their deadliest
threat is frightening. International Jewry is doing all it can
to encourage such paralysis. During our struggle for power in
Germany, Jewish newspapers tried to conceal the danger, until
National Socialism awakened the people. It is just the same
today in other nations. Jewry once again reveals itself as the
incarnation of evil, as the plastic demon of decay and the
bearer of an international culture-destroying chaos.
This explains, by the way, our consistent Jewish policies. We
see Jewry as a direct threat to every nation. We do not care
what other peoples do about the danger. What we do to defend
ourselves is our own business, however, and we will not tolerate
objections from others. Jewry is a contagious infection. Enemy
nations may raise hypocritical protests against our measures
against Jewry and cry crocodile tears, but that will not stop us
from doing that which is necessary. Germany, in any event, has
no intention of bowing before this threat, but rather intends to
take the most radical measures, if necessary, in good time
(After this sentence, the chants of the audience prevent the
minister from going on for several minutes).
The military challenges of the Reich in the East are at the
center of everything. The war of mechanized robots against
Germany and Europe has reached its high point. In resisting the
grave and direct threat with its weapons, the German people and
its Axis allies are fulfilling in the truest sense of the word a
European mission. Our courageous and just battle against this
world-wide plague will not be hindered by the worldwide outcry
of International Jewry. It can and must end only with victory
(Here there are loud shouts: “German men, to arms! German women,
to work!”).
The tragic battle of Stalingrad is a symbol of heroic, manly
resistance to the revolt of the steppes. It has not only a
military, but also an intellectual and spiritual significance
for the German people. Here for the first time our eyes have
been opened to the true nature of the war. We want no more false
hopes and illusions. We want bravely to look the facts in the
face, however hard and dreadful they may be. The history of our
party and our state has proven that a danger recognized is a
danger defeated. Our coming hard battles in the East will be
under the sign of this heroic resistance. It will require
previously undreamed of efforts by our soldiers and our weapons.
A merciless war is raging in the East. The Führer was right when
he said that in the end there will not be winners and losers,
but the living and the dead.
The German nation knows that. Its healthy instincts have led it
through the daily confusion of intellectual and spiritual
difficulties. We know today that the Blitzkrieg in Poland and
the campaign in the West have only limited significance to the
battle in the East. The German nation is fighting for everything
it has. We know that the German people are defending their
holiest possessions: their families, women and children, the
beautiful and untouched countryside, their cities and villages,
their two thousand year old culture, everything indeed that
makes life worth living.
Bolshevism of course has not the slightest appreciation for our
nation’s treasures, and would take no heed of them whatsoever if
it came to that. It did not do so even for its own people. The
Soviet Union over the last 25 years built up Bolshevism’s
military potential to an unimaginable degree, and one we falsely
evaluated. Terrorist Jewry had 200 million people to serve it in
Russia. It cynically used its methods on to create out of the
stolid toughness of the Russian people a grave danger for the
civilized nations of Europe. A whole nation in the East was
driven to battle. Men, women, and even children are employed not
only in armaments factories, but in the war itself. 200 million
live under the terror of the GPU, partially captives of a
devilish viewpoint, partially of absolute stupidity. The masses
of tanks we have faced on the Eastern Front are the result of 25
years of social misfortune and misery of the Bolshevist people.
We have to respond with similar measures if we do not want to
give up the game as lost.
My firm conviction is that we cannot overcome the Bolshevist
danger unless we use equivalent, though not identical, methods.
The German people face the gravest demand of the war, namely of
finding the determination to use all our resources to protect
everything we have and everything we will need in the future.
Total war is the demand of the hour. We must put an end to the
bourgeois attitude that we have also seen in this war: Wash my
back, but don’t get me wet! (Every sentence is met with growing
applause and agreement.) The danger facing us is enormous. The
efforts we take to meet it must be just as enormous. The time
has come to remove the kid gloves and use our fists. (A cry of
elemental agreement rises. Chants from the galleries and seats
testify to the full approval of the crowd.) We can no longer
make only partial and careless use of the war potential at home
and in the significant parts of Europe that we control. We must
use our full resources, as quickly and thoroughly as it is
organizationally and practically possible. Unnecessary concern
is wholly out of place. The future of Europe hangs on our
success in the East. We are ready to defend it. The German
people are shedding their most valuable national blood in this
battle. The rest of Europe should at least work to support us.
