My German fellow-countrymen and women! Party Comrades!
It is, I think, something very extraordinary when a man after about
20 years can stand before his old followers, and when in doing so he
has not had to make any revisions of his program during these 20 years.
Today's gathering, however, reminds us most of all
of the evening which we were able to celebrate in the former hall 10
years ago. It reminds us of this because at that time too we were in
the midst of a very hard fight. Our fight to take over power in, Germany
was just as decisive for our fate as the fight which we are waging today.
It was only during the past year that this became known to us in all
its meaning, and if victory had not been achieved in 1933, then Germany
would have remained what it was then, that is, a powerless nation with
an Army of 100,000 men, which would necessarily have (had to submit)
to destruction.
And at the same time, a colossus had arisen in the
East with only a single thought in mind, to fall upon this weak, lazy,
defeatist and internally-torn Europe. And if at that time this challenge
had not been successfully taken up, then the power which alone was capable
of opposing this danger would not have entered world history.
Today we know that there would probably not be any
Europe left. Therefore the battle which we fought then was only apparently
an internal struggle for power. In reality, even then it was a struggle
for the preservation of Germany and, in the broadest sense of the word,
for the preservation of Europe. At that time, we were close to victory.
And yet when, 10 years ago, we met in the former hall, no one knew exactly
how close it was. Only one thing went without saying as far as we were
concerned, namely the conviction that this victory, no matter what happens,
must come and will come.
It is with the same conviction that I now stand before
you, and it has never left me, either, since the day on which, as an
unknown man in this city, I began the struggle, first for the soul of
the German people, and then, on beyond this city, forever more and more
followers. And in the beginning I did not have much more to give than
faith, the faith that if anyone pursues a just aim I with unchanging
and undisturbed loyalty and never lets himself be diverted from it,
but puts everything into it, then others will be found who are determined
to be his followers, and that from this host an ever stronger faith
must gradually radiate to the whole people, and that out of this host
the worthiest part of the whole people must one day finally find themselves
together, and that finally this worthiest part must acquire the power
in the state.
And today I stand by this same view. Fate, or Providence,
will give the victory to those who most deserve it. We could have had
it before, in the year 1918. The German people did not deserve it at
that time. They had grown confused and untrue to themselves. And that
was the reason that I, an unknown, a nobody, at that time resolved to
build up this movement in the midst of utter ruin and complete collapse,
the reason why I also had faith that it would have to succeed, because
I saw before me, not the defeatist phenomena of a crumbling bourgeois-Marxist
world, but the millions of brave men who had done their utmost and who
faltered only because the homeland was no longer worthy of them in the
critical hour-because it had failed. I then had the conviction that
if only the effort to bring back internal order to the German people
and to get hold of the soundest kernel in them proved successful, that
then another 1918 could never be repeated.
Since I made this resolve, many more than 20 years
have gone by. Ten years ago we were about to have a dress rehearsal,
after the movement had already encountered the greatest difficulties-in
a preceding ten-year period, many had lost their faith, and our opponents
already were saying that we were dead. We need only recall that time.
It was no wonder, either. A movement which was just getting ready to
seize power collapsed completely. Its leaders were either dead or wounded,
or in prison or in flight because of their activities.
And yet barely ten years were enough for this whole
movement to rise anew from its ashes, like a phoenix. And when we met
here 10 years ago, we had just had another setback. Many-especially
our enemies-believed that we had lost our chance because we had not
acted at the moment we were offered something which would only have
burdened the movement, but not made it at all possible to realize its
real aims. At that time, too, I stood before you, my old party comrades,
with the same faith as now, absolutely convinced that victory will be
his who best deserves it, and that therefore our only task will be to
deserve it.
And when now, after 10 years, I again survey this
period, I can say that upon no people has Providence ever bestowed more
successes than upon us. The miracles we have achieved in the last three
years in the face of a whole world of enemies are unique in history,
especially the crises we very naturally often had in these years.
I need only remind you of the one great crisis we
had to go through in Norway, where, indeed, it was a toss-up, and where
we might have asked ourselves, will we be able to hold Narvik? Won't
the entire Norwegian undertaking go to pieces? One needed boundless
faith in order not to become despondent at that time, and this faith
was finally rewarded. Far from the homeland, with barely a single sure
line of communication connected with this advanced out-post, a small,
heroic German force then was fighting. Finally they were forced to evacuate
Narvik. Our opponents were jubilant. But, thanks to bravery and a fanatical
determination not to capitulate under any circumstances, the final result
was victory for us and not for our opponents.
If we look back over this entire period, and let everything
pass before our eyes, one thing will become obvious to us: We are. facing
the same opponents, whom we always have had before us nothing has been
changed. . . . In the Great War there were the same opponents whom we
have had to conquer in this war, and there is only one thing which differentiates
the present from that time: First of all, a clearer recognition of the
background of the actions of that opponent, of the driving forces, and
secondly, the successes which have been gained in the meanwhile, successes
which are unique in the history of the world.
For perhaps many a person will ask himself the question,
why are we fighting at such great distances? We are fighting at such
great distances in order to protect our homeland, in order to keep the
war as far removed from it as possible and to spare it what would otherwise
be its fate, and which now only certain German cities are experiencing
and must experience. It is therefore preferable to keep the front line
at a distance of 1,000 and if necessary 2,000 kilometers from the borders
of the Reich, than to hold that front somewhere near the border of the
Reich and to be forced to hold it there.
Our opponents are the same, and behind these opponents
there stands the same eternally driving force, the international Jew.
