SOLDIERS OF THE SOUTHEAST FRONT:
Since early this morning the German people are at war with the Belgrade
government of intrigue. We shall only lay down arms when this band of
ruffians has been definitely and most emphatically eliminated, and the
last Briton has left this part of the European Continent, and that these
misled people realize that they must thank Britain for this situation,
they must thank England, the greatest warmonger of all time. The German
people can enter into this new struggle with the inner satisfaction
that its leaders have done everything to bring about a peaceful settlement.
We pray to God that He may lead our soldiers on the path and bless
them as hitherto.
In accordance with the policy of letting others fight for her, as she
did in the case of Poland, Britain again tried to involve Germany in
the struggle in which Britain hoped that she would finish off the German
people once and for all, to win the war, and if possible to destroy
the entire German Army.
In a few weeks long ago the German soldiers on the Eastern Front, Poland,
swept aside this instrument of British policy. On April 9, 1940, Britain
again attempted to reach its goal by a thrust on the German north flank,
the thrust at Norway.
In an unforgettable struggle the German soldiers in Norway eliminated
the British within a period of a few weeks.
What the world did not deem possible the German people have achieved.
Again, only a few weeks later, Churchill thought the moment right to
make a renewed thrust through the British Allies, France and Belgium,
into the German region of the Ruhr. The victorious hour of our soldiers
on the West Front began.
It is already war history how the German Armies defeated the legions
of capitalism and plutocracy. After forty-five days this campaign in
the West was equally and emphatically terminated.
Then Churchill concentrated the strength of his Empire against our
ally, Italy, in Africa. Now the danger has also been banned from the
African theater of the war through the cooperation of Italian and German
units.
The new aim of the British warmongers now consists of the realization
of a plan that they had already hatched at the outbreak of the war and
only postponed because of the gigantic victories of the German Army.
The memory of the landing of British troops at Salonika in the course
of the first World War also caught little Greece in the spider web of
British intrigue.
I have repeatedly warned of the attempt by the British to land troops
in Southeastern Europe, and I have said that this constitutes a threat
to the German Reich. Unfortunately this warning went unheeded by the
Yugoslav nation. I have further tried, always with the same patience,
to convince Yugoslav statesmen of the absolute necessity for their cooperation
with the German Reich for restoration of lasting peace and order within
Yugoslavia.
After long effort we finally succeeded in securing the cooperation
of Yugoslavia by its adherence to the Tripartite Pact without having
demanded anything whatsoever of the Yugoslav nation except that it take
its part in the reconstruction of a new order in Europe.
At this point the criminal usurpers of the new Belgrade government
took the power of the State unto themselves, which is a result of being
in the pay of Churchill and Britain. As in the case of Poland, this
new Belgrade government has mobilized decrepit and old people into their
inner Cabinet. Under these circumstances I was forced immediately to
recall the German national colony within Yugoslav territory.
Members and officers of the German Embassy, employees of our consulates
in Yugoslavia, were daily being subjected to the most humiliating attacks.
The German schools, exactly as in Poland, were laid in ruins by bandits.
Innumerable German nationals were kidnapped and attacked by Yugoslavs
and some even were killed.
In addition, Yugoslavia for weeks has planned a general mobilization
of its army in great secrecy. This is the answer to my eight-year-long
effort to bring about closer cooperation and friendship with the Yugoslav
people, a task that I have pursued most fastidiously.
When British divisions were landed in Greece, just as in World War
days, the Serbs thought the time was ripe for taking advantage of the
situation for new assassinations against Germany and her allies.
Soldiers of the Southeast Front: Now your zero hour has arrived. You
will now take the interests of the German Reich under your protection
as your comrades did a year ago in Norway and on the West Front. You
will do just as well on the Southeast Front.
In doing this, your duty, you will not be less courageous than the
men of those German divisions who in 1915, on the same Balkan soil,
fought so victoriously. You will be humane only in those places where
the enemy is humane toward you. Where the enemy confronts you with utter
brutality you will beat them back with the same weapon.
The fight on Greek soil is not a battle against the Greek people, but
against that archenemy, England, which is again trying to extend the
war far into the Southeast Balkans, the same as he tried far in the
north last year. For this reason, on this very spot in the Balkans,
we shall fight shoulder to shoulder with our ally until the last Briton
has found his Dunkerque in Greece.
If any Greeks support this British course, then those Greeks will fall
at the same time as the British.
When the German soldier shall have proved himself, shall have proved
that he is capable of beating the British in the Balkans, in the midst
of snow and mountains, then also he will have proved that he can beat
the British in the heat of the desert in Africa.
However, we will pursue no other ultimate aim than to win freedom for
our German people and to secure a living-space for the German family.
The prayers and thoughts, the very life of all Germans, are again in
the heart of every German soldier.
ADOLF HITLER,
Commander in Chief.
[1] New York Times, April 7, 1941.