There are many serious voices in Europe that have already
realized this. Others still resist. That cannot influence us. If
danger faced them alone, we could view their reluctance as
literary nonsense of no significance. But the danger faces us
all, and we must all do our share. Those who today do not
understand that will thank us tomorrow on bended knees that we
courageously and firmly took on the task.
It bothers us not in the least that our enemies abroad claim
that our total war measures resemble those of Bolshevism. They
claim hypocritically that that means there is no need to fight
Bolshevism. The question here is not one of method, but of the
goal, namely eliminating the danger. (Applause for several
minutes) The question is not whether the methods are good or
bad, but whether they are successful. The National Socialist
government is ready to use every means. We do not care if anyone
objects. We are not willing to weaken Germany’s war potential by
measures that maintain a high, almost peace-time standard of
living for a certain class, thereby endangering our war effort.
We are voluntarily giving up a significant part of our living
standard to increase our war effort as quickly and completely as
possible. This is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an
end. Our social standard of living will be even higher after the
war. We do not need to imitate Bolshevist methods, because we
have better people and leaders, which gives us a great
advantage. But things have shown that we must do much more than
we have done so far to turn the war in the East decisively in
our favor.
As countless letters from the homeland and the front have shown,
by the way, the entire German people agrees. Everyone knows that
if we lose, all will be destroyed. The people and leadership are
determined to take the most radical measures. The broad working
masses of our people are not unhappy because the government is
too ruthless. If anything, they are unhappy because it is too
considerate. Ask anyone in Germany, and he will say: The most
radical is just radical enough, and the most total is just total
enough to gain victory.
The total war effort has become a matter of the entire German
people. No one has any excuse for ignoring its demands. A storm
of applause greeted my call on 30 January for total war. I can
therefore assure you that the leadership’s measures are in full
agreement with the desires of the German people at home and at
the front. The people are willing to bear any burden, even the
heaviest, to make any sacrifice, if it leads to the great goal
of victory. (Lively applause)
This naturally assumes that the burdens are shared equally.
(Loud approval) We cannot tolerate a situation in which most
people carry the burden of the war, while a small, passive
portion attempts to escape its burdens and responsibilities. The
measures we have taken, and the ones we will yet take, will be
characterized by the spirit of National Socialist justice. We
pay no heed to class or standing. Rich and poor, high and low
must share the burdens equally. Everyone must do his duty in
this grave hour, whether by choice or otherwise. We know this
has the full support of the people. We would rather do too much
rather than too little to achieve victory. No war in history has
ever been lost because of too many soldiers or weapons. Many,
however, have been lost because the opposite was true.
It is time to get the slackers moving. (Stormy agreement) They
must be shaken out of their comfortable ease. We cannot wait
until they come to their senses. That might be too late. The
alarm must sound throughout the nation. Millions of hands must
get to work throughout the country. The measures we have taken,
and the ones we will now take, and which I shall discuss later
in this speech, are critical for our whole public and private
life. The individual may have to make great sacrifices, but they
are tiny when compared to the sacrifices he would have to make
if his refusal brought down on us the greatest national
disaster. It is better to operate at the right time than to wait
until the disease has taken root. One may not complain to the
doctor or sue him for bodily injury. He cuts not to kill, but to
save the patient’s life.
Again let me say that the heavier the sacrifices the German
people must make, the more urgent it is that they be fairly
shared. The people want it that way. No one resists even the
heaviest burdens of war. But it angers people when a few always
try to escape the burdens. The National Socialist government has
both the moral and political duty to oppose such attempts, if
necessary with draconian penalties. (Agreement) Leniency here
would be completely out of place, leading in time to a confusion
in the people’s emotions and attitudes that would be a grave
danger to our public morale.