And it is again by no means an accident that these forces were on the
inside, and have now met again on the outside. Internally, in the "coalition"
which we know only too well, they included all the enemies of the Reich,
beginning with the Frankfurter Zeitung, and the entire stock market
speculator-group, all the way to the Rote Fahne (Red Banner)
in Berlin, and everything which lay in between.
And outside, we have again today the same coalition
as before, from the chief of that international Masonic lodge, the half-Jew
Roosevelt, and his Jewish brain trust, to the Jewry of purest water
in Marxist-Bolshevik Russia. They are the same enemies as before, the
same foes as then. In the World War we had them as external foes, in
our struggle as internal foes, and now, as a National-Socialist State,
as external foes again.
And again it is no accident that the same State which
at that time thought it could bring about the collapse of Germany by
a flood of lying propaganda, now again sends a man on the same mission.
Then his name was Wilson; now his name is Roosevelt. The Germany of
that time, without any education in state and national politics, without
any unity, without any enlightenment on the problem of the Jewish question
and the working of that power, fell victim to that attack.
The great mistake is that our enemies now imagine
it will happen a second time. For if at that time we were perhaps the
best organized people in the world, without doubt again we are now the
best organized people in the world. And if anyone in the rest of the
world imagines he can shatter this people, he does not know the enduring
heart of this people today, nor the enduring power, the knowledge which
guides this people politically today-the National Socialist Party and
its mighty organization.
Neither has he any idea of what this movement has
achieved since then, how it has taken hold of our people by its accomplishments,
and how it has fulfilled the Socialist ideal-which is free of all international
cheating, all the "lying tirades," how it has fulfilled these
Socialist ideals in a way that no other State has even begun to approach
up to now, to say nothing of attain.
I am calm therefore when I face any German who is
fighting in the East, or who comes home on leave-and I can tell each
one of them, just look at our organization. Compare our home cities,
compare the workers' settlements which we are building, compare our
social organization with what you have seen on the other side. Compare
the fate and the lot of the German farmer with the lot of that Russian
farmer. Compare all of that, my dear friend, and then give me your judgment
as to who has managed things better, and above all else, who has had
more honorable intentions?
Not one man has as yet returned, who could express
any other opinion than that if a Socialistic State were in the process
of being realized anywhere, it was in Germany only that it was actually
taking place. That is still another reason why this other world which
so willingly represents capitalistic interests in particular, is attacking
us. It is a combine, which even today still pretends to be able to rule
the world according to its private capitalistic interests, to manage
it, and when necessary, to keep on ruling it.
When, for example, a few days ago, a regular snobbish,
perfumed hooligan like this Mr. Eden declared: "We English have
had experience in ruling," then the only thing one can say is:
"In ruling? In exploitation! In plundering!" What does experience
in ruling mean, when in a country which, with 46,000,000 persons itself,
is administering 40,000,000 square kilometers over the entire world,
there were 2,500,000 unemployed at the beginning of the war.
Where is this art of ruling, to say nothing of the
art of leadership? It is only the unscrupulousness for robbery. And
when this same man then says: "We have a fine instinct for idealism
and material values." Yes indeed they have. They have destroyed
idealism everywhere, and they have grabbed and taken possession of material
worth and always grabbed and taken possession of it, too, by brutal
force only. For in 300 years that nation has oppressed and yoked and
subjected nation after nation, people after people, race after race.
If they were really such brilliant rulers, then they
should now be able to leave after the Indian people have expressed their
explicit desire that they do, and then to wait and see whether the Indians
call them back again. They have been careful not to leave, although
they know how to rule so wonderfully, and in this they are completely
of one mind, these plunderers, whether they run around in a Marxist
cap (Translator's note: This refers to the typical workman's visored
cap used in post-war Germany as a symbol of communism) or in a capitalistic
one.
No, my friends, they don't know how to rule. They
can only subjugate peoples and then pauperize them for their own benefit.
A handful of people-very rich ones, to be sure-of both Jewish and non-Jewish
origin are determining the fate of the world. And we can say with calmness
that Germany itself has had an example of the ability of these people
to rule. For when in the year 1918 the Reich collapsed, the blinded
German people turned then in its blind faith to these people, in the
hope that they might be shown a path by them which would lead them back
out of-their misery, the democratic Germany, not the National-Socialist
Germany.
For we would not have come at all, if this democratic
Germany had not been plundered and oppressed in that way. They did their
best to make a second India out of Germany, and they were even successful
to a large extent. They brought it about for us, too, that finally many
millions of persons had no sort of livelihood whatever, and many other
millions were working part-time. They brought it about for us, too,
that finally not ten thousands, but hundreds of thousands of farmers
were evicted from their ancestral plots of ground. They brought it about
for us, too, that commerce and exchange finally came to a standstill,
and that social welfare provisions of any kind were non-existent. They
tried out on us their governmental experiments, just as in India or
elsewhere, and if this head-tramp-I can't describe him in any other
way-Roosevelt comes and declares that they had to rescue Europe by American
methods, then the only thing I can say is, that this gentleman could
best-or should best-have rescued his own country, and then he would
not have had to enter the war at all. It would have been more fitting
for him to get rid of his own 13,000,000 unemployed than to throw the
world into a war, but he did it, because he could not solve his internal
problems and because he was setting out to plunder, just like his British
allies, not recognizing merely idealism, but primarily the material
values, for Mr. Roosevelt knows as little about idealism, aside from
..., as an Englishman.