We are therefore compelled to adopt a series of measures that
are not essential for the war effort in themselves, but seem
necessary to maintain moral at home and at the front. The optics
of the war, that is, how things outwardly appear, is of decisive
importance in this fourth year of war. In view of the superhuman
sacrifices that the front makes each day, it has a basic right
to expect that no one at home claims the right to ignore the war
and its demands. And not only the front demands this, but the
overwhelming part of the homeland. The industrious have a right
to expect that if they work ten or twelve or fourteen hours a
day, a lazy person does not stand next to them who thinks them
foolish. The homeland must stay pure and intact in its entirety.
Nothing may disturb the picture.
There are therefore a series of measures that take account of
the war’s optics. We have ordered, for example, the closing of
bars and night clubs. I cannot imagine that people who are doing
their duty for the war effort still have the energy to stay out
late into the night in such places. I can only conclude that
they are not taking their responsibilities seriously. We have
closed these establishments because they began to offend us, and
because they disturb the image of the war. We have nothing
against amusements as such. After the war we will happily go by
the rule “Live and let live.” But during a war, the slogan must
be “Fight and let fight!”
We have also closed luxury restaurants that demand far more
resources than is reasonable. It may be that an occasional
person thinks that, even during war, his stomach is the most
important thing. We cannot pay him any heed. At the front
everyone from the simple soldier to the general field marshal
eats from the field kitchen. I do not believe that it is asking
too much to insist that we in the homeland pay heed to at least
the basic laws of community thinking. We can become gourmets
once again when the war is over. Right now, we have more
important things to do than worry about our stomachs.
Countless luxury stores have also been closed. They often
offended the buying public. There was generally nothing to buy,
unless perhaps one paid here and there with butter or eggs
instead of money. What good do shops do that no longer have
anything to sell, but only use electricity, heating, and human
labor that is lacking everywhere else, particularly in the
armaments industry.
It is no excuse to say that keeping some of these shops open
gives a lovely impression to foreigners. Foreigners will be
impressed only by a German victory! (Stormy applause). Everyone
will want to be our friend if we win the war. But if we lose, we
will be able to count our friends on the fingers of one hand. We
have put an end to such illusions. We want to put these people
standing in empty shops to useful work in the war economy. This
process is already in motion, and will be completed by 15 March.
It is of course a major transformation in our entire economic
life. We are following a plan. We do not want to accuse anyone
unjustly or open them to complaints and accusations from every
side. We are only doing what is necessary. But we are doing it
quickly and thoroughly.
We would rather wear worn clothing for a few years than have our
people wear rags for a few centuries. What good are fashion
salons today? They only use light, heat and workers. They will
reappear when the war is over. What good are beauty shops that
encourage a cult of beauty and take enormous time and energy? In
peace they are wonderful, but a waste of time during war. Our
women and girls will be able to greet our victorious returning
soldiers without their peacetime finery. (Applause)
Government offices will work faster and less bureaucratically.
It does not leave a good impression when the office closes on
the dot after eight hours. The people are not there for the
offices, the offices are there for the people. One has to work
until the work is done. That is a requirement of the war. If the
Führer can do that, so can his paid employees. If there is not
enough work to fill the extended hours, 10 or 20 or 30 percent
of the workers can be transferred to war production and replace
other men for service at the front. That applies to all offices
in the homeland. That by itself may make the work in some
offices go more quickly and easily. We must learn from the war
to operate quickly, not only thoroughly. The soldier at the
front does not have weeks to think things over, to pass his
thoughts up the line or let them sit in dusty files. He must act
immediately or lose his life. In the homeland we do not lose our
lives if we work slowly, but we do endanger the life of our
people.
Everyone must learn to pay heed to war morale, and pay attention
to the just demands of working and fighting people. We are not
spoilsports, but neither will we tolerate those who hinder our
efforts.
It is, for example, intolerable that certain men and women stay
for weeks in spas and trade rumors, taking places away from
soldiers on leave or from workers who are entitled to a vacation
after a year of hard work. That is intolerable, and we have put
an end to it. The war is not a time for amusement. Until it is
over, we take our deepest satisfaction in work and battle. Those
who do not understand that by themselves must be taught to
understand it, and forced if need be. The harshest measures may
be needed.