From out of this art of government of our foes and
its horrible results in our democratic Germany, the National Socialist
movement gradually developed. For if they had really made Germany happy,
we would not have had any reason at all, and I would not have had any
ground, for devoting myself to this work day after day, week after week,
month after month, and year after year.
You know that too, all my old fellow-combatants. I
wasn't loafing then. I didn't speak in a fine club here and there, and
I didn't sit down now and then at a fireplace, and deliver a little
chat. Then I was making pilgrimages up and down through the German countryside,
from North to South and from East to West, and wore myself out, only
in order to save my people from this misery, into which these rulers
of international capitalism had forced it.
This conspiracy of Jews and capitalists and Bolsheviks
of that time, we wanted to do away with. And we finally have got rid
of it. And hardly had it been done away with, when this other world
immediately began its encirclement.
At that time it was the Germany of the Kaiser. Now
it is National Socialist Germany. At that time it was the Kaiser. Now
it is I. There is only one difference: the Germany of that time was
theoretically an empire, practically it had all gone to pieces internally.
The Kaiser of that time was a man who lacked all force
for resistance against these enemies. But in me, now, they have to face
an opponent who does not even think of the word "capitulate."
That's always been the way, ever since I was a boy-at
that time perhaps it was improper behavior but as it is, perhaps it
is a virtue after all-my habit of reserving the last word for myself.
And all our opponents can be convinced that the Germany of former times
laid down its arms at a quarter to twelve. On principle I have never
quit before five minutes after twelve. My domestic foes found that out
ten years ago. They too did not believe it, and it really was not surprising,
because naturally the position of my internal foes was different from
the position of my external foes of today, because the internal foes
of that time-
God-you know, my Party Comrades, when I began, uh,
uh, it was already easy to prophesy that . . . my whole work would have
to miscarry. On the one side this power of the press, this power of
capital, this conspiracy of influential circles, this . . . parliamentarians,
petty politicians and so forth, and the labor unions, and on the other
side the employers' organizations, and then the . . . and the parliaments
and the Reichstag. How could one single man with a small group of supporters
overcome all that? And even in the year 1932, they were still able to
believe he would fail regardless, because they could say: "We are
still stronger; we still have more men behind us than the others."
Today, I must say, the faith that they would stifle
by their might is already dead anyway, because in actuality today we
are the stronger. When I compute the number of men who are in our camp
today, and who are fighting in our camp, working in our camp, it exceeds
the number of those who today have taken up positions against us. There
is certainly no longer any comparison with the situation of that time.
And there is something else besides: this battle is now being waged
on a military basis.
And now, my Party Comrades, here we have behind us
a great German history. The English say they have never yet lost a war.
They have lost many wars; but in every war they have fought to their
last ally. That is correct, and that probably distinguishes the English
method of waging war from ours. Germany has a great history behind her,
and I need only select one hero from this history and compare his fate
with our fate-Frederick the Great against whom in his worst time there
was actually a coalition of 54,000,000 to about 3,900,000.
And today, when I compare our position with his-our
bastions, our fronts advanced everywhere far beyond the borders-then
I must say they are completely stupid if they imagine that they can
ever crush Germany. And especially if they imagine that they could possibly
impress me in any way or could make me afraid. I know perfectly well
that the battle is a very hard one, for that is probably just the difference
between me and, let us say, a man like Churchill. Churchill said that
we-the Reichsmarshal and I-had made whining speeches recently. I don't
know if I hit someone right and left and then he says that is absolute
defeatism, then one can have a good laugh.
Since 1939 I haven't felt like whining at all. Previously,
I was of course very sad, because I had done everything to prevent the
war. Recently Sven Hedin published a book in which he gratifyingly now
quotes word for word my offer to the Poles which was conveyed at that
time through the English. I must say that I really felt a chill when
I read through this offer again recently, and I can only thank Providence
that it has managed everything otherwise.
Then, too, from what I now know since then, because
if at that time this offer had been accepted, then Danzig would be German,
to be sure, but for the rest everything would have remained as it was.
We would have devoted ourselves to our social tasks, we would have worked,
we would have beautified our cities, we would have built dwelling settlements,
we would have put our roads in order, we would have established schools,
we would have built up a real National Socialist state.
And then, of course, we probably would have expended
only very little for the Wehrmacht, and one day this storm would have
broken loose from the East, would have passed over Poland, and, before
we knew it, would have been a mere 150 kilometers east of Berlin. For
that I thank the gentlemen who refused it then. At any rate, 3 years
ago I could not yet guess that either. Three years ago I was sad about
it, and therefore when the Polish campaign was at an end, I wanted to
offer my hand once more in peace, which would have cost these enemies
nothing, either. As you know, it was refused. Then I was forced to conduct
another campaign, and still another.
In the year '40 I tried again to offer my hand in
peace once more. It was refused again. With that the case was settled
for me, because every offer of peace was interpreted by these enemies
as weakness, and therefore really turned to the disadvantage of the
German Reich. Thus it would have been disloyal to try anything like
it again. It was clear to me-now only one thing matters-a state or a
world must now fall. Either ours or the other. We shall not fall; consequently
the other must fall.
You will recall, my old comrades-in-arms, how often,
in exactly the same way, I held out my hand to the internal enemies.
How long I wooed them. What pains I took with them. What didn't I do
to bring about a sensible understanding! Only after it was useless did
I decide to take those measures which are the only ones that can be
carried out in this world when reason is stilled. And to this we owe
our Brown Shirts, to this we owe our Storm Troops, to this we owe our
S. S. Elite Guards; and at last the hour came when we were rid of these
enemies, and rid of them how? And this struggle within was perhaps only
seemingly easier than the external struggle. In reality the men who
led the struggle within were once the fighters externally, too, and
they are today the fighters both within and without; because, my Party
Comrades, one thing certainly is a reason for us National Socialists
to be rather proud.
When bourgeois Germany was fighting, the Germany composed
of Marxists and Bourgeois and Center, then, to take but one example,
two deputies of the Reichstag were killed in the course of the war out
of more than two million dead. The National Socialist Reichstag has
thus far already left 39, I believe, on the field of battle, out of
a total, however, of hardly 350,000. Yes, that is certainly a different
ratio, and when I calculate the ratio of the party comrades I can say
that wherever my Storm Troopers or Party comrades or where the Elite
Guards stand at the front, they do their duty in exemplary fashion.
Here too the Reich has changed. And above all, they
fight also with a different comprehension: they know the fate that would
be in store for us if the other world should be victorious. Because
we know this fate and know it well, there is not even the slightest
thought there of any compromise. When the gentlemen say from time to
time that there is another peace offer from us, they do it only to make
up for something to their own people. From us there will be no more
peace offers at all. The last one was made in the year 1940.
There is only one thing left, that is to fight. Just
as I said at a certain moment to the internal enemies: "It is not
possible to come to an understanding with you peacefully; you want force,
so now you'll get it." And these internal enemies have been taken
care of.
Another power, too, which was very strong in Germany
has meanwhile been able to learn from experience that the National Socialist
prophecies are no mere phrases; it is the main power to which we owe
all this misfortune-international Jewry. You will recall the Reichstag
session at which I declared: "If Judaism imagines by any chance
that it can bring about an international world war for the extermination
of the European races, the result will not be the extermination of the
European races, but the extermination of the Jews in Europe."
They have always derided me as a prophet. Today countless
numbers of those who laughed at that time, laugh no longer. Those who
are still laughing now, also will perhaps laugh no longer after a while
. . . will spread beyond Europe and over the whole world. International
Jewry will be recognized in all its demoniac peril. We National Socialists
will see to that. This peril is recognized in Europe, and country after
country is adopting our legislation. Thus today we see in this vast
struggle only one single possibility; it is that of complete success,
and there now remains only the question of whether there are any reasons
at all to doubt this success.
If we follow our enemies' propaganda, then I must
say that it is to be compared with the quotation: "Rejoicing to
heaven, depressed unto death." The slightest success anywhere and
they literally turn somersaults for joy. They have already destroyed
us. Then the page turns and they are again completely cast down, and
are again depressed. I need point to only one such example:
If you read the Russian communiqués since June
22, you will read the following every day: "Fighting of unimportant
character" or maybe "of important character." "We
have shot down three times as many German planes." "The amount
of sunken tonnage is already greater than the entire naval tonnage,
greater than all types of German tonnage before the war." They
have so many of us missing that they amount to more divisions than we
can ever muster. But above all, they are always fighting in the same
place. Here and there they then say modestly, after 14 days, "We
have evacuated a city." But in general they have been fighting
since June 22 in the same place, always successfully; we are constantly
being beaten back, and in this continued retreat we have slowly come
to the Caucasus. I say "slowly"!
I should say that for my enemies, not for our soldiers.
For the speed with which our soldiers have now traversed territory is
gigantic. Also what was traversed this year is vast and historically
unique. Now I do not always do things just as the others want them done.
I consider what the others probably believe, and then do the opposite
on principle. So if Mr. Stalin expected that we would attack in the
center, I did not want to attack in the center, not only because Mr.
Stalin probably believed I would, but because I didn't care about it
any more at all. But I wanted to come to the Volga, to a definite place,
to a definite city. It accidentally bears the name of Stalin himself,
but do not think that I went after it on that account.
Indeed, it could have an altogether different name.
But only because it is an important point, that is, there 30 million
tons of traffic can be cut off, including about 9 million of oil shipments.
There all the wheat pours in from those enormous territories of the
Ukraine, of the Kuban territory, then to be transported to the North.
There the manganese ore was forwarded. A gigantic terminal was there;
I wanted to take it. And do you know, we're modest: that is, we have
it; there are only a couple of very small places left there.
Now the others say: Why aren't you fighting there?
Because I don't want to make a second Verdun but would rather do it
with very small shock units. Time plays no part here. No ships come
up the Volga any more-that is the decisive thing.
They have also reproached us, asking why it took us
so long at Sevastopol? Because there, too, we did not want to cause
an enormous mass murder. Blood is flowing as it is-more than enough.
But Sevastopol fell into our hands, and the Crimea fell into our hands.
We have reached goal after goal, stubbornly, persistently.
And if the enemy, on his part, makes preparations
to attack, don't think I want to forestall him there, but at the same
moment we let him attack also. Because then defense still is less expensive.
Then just let him attack; he'll bleed to death that way, and thus far
we have always taken care of the situation anyhow.
At any rate, the Russians are not at the Pyrenees
or before Seville; that, you see, is the same distance as for us to
be in Stalingrad today, or on the Terek, let us say;-but we are there;
that can really not be disputed. That is a fact, after all.
Naturally, when nothing else will do any more, they
also say it's a mistake. Then they suddenly turn around and say: "It
is absolutely a mistake for the Germans to have gone to Kirkenes, or
to have gone to Narvik, or now perhaps to Stalingrad-what do they expect
to do in Stalingrad? For Stalingrad is a capital mistake, a strategic
mistake." We will just wait and see whether that was a strategic
mistake.