It does not look good, for example, when we devote enormous
propaganda to the theme: “Wheels must roll for victory!,” with
the result that people avoid unnecessary travel only to see
unemployed pleasure-seekers find more room for themselves in the
trains. The railroad serves to transport war goods and travelers
on war business. Only those who need a rest from hard work
deserve a vacation. The Führer has not had a day of vacation
since the war began. Since the first man of the country takes
his duty so seriously and responsibly, it must be expected that
every citizen will follow his example.
On the other hand, the government is doing all it can to give
working people the relaxation they need in these trying times.
Theaters, movie houses, and music halls remain in full
operation. The radio is working to expand and improve its
programming. We have no intention of inflicting a gray winter
mood on our people. That which serves the people and keeps up
its fighting and working strength is good and essential to the
war effort. We want to eliminate the opposite. To balance the
measures I have already discussed, I have therefore ordered that
cultural and spiritual establishments that serve the people not
be decreased, but increased. As long as they aid rather than
harm the war effort, they must be supported by the government.
That applies to sports as well. Sports are not only for
particular circles today, but a matter for the entire people.
Military exemptions for athletes are out of place. The purpose
of sports is to steel the body, certainly with the goal of using
it appropriately in time of the people’s greatest need.
The front shares our desires. The entire German people agrees
passionately. It is no longer willing to put up with efforts
that only waste time and resources. It will not put up with
complicated questionnaires on every possible issue. It does not
want to worry about a thousand minor matters that may have been
important in peace, but are entirely unimportant during war. It
also does not need to be constantly reminded of its duty by
references to the great sacrifices of our soldiers at
Stalingrad. It knows what it has to do. It wants everyone, high
and low, rich and poor, to share a spartan life style. The
Führer gives us all an example, one that must be followed by
everyone. He knows only work and care. We do not want to leave
it all to him, but rather we want to take that part of it from
him which we are able to bear.
The present day has a remarkable resemblance for every genuine
National Socialist to the period of struggle. We have always
acted in the same way. We were with the people through thick and
thin, and that is why the people followed us. We have always
carried our burdens together with the people, and therefore they
did not seem heavy to us, but rather light. The people want to
be led. Never in history has the people failed a brave and
determined leadership a critical hour.
Let me say a few words in this regard about practical measures
in our total war effort that we have already taken.
The problem is freeing soldiers for the front, and freeing
workers for the armaments industry. These are the primary goals,
even at the cost of our standard of social life. This does not
mean a permanent decline in our standard of living. It is only a
means to reaching an end, that of total war.
As part of this campaign, hundreds of thousands of military
exemptions have been canceled. These exemptions were given
because we did not have enough skilled labor to fill the
positions that would have been left open by revoking them. The
reason for our current measures is to mobilize the necessary
workers. That is why we have appealed to men not working in the
war economy, and to women who were not working at all. They will
not and cannot ignore our call. The duty for women to work is
broad. That does not however mean that only those included in
the law have to work. Anyone is welcome. The more who join the
war effort, the more soldiers we can free for the front.
Our enemies maintain that German women are not able to replace
men in the war economy. That may be true for certain fields of
heavy labor. But I am convinced that the German woman is
determined to fill the spot left by the man leaving for the
front, and to do so as soon as possible. We do not need to point
out Bolshevism’s example. For years, millions of the best German
women have been working successfully in war production, and they
wait impatiently to be joined and assisted by others. All those
who join in the work are only giving the proper thanks to those
at the front. Hundreds of thousands have already joined, and
hundreds of thousands more will join. We hope soon to free up
armies of workers who will in turn free up armies of fighting
front soldiers.
I would think little of German women if I believed that they do
not want to listen to my appeal. They will not seek to follow
the letter of the law, or to slip through its loopholes. They
few who may try will not succeed. We will not accept a doctor’s
excuse. Nor will we accept the alibi that one must help one’s
husband or relative or good friend as a way of avoiding work. We
will respond appropriately. The few who may attempt it will only
lose the respect of those around them. The people will despise
them. No one expects a woman lacking the requisite physical
strength to go to work in a tank factory. There are however
numerous jobs in war production that do not demand great
physical strength, and which a woman can do even if she comes
from the better circles. No one is too good to work, and we all
have the choice to give up what we have, or to lose everything.