We see already from present indications whether it
was such a great mistake that we took possession of the Ukraine, that
we-uh,-took possession of the ore region of Krivoi Rog, that we got
our hands on the manganese ores, or whether it was really such a great
mistake that we got hold of the Kuban region, the greatest granary in
the entire world, perhaps, whether it was a mistake that we, and I can
safely say this, have now destroyed or got into our own possession four-fifths
or five-sixths of all their refineries, that we alone either have right
in our hands or have completely shut off, a production of 9 or 10 million
tons of oil, and we have further cut off the transportation of perhaps
7, 8 or 9 million tons over the Volga.
And everything else which we plan to do there, whether
all-that was really so mistaken, we will soon see. Now I really don't
know, if the English had managed to take the Ruhr valley, or the Rhine
too, and then the Danube and the Elbe also, it would be-and then also
Upper Silesia, that is just about the same as the Donetz region, and
that is the Krivoi Rog ore region, and the Kerch ore region, if they
had also after that got a portion of our petroleum sources, and if they
had also got the Magdeburg Stock Exchange, whether they would still
say to us: "We made a great mistake to take those things away from
the Germans." That was an extraordinary mistake.
If they impose on their own very narrow-minded, provincial
people with that, uh-there may be a certain number of them who will
believe it. And yet everyone does not seem to believe it, because you
do hear press comments which sometimes become very angry, and say that
they should leave off with that stuff now. If they say that in order
to impose on us, well, I must say then that they are really confusing
present-day Germany with a Germany which may have existed numberless
centuries ago. They cannot convince present-day Germany of that, and
if they perhaps wish to convince me, then I can only say: "I have
never yet made my strategic plans according to the receipts or ideas
of others."
It was certainly a mistake that we made the break
through France that time and went around from above; but still it paid.
In any case the English have been marched out of France, even after
they had been in France for a rather long period of time. I believe
that they had frequently boasted that they had 1,000,000 men there,
and we don't want to forget one thing, my Party comrades men and women,-they
were then very near to our borders. They had 13 divisions there, and
besides that more than 130 French divisions, approximately another 24
Belgian divisions, and also 20 Dutch divisions, all right at our borders
on our Rhine, and where are they now?
And so if they say today that they are for all I care
advancing somewhere or other in the desert, well, they have already-made
advances several times before, and they moved back again. The decisive
thing in this war is who will deal the final blow, and you can be sure
of it that we will be the one.
It's the same way with their production. Of course
they manufacture everything and above all, they make everything much
better than we do. Whenever the Americans come out with something new,-for
instance, I read a few days ago that they have constructed a new submarine,-as
I read it, I thought at once: "Surely, that will again be the best."
And I was right. It said below: "The best submarine in the world,
with by far the most ingenious construction. It is fastest in submerging
and the best in every respect." Compared to them we are real amateurs
in the construction of submarines.
My German racial comrades, we are not asleep. Our
builders are not asleep either, and let me point out only one thing
to you. During the winter of 1939-1940 a certain Mr. Churchill stated:
"The submarine danger is eliminated. Hitler is finished."
He has destroyed two, three, five submarines daily. At that time, he
destroyed more than we even had then. He was exhausted. He had destroyed
nothing, for then I again committed a very great error. The error was:
I had only a very small number of our submarines fighting and held back
the greater part of the submarines in order to train the crews for the
new submarines being launched.
At that time the number of submarines operating against
the enemy was so small that I am today still ashamed even to speak of
it. Most of them, more than nine-tenths, remained at that time in our
home waters and trained the new crews, for we started mass production
at a certain moment. They just can't comprehend anything but American
mass production. They always act as if they are the only ones who understand
it. We understand it just as well. When they say they build so-and-so
many warships per year-well, when they count all their corvettes and
all their uh-uh-herring boats and the rest of them and stick a cannon
on them, they act as if this . . . If we figure in everything, then
I guarantee that we are not building fewer ships, only I think we are
building more useful ships than they.
In any case, this has again been proved. We have now
at any rate sunk more than 24,000,000 tons, that is almost 12,000,000
tons more than in the World War, in all. And the number of U-boats is
considerably greater than the number of U-boats in the World War. And
we go on building and constructing and do it with all types of weapons,
and when the gentlemen over there say they have wonderful new weapons,
then they haven't the slightest idea whether we haven't possessed a
better one for a long time already.
And here it is my practice only to put out a new weapon
when the old one actually is of no use any more. Why disclose new weapons
in advance? So far this policy has always proved right. We have always
had worse weapons. Of course. We have worse soldiers. That is perfectly
clear. We had a far worse organization. Who should be surprised at that?
If one compares the organization of such geniuses as-uh-Churchill and
Duff Cooper and Chamberlain and all those people, or even Roosevelt,
this organizer of . . .
If one compares these people, then, from the point
of view of organization, we, of course, were nothing but blunderers.
That is true. But so far we have achieved one success after another.
Regarding internal affairs, my dear party members, it has been just
the same. We were also continuously worse in internal affairs. We have
been incompetent. We have had no qualifications at all, but one day
we came into power. That was decisive.
It is understandable that one may not expect a new
success perhaps each week in a struggle of world-wide extent such as
we are confronted with today. That is an impossibility. Neither is it
at all decisive. Decisive is the fact of gradually occupying the positions
which must (eventually) crush the enemy, of holding and of fortifying
those positions in such a way that they cannot be retaken. You may well
believe me: Whatever we once conquer, we actually hold on to so tightly
that in this way at least no one else can dislodge us from wherever
we gain a foothold. You may rely upon that.