It is also time to ask women with household help if they really
need it. One can take care of the house and children oneself,
freeing the servant for other tasks, or leave the house and
children in care of the servant or the NSV [the party welfare
organization], and go to work oneself. Life may not be as
pleasant as it is during peace. But we are not at peace, we are
at war. We can be comfortable after we have won the war. Now we
must sacrifice our comforts to gain victory.
Soldiers’ wives surely understand this. They know it is their
duty to their husbands to support them by doing work that is
important to the war effort. That is true above all in
agriculture. The wives of farmers must set a good example. Both
men and women must be sure that no one does less during war than
they did in peace; more work must instead be done in every area.
One may not, by the way, make the mistake of leaving everything
to the government. The government can only set the broad
guidelines. To give life to those guidelines is the job of
working people, under the inspiring leadership of the party.
Fast action is essential.
One must go beyond the legal requirements. “Volunteer!” is the
slogan. As Gauleiter of Berlin, I appeal here above all to my
fellow Berliners. They have given enough good examples of noble
behavior and bravery during the war such that they will not fail
here. Their practical behavior and good cheer even during war
have earned them a good name throughout the world. This good
name must be maintained and strengthened! If I appeal to my
fellow Berliners to do some important work quickly, thoroughly,
and without complaint, I know they will all obey. We do not want
to complain about the difficulties of the day or grump to one
another. Rather we want to behave not only like Berliners, but
like Germans, by getting to work, acting, seizing the initiative
and doing something, not leaving it to someone else.
What German woman would want to ignore my appeal on behalf of
those fighting at the front? Who would want to put personal
comfort above national duty? Who in view of the serious threat
we face would want to consider his private needs instead of the
requirements of the war?
I reject with contempt the enemy’s claim that we are imitating
Bolshevism. We do not want to imitate Bolshevism, we want to
defeat it, with whatever means are necessary. The German woman
will best understand what I mean, for she has long known that
the war our men are fighting today above all is a war to protect
her children. Her holiest possession is guarded by our people’s
most valuable blood. The German woman must spontaneously
proclaim her solidarity with her fighting men. She had better
join the ranks of millions of workers in the homeland’s army,
and do it tomorrow rather than the day after tomorrow. A river
of readiness must flow through the German people. I expect that
countless women and above all men who are not doing essential
war work will report to the authorities. He who gives quickly
gives twice as much.
Our general economy is consolidating. That particularly affects
the insurance and banking systems, the tax system, newspapers
and magazines that are not essential for the war effort, and
nonessential party and government activities, and also requires
a further simplification of our life style.
I know that many of our people are making great sacrifices. I
understand their sacrifices, and the government is trying to
keep them to the necessary minimum. But some must remain, and
must be borne. When the war is over, we will build up that which
we now are eliminating, more generously and more beautifully,
and the state will lend its hand.
I energetically reject the charge that our measures will
eliminate the middle class or result in a monopoly economy. The
middle class will regain its economic and social position after
the war. The current measures are necessary for the war effort.
They aim not at a structural transformation of the economy, but
merely at winning the war as quickly as possible.
I do not dispute the fact that these measures will cause worry
in the coming weeks. They will give us breathing room. We are
laying the groundwork for the coming summer, without paying heed
to the threats and boasting of the enemy. I am happy to reveal
this plan for victory (Stormy applause) to the German people.
They not only accept these measures, they have demanded them,
demanded them more strongly than ever before during the war. The
people want action! It is time for it! We must use our time to
prepare for coming surprises.
I turn now to the entire German people, and particularly to the
party, as the leader of the totalization of our domestic war
effort. This is not the first major task you have faced. You
will bring the usual revolutionary élan to bear on it. You will
deal with the laziness and indolence that may occasionally show
up. The government has issued general regulations, and will
issue further ones in coming weeks. The minor issues not dealt
with in these regulations must be taken care of by the people,
under the party’s leadership. One moral law stands above
everything for each of us: to do nothing that harms the war
effort, and to do everything that brings victory nearer.
In past years, we have often recalled the example of Frederick
the Great in newspapers and on the radio. We did not have the
right to do so. For a while during the Third Silesian War,
Frederick II had five million Prussians, according to
Schlieffen, standing against 90 million enemies. In the second
of seven hellish years he suffered a defeat that shook Prussia’s
foundations. He never had enough soldiers and weapons to fight
without risking everything. His strategy was always one of
improvisation. But his principle was to attack the enemy
whenever it was possible. He suffered defeats, but that was not
decisive. What was decisive is that the Great King remained
unbroken, that he was unshaken by the changing fortunes of war,
that his strong heart overcame every danger. At the end of seven
years of war, he was 51 years old, he had no teeth, he suffered
from gout, and was tortured by a thousand pains, but he stood
above the devastated battlefield as the victor. How does our
situation compare with his?! Let us show the same will and
decisiveness as he, and when the time comes do as he did,
remaining unshakable through all the twists of fate, and like
him win the battle even under the most unfavorable
circumstances. Let us never doubt our great cause.
I am firmly convinced that the German people have been deeply
moved by the blow of fate at Stalingrad. It has looked into the
face of hard and pitiless war. It knows now the awful truth, and
is resolved to follow the Führer through thick and thin. (The
crowd rises and like the roaring ocean chants: Führer command,
we follow! Heil our Führer!” The minister is unable to continue
for several minutes.)
The English and American press in recent days has been writing
at length about the attitude of the German people during this
crisis. The English seem to think that they know the German
people much better than we do, its own leadership. They give
hypocritical advice on what we should do and not do. They
believe that the German people today is the same as the German
people of November 1918 that fell victim to their persuasive
wiles. I do not need to disprove their assertions. That will
come from the fighting and working German people.
To make the truth plain, however, my German comrades, I want to
ask you a series of questions. I want you to answer them to the
best of your knowledge, according to your conscience. When my
audience cheered on 30 January, the English press reported the
next day that it was all a propaganda show that did not
represent the true opinion of the German people. (Spontaneous
shouts of Pfui!” “Lies!” “Let them come here! They will learn
differently!”) I have invited to today’s meeting a cross-section
of the German people in the best sense of the word. (The
minister’s words were accompanied by stormy applause that
increased in intensity as he came to the representatives of the
army present at the meeting.) In front of me are rows of wounded
German soldiers from the Eastern Front, missing legs and arms,
with wounded bodies, those who have lost their sight, those who
have come with nurses, men in the blush of youth who stand with
crutches. Among them are 50 who bear the Knight’s Cross with Oak
Leaves, shining examples of our fighting front. Behind them are
armaments workers from Berlin tank factories. Behind them are
party officials, soldiers from the fighting army, doctors,
scientists, artists, engineers and architects, teachers,
officials and employees from offices, proud representatives of
every area of our intellectual life that even in the midst of
war produce miracles of human genius. Throughout the Sportpalast
I see thousands of German women. The youth is here, as are the
aged. No class, no occupation, no age remained uninvited. I can
rightly say that before me is gathered a representative sample
of the German population, both from the homeland and the front.
Is that true? Yes or no? (The Sportpalast experiences something
seen only rarely even in this old fighting locale of National
Socialism. The masses spring to their feet. A hurricane of
thousands of voices shouts yes. The participants experience a
spontaneous popular referendum and expression of will.) You, my
hearers, at this moment represent the whole nation. I wish to
ask you ten questions that you will answer for the German people
throughout the world, but especially for our enemies, who are
listening to us on the radio. (Only with difficulty can the
minister be heard. The crowd is at the peak of excitement. The
individual questions are razor sharp. Each individual feels as
if he is being spoken to personally. With full participation and
enthusiasm, the crowd answers each question. The Sportpalast
rings with a single shout of agreement.)
The English maintain that the German people has lost faith in
victory.
I ask you: Do you believe with the Führer and us in the final
total victory of the German people?
I ask you: Are you resolved to follow the Führer through thick
and thin to victory, and are you willing to accept the heaviest
personal burdens?
Second, The English say that the German people are tired of
fighting.
I ask you: Are you ready to follow the Führer as the phalanx of
the homeland, standing behind the fighting army and to wage war
with wild determination through all the turns of fate until
victory is ours?
Third: The English maintain that the German people have no
desire any longer to accept the government’s growing demands for
war work.