Furthermore, this war has been actually far extended
to our allies, the Italians, the Rumanians, the Hungarians, and the
Finns and all the other European peoples, such as the Slovaks, the Croats,
and the Spaniards, to the volunteers, . . . the Nordic volunteers. A
real world power has been achieved, a world power which also has been
suffering continuous defeats.
Since the beginning of Japan's entrance, there were
nothing but failures; everything the Japanese did was a mistake. But
when the mistakes are added up, the result amounts to something brilliant.
Just in this process they have acquired about 98 percent of the rubber
production of the Americans. In this process they have acquired the
greatest tin production in the world. They have acquired an enormous
wool production. They have acquired gigantic oil wells. So if you do
nothing but make such mistakes and this is the result, you can be quite
content.
And conversely, the others have carried out none but
the right operations. Full of genius, brave, heroic, calculating, they
have indeed great generals, MacArthur, or Wavell, or one of those very
great ones such as the world has never seen before. In between, the
generals are already writing books about the other generals. And in
spite of this, in spite of all this, the people who had no generals
have first of all got a bit further in the war than those blessed with
generals. Thus I can speak on the very day that brings us indeed the
recollection of the greatest collapse of our movement, a collapse which
at that time really seemed to mean also . . . the end of the Party.
All our enemies (were certain) that National Socialism was dead.
Now on that very day I can only say: For us National
Socialists, recollection must now mean an enormous strengthening, a
strengthening for the defiance of all dangers, never to waver and never
to yield, to meet every emergency with courage and to hold out even
when the enemy is ever so menacing.
There one must really adopt Luther's precept: "And
if the world were full of devils, we must and shall succeed." Precisely
today we look into the future with so much confidence, now that we have
survived the past winter, a winter which indeed we could not comprehend
in all its terrible danger when I spoke to you a year ago. Today I look
into the future quite differently.
That time somehow, many even leading and thinking
people were oppressed by the recollection of Napoleon's fate in 1812,
and the winter of 1812 was exactly 50 percent as cold as the winter
we put behind us last year.
This year we are indeed prepared quite differently.
Here too, this or that person may lack this or that and miss it, and
so on. Then, in any case, we turn to the nation with the request that
it might give this, perhaps, or give that or contribute something else
besides, but for this winter we are equipped differently. That I can
say. Even if it should prove to be exactly as severe as the last one,
all that happened to us this last winter will no longer happen to us
this time.
And I have already said once: A great philosopher
declared that when a blow does not knock a man down it only makes him
stronger. There I can only say: The blow which did not knock us down
last winter has only made us stronger.
It is immaterial where the front may be, Germany will
always ward off the blows and will always advance and attack, and I
do not doubt for a moment that our method will be successful in the
end.
If today Roosevelt conducts his attack upon North
Africa with the remark that he must protect it from Germany and from
Italy and so on, we need not waste words regarding these lies by this
one scoundrel. He is beyond a doubt the chief gangster of this whole
outfit we are confronting. But one may be sure that Mr. Roosevelt will
certainly not have the last decisive word in the matter.
We shall prepare all our blows thoroughly, as we always
have done, and they always have been struck at the right time. And not
one blow which the others intended to strike against us so far has been
successful. There was once triumphant shouting, when the first Englishman
landed at Boulogne and then advanced. Six months later this triumphant
shouting was over. Events turned out differently. They will be different
again, today.
You may have full confidence. Your leaders and the
Armed Forces will do all that must be done and all that can be done.
And I have unyielding confidence that, above all, the German homeland
is behind the leadership and the armed forces, and that the entire National
Socialist Party particularly, stands behind me as one pledged community.
That which distinguishes our period from the last one is the fact that
at that time the people did not stand behind the Kaiser while behind
me stands one of the most splendid organizations that has ever been
built up on this earth, and that organization represents the German
people.
Vice versa, however, what distinguishes the present
time from then is the fact that at the head of this people there is
no one who would ever, in critical times, go to a foreign land, but
that at the head of this people is someone who has never known anything
but struggle, and who has always known but one principle: "Strike,
strike and strike again."
Another factor distinguishes the present German people
from those of that time. Then there was a leadership that had no roots
in the people, because in the last analysis it had been a . . .
Today we are in the midst of the completion of what
grew out of the war of that time, because when I returned from the war
I brought the front experience into the homeland with me. From that
front experience I built up at home my National Socialist community
of the people.
Today the National Socialist community of the people
goes to the front, and you will perceive from many things how this Wehrmacht
grows more National Socialistic from month to month, how it constantly
takes on more and more the imprint of the new Germany, how all privileges,
class prejudices and so on are being eliminated more and more, how the
German community of the people here becomes more dominant from month
to month, and how at the end of-this war the German community of the
peoples will have proved itself most in this very war, perhaps. This
distinguishes the present Germany from the Germany of that time.
And to this we owe, on the one hand, immeasurable
heroism at the front, a heroism of millions of iron soldiers, known
and unknown, a heroism of tens and tens of thousands of brave officers
who today feel themselves more and more in closer community with their
men. They have in part already sprung from these men. They have in fact
put aside all obstacles.
Just as in the Party, anyone can reach any position,
if he is capable, and just as even the poorest child of our nation can
aspire to any government position, even the highest one, ever since
this Party has been in power, so also it is exactly the same in the
armed forces. And as a matter of fact not only theoretically, or merely
as an exception which occurs here and there, but in actual practice.