I ask you: Are you and the German people willing to work, if the
Führer orders, 10, 12 and if necessary 14 hours a day and to
give everything for victory?
Fourth: The English maintain that the German people is resisting
the government’s total war measures. It does not want total war,
but capitulation! (Shouts: Never! Never! Never!)
I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a
war more total and radical than anything that we can even
imagine today?
Fifth: The English maintain that the German people have lost
faith in the Führer.
I ask you: Is your confidence in the Führer greater, more
faithful and more unshakable than ever before? Are you
absolutely and completely ready to follow him wherever he goes
and do all that is necessary to bring the war to a victorious
end? (The crowd rises as one man. It displays unprecedented
enthusiasm. Thousands of voices join in shouting: “Führer
command, we follow!” A wave of shouts of Heil flows through the
hall. As if by command, the flags and standards are raised as
the highest expression of the sacred moment in which the crowd
honors the Führer.)
Sixth, I ask you: Are you ready from now on to give your full
strength to provide the Eastern Front with the men and munitions
it needs to give Bolshevism the death blow?
Seventh, I ask you: Do you take a holy oath to the front that
the homeland stands firm behind them, and that you will give
them everything they need to win the victory?
Eighth, I ask you: Do you, especially you women, want the
government to do all it can to encourage German women to put
their full strength at work to support the war effort, and to
release men for the front whenever possible, thereby helping the
men at the front?
Ninth, I ask you: Do you approve, if necessary, the most radical
measures against a small group of shirkers and black marketers
who pretend there is peace in the middle of war and use the need
of the nation for their own selfish purposes? Do you agree that
those who harm the war effort should lose their heads?
Tenth and lastly, I ask you: Do you agree that above all in war,
according to the National Socialist Party platform, the same
rights and duties should apply to all, that the homeland should
bear the heavy burdens of the war together, and that the burdens
should be shared equally between high and low and rich and poor?
I have asked; you have given me your answers. You are part of
the people, and your answers are those of the German people. You
have told our enemies what they needed to hear so that they will
have no illusions or false ideas.
Now, just as in the first hours of our rule and through the ten
years that followed, we are bound firmly in brotherhood with the
German people. The most powerful ally on earth, the people
itself, stands behind us and is determined to follow the Führer,
come what may. They will accept the heaviest burdens to gain
victory. What power on earth can hinder us from reaching our
goal. Now we must and will succeed! I stand before you not only
as the spokesman of the government, but as the spokesman of the
people. My old party friends are here around me, clothed with
the high offices of the people and the government. Party comrade
Speer sits next to me. The Führer has given him the great task
of mobilizing the German armaments industry and supplying the
front with all the weapons it needs. Party comrade Dr. Ley sits
next to me. The Führer has charged him with the leadership of
the German work force, with schooling and training them in
untiring work for the war effort. We feel deeply indebted to our
party comrade Sauckel, who has been charged by the Führer to
bring hundreds of thousands of workers to the Reich to support
our national economy, something the enemy cannot do. All the
leaders of the party, the army, and government join with us as
well.
In order to fulfil this historical mission, the German people
must earnestly and utterly love the Führer, make constant
efforts to raise their political consciousness, heighten their
national sense of discipline and constantly criticize and
repudiate the corrosion and influence of rotten defeatist ways
within the Reich. The enemy has a traditional influence in the
cultural and educational units. When the German people transform
the world according to the German national world outlook, that
is, National Socialism, the enemy always makes every effort to
use the bourgeois world outlook to corrode the weak sections in
the ranks of the workers, including those of their leading
cadres. We must maintain sharp vigilance against this. It is
necessary to keep to the firm stand of the German race and
maintain vigilance against attacks from sugar-coated bullets or
other means against the ranks of the Volk. We must
conscientiously do a good job of purifying the people's ranks
and promoting war production, and make a success of the
transformation in factories and other enterprises.
The first task is to establish the "three-in-one"
(Party-Army-Volk) committee so that leadership in factories and
other enterprises is truly in the hands of Germany's war effort.
This is often carried out in combination with the tasks of
repudiation and the purifying, by and large, of the ranks.