Today there are the Oak Leaf wearers, the subordinate officers or the
corporals. Knight's Crosses were given to numerous iron men who have
distinguished themselves heroically. Countless officers have advanced
from the ranks. We are building an army in the midst of the war which
is unparalleled in the history of the world.
And back home, on the other hand, a people is working,
and here I must also state before the German homeland what I have already
stated in the Reichstag: In the year 1917-1918, the munitions factories
went on strike. Today we have overtime, and work and more work. Today
the-German worker in the homeland knows that he is forging the weapons
for his comrades out there (on the front).
What is being accomplished here in the country and
in the city, by men, and above all also by innumerable women, is tremendous.
It is also quite clear, that there is one sphere in which we can not
compete with our opponents.
Just as at one time the Party was the poorest among
the parties existing then, and members solely on the strength of idealism,
so it is natural today also that the German nation is perhaps the poorest
of all the nations in the world as regards its gold reserves.
We have no gold. But what we have, is a capacity for
work which is a real value. What we have, is sacred industriousness
and a sacred will, and that is in the long run a thousand times more
decisive than gold in such a struggle for life or death.
For of what value are their gold treasure (Translators
note: Uses English term "treasures") to the Americans now,
except for having dentures made, or something of that sort? But of what
real benefit is that to them? If they had ten synthetic rubber factories
instead of gold, that would be worth more to them, than the entire gold
reserves, which they have accumulated. I have had other things built
for me. In any case we didn't go into this war with gold, but with the
provisions necessary for the conduct of this struggle, and anyway we
Germans do not have a tank which is without rubber treads but the English
do have them today.
We will see the war through as to material, and better
than ever now. For they have put us in possession of regions providing
raw materials which are necessary in order to be able to last through
this war under all circumstances. And if anyone says, "Well, why
don't we see more of it?" well, it's very simple.
Don't get the idea, my internationalist gentlemen,
or whatever I might call them-that we just stood there in front of the
destroyed railroad bridges or the destroyed railroad tracks or the destroyed
water power works or the destroyed ore mines or the destroyed coal mines
and, our hands in our pockets, and contemplated them at length. During
these years work has been done, and how! And now it is gradually beginning
to pay dividends.
And when next year comes, only then will the fruits
of this labor really appear, and I can say here with pride that the
party has proven itself mightily in this, and innumerable brave party
comrades are out there and are organizing with a handful of persons
as experienced National Socialist district leaders or local group leaders,
and are organizing gigantic regions, and opening up making these regions
available for our efficient industrial economy, our nourishment, and
in fact, in a broader sense, for the feeding and maintenance of all
of Europe.
For this is not a war which Germany is waging for
herself alone, but it is a war which is actually being fought for Europe,
and only thus is it understandable that such willing-that so many willing
volunteers have been found from the North to the South who are in part
fighting in our own ranks and in part are arrayed as independent armies
or independent detachments with us in this most tremendous front of
world history. Therefore, it is our irrevocable determination that the
peace which will come some time, because it has to come, will really
be a peace for Europe, and one without the sponsorship of those men
with the fine instinct for idealism and material values.
For what instinct Mr. Eden has for idealism we don't
know. He has never proved nor shown it anywhere. His behavior doesn't
indicate it either. Above all, the culture of his own country is by
no means such as could possibly impress us. Of the man across the ocean
I shall not speak at all in this connection. So their instinct for idealism
is surely smaller than our instinct, for we probably have given more
idealism to the world than the society which is in care of Mr. Eden.
The same applies to the people who are our allies; some of them look
back upon cultures compared to which the culture of the English Island
kingdom is really an infinitely young, not to say infantile, culture.
Regarding the material values, however, I believe
them; they do have a fine instinct for them. But we have it too. The
only difference is that we want to make sure under all circumstances
that the material values of Europe will in the future benefit the European
peoples also, and not an extra-continental little international finance's
clique-that is our unshakable and inexorable resolve. The people of
Europe are not fighting afterwards so that a few people of fine instincts
should again come along and begin to plunder mankind and make millions
of unemployed, just in order to fill their vaults.
We had good reason to depart from the gold standard.
We wished to eliminate in that way one of the conditions for this kind
of economic conception and economic management. And this is very certain:
Europe will come out of this war much healthier economically than before,
because a large part of this continent, which was hitherto organized
against Europe, has now been placed in the service of the European nations.
If now I am told: "Ha, ha, so you want to transplant
the Dutch," well, I want to transplant no one, but I believe there
will be many people who will be happy to get a bit of earth of their
own and to be able to work on it, and not to have to drudge and slave,
as is partly the case in this over-settled and overfilled continent.
Above all, however, they will be happy if they themselves get the benefit
of the reward for this work, if their peoples benefit, if their working
men and women benefit, and not a vault which is in the Bank of London,
if you wish, or in New York. I believe therefore that at the end of
this war there will be collapse of this domination of gold, externally
also, and thereby the collapse of this whole society which is to blame
for this war.
We all know the mission of the National Socialist
Party. I need not repeat it today. We started out to fight this enemy
in the interior, we have done everything to find our way through this
world by our work. What have we not organized! They have laughed at
us, yes, always they have laughed whenever we had new substitute materials
(Ersatzstoffe). We have not done this for pleasure. We were compelled
to do it. Either millions of men would have not had work and unbelievable
values would not have been produced or we would have had to adapt ourselves
to new methods. We have done it.
By performing this work we have simultaneously identified
ourselves with peace, for by doing so we wanted to maintain peace. Our
enemies have rejected it. National Socialism was a fighting phenomenon,
for many, many years in the interior, and today it has to be one against
the exterior, there against the surroundings against the outside world.