Repudiation enables people to wipe out the pernicious influence
of the enemy and his agents in various places, enhances their
consciousness of the struggle between us and the enemy, opens
the way, both politically and ideologically, for purifying the
volkisch ranks, and, in the course of purifying the volkisch
ranks, plays a role in mobilizing the masses and consolidating
the achievements in the struggle. To purify the volkisch ranks
and deal sure, accurate and relentless blows at the handful of
enemy agents, renegades, defeatists and bad elements who have
not reformed themselves, is an extremely important task for the
German people in exercising total war on the enemy and all other
his agents, purifying its own ranks and weeding out enemies who
have wormed their way into the people, and it provides the mass
repudiation with vivid living material. Repudiation of the
enemy's propaganda and the purifying of the volkisch ranks
promote each other and give impetus to each other. They create
the best conditions for rectifying the waging total war
uninterred. After going through strict tests in this war, the
masses of Germans greatly raise their national consciousness and
know the real nature of the enemy. In this way, we can reach the
great goal set by the Führer: "The German people should be a
vigorous vanguard capable of leading the peoples of Europe in
the fight against Bolshevism."
This applies to the movement in industrial and mining
enterprises and, broadly speaking, also to the movement in
cultural and educational institutions and in the Party and
government organs.
The upsurge in the total war effort spurs the upsurge in
production. Thanks to the efforts of the millions of German
peasants, agriculture in our country has produced bumper
harvests for a number of years running. We salute the German
peasants, the feeders of the German people. With the deep-going
development of the transformation, many new things are coming
forth on the industrial front as well. In the course of
transformation, a vigorous technical revolution has come into
being in many places. The situation is excellent and inspiring.
The handful of enemies who vainly attempted to stage a come-back
have come to their end.
We are all children of our people, forged together by this most
critical hour of our national history. We promise you, we
promise the front, we promise the Führer, that we will mold
together the homeland into a force on which the Führer and his
fighting soldiers can rely on absolutely and blindly. We pledge
to do all in our life and work that is necessary for victory. We
will fill our hearts with the political passion, with the
ever-burning fire that blazed during the great struggles of the
party and the state. Never during this war will we fall prey to
the false and hypocritical objectivism that has brought the
German nation so much misfortune over its history.
When the war began, we turned our eyes to the nation alone. That
which serves its struggle for life is good and must be
encouraged. What harms its struggle for life is bad and must be
eliminated and cut out. With burning hearts and cool heads we
will overcome the major problems of this phase of the war. We
are on the way to final victory. That victory rests on our faith
in the Führer.
This evening I once again remind the whole nation of its duty.
The Führer expects us to do that which will throw all we have
done in the past into the shadows. We do not want to fail him.
As we are proud of him, he should be proud of us.
The great crises and upsets of national life show who the true
men and women are. We have no right any longer to speak of the
weaker sex, for both sexes are displaying the same determination
and spiritual strength. The nation is ready for anything. The
Führer has commanded, and we will follow him. At present,
Bolshevism and all reaction throughout the world find the going
very hard. They are bruised and battered, disintegrating and in
an impasse. Under the leadership of the Führer, our great German
Fatherland, steeled in this ongoing war, is resplendent and has
unlimited prospects. We must strive to keep up with the
developing situation, fully mobilize the masses, sum up
experience promptly, do a good job of investigation and study,
be good at seizing on good examples, work out over-all plans,
strengthen the leadership and make earnest efforts to fight well
in this total war of elimination. This is a battle in our fight
to win all-round victory for humanity. Let us follow the
Führer's great strategic plan closely and advance from victory
to victory! In this hour of national reflection and
contemplation, we believe firmly and unshakably in victory. We
see it before us, we need only reach for it. We must resolve to
subordinate everything to it. That is the duty of the hour. Let
the slogan be:
Now, people rise up and let the storm break loose!
#Post#: 19986--------------------------------------------------
Re: Goebbels' Total War Speech (18 Feb 1943)
By: Pinochet88 Date: January 4, 2016, 3:00 pm
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[center][quote]We must put an end to the bourgeois attitude that
we have also seen in this war: Wash my back, but don’t get me
wet![/quote]
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