And so I expect each party member, above all, to be a representative
of this faith in victory and in success, with the utmost fanaticism
just as he was during the period of the struggle. Today it is much easier
than it was then. Today, I must admire each of my party members of that
party, all these many small men, who believed in the unknown nameless
soldier of the world war, these men, who followed me at that time, who
placed their lives at my disposal, so many of them who gave their lives,
not only here, at that time in the old Reich, but also in the Eastern
territories and in the Sudeten country, and also elsewhere in other
countries.
I must admire them. They followed me at that time,
when I was an absolutely unknown man. Today there appears before all
of us together, the powerful, great Reich, and above all, what stands
before us is the "to be or not to be" of our entire nation.
Every National Socialist who believed in me then, can still be a fanatic
for the fight on the outside today, and he must struggle through to
the same fanatical consistency that we possessed at that time. We have
opponents. There can be no mercy allowed them. On the contrary there
is only one possibility: Either we fall or our opponent falls. We are
aware of that, and we are men enough to look this knowledge straight
in the eye, cool as ice. And that differentiates me from those gentlemen,
in London and America; if I require much of the German soldier, I am
demanding no more than I myself have always been ready to do also.
If I demand this of the German nation, I am calling
for no more work than I myself do also. If I require overtime work of
many of them, I don't even know what overtime is in my life. That I
don't know at all. For every individual has the good for tune, perhaps,
that at a certain time he can leave his work and then he is free. My
work is the fate of the Reich. I can't leave it. It pursues me day and
night, because I have stepped to the head of the nation.
In these days of gray misery and wretchedness and
grief and ruin, any leave at all for me would be ridiculous. After all,
what is leave? A leave is always in my eyes one single thing; it is
Germany, it is my people, it is its future, it is the future of its
children. Therefore I demand from no one else . . . therefore I demand
from no one else more than I demand of myself, or what I am ready to
do myself.
I know that my old party comrades now actually constitute
the core of this movement, and that in memory of the first blood sacrifices
offered by us at that time, they are already leading the nation with
their example, and that they are being joined by all the hundreds and
hundreds of thousands, the millions, of National Socialist functionaries,
of party members, and those who belong to the organizations associated
with us are marching with us, all of our men of the Storm Troops, of
the S. S. (Schutzstaffel or Elite Guard), are marching with us, the
men of our Labor Front are marching with us, the men of the Reich Labor
Service; in short, the entire National Socialist German people.
The wonderful thing today is that we are not isolated
like people crying in the wilderness, as was once the case with me,
but that every word which we address to the nation today, finds a thousand-fold
echo.
And if the foe believes that he can soften us by any
means whatsoever, he is mistaken. Nor can he influence me to turn aside
from an objective. The hour strikes and then I hit back and I do it
with interest and compound interest.
You will remember the long period when we had to be
legal as party comrades. How often did my old party comrades come to
me and say: "Fuehrer" and they also called me "Chief"
in those days, or they said "Adolf Hitler, why may we not strike
back? Why do we have to take that?" For years I had to force them
repeatedly to be legal.
I had to expel party members from the movement with
an aching heart, because they believed that they could not obey this
command, year after year, until finally the hour came, when I could
call upon them.
And that's the way it is today too. Sometimes for
months at a time I have to let things go somewhere. But don't you believe
that that does not make my heart feel like bursting with anger when
I hear about these air-raids. You know that I did not do those things
for months. I did not allow a single bomb to be dropped in the city
of Paris. Before we attacked Warsaw, I called for surrender five times,
I was always refused. I asked that at least the women and children be
sent out. Not even the officer bearing the flag of truce was received.
Everything was refused, and only then did I decide to do what is permitted
by every law of war.
When the English started to drop their bombs, I waited
three and a half months and did nothing. At that time there were many
who said: "Why don't we answer them? Why isn't . . . ? We were
already strong enough to do it. I waited, thinking simply that perhaps
they would still come to their senses.
It turned out differently. Believe me, it is no different
today. I am taking note of it all. They will still learn over there
that the German spirit of invention has not rested, and they will get
such an answer that it will leave them dizzy.
And I have already had to tell the people several
times before that the fact that now and then I don't talk for a long
time, does not mean that I have lost my voice, but it means only that
I did not consider it expedient to talk. Today it is the same. Why should
I talk a lot now? Today in the last analysis it is the front that talks.
Everything else is babble. Only on the rarest occasion would I like
to take the floor, because what the front says is so forceful, it is
such a unique language, that it is binding upon every single German
anyway. Whoever reads the army communiqué or the Wehrmacht communiqué
and then does not make himself fanatically one with his people, after
hearing over and over again this tremendous number of heroic deeds,
cannot be helped by talk either.
And as for the outside world-well, I do not speak
for the benefit of the outside world at all. I have never yet spoken
for the outside world. I speak only for my German people. Whether people
abroad listen to me or not is entirely immaterial to me.
If Mr. Roosevelt says he does not hear my speeches,
I can only say, I do not talk for Mr. Roosevelt's benefit at all. Once
he accosted me by telegraph, and thereupon I gave him my reply, as a
polite man would, but otherwise I do not talk to Mr. Roosevelt at all.
I now talk through that instrument through which one can only talk today
and that instrument talks loud and distinct enough.
Otherwise I talk only on the rarest occasions to the
movement and to my own German people, and all that I can say for such
a speech is only one thing: Think incessantly, men and women, only of
the fact that this war will decide the "To be or not to be"
of our people. And if you understand that, each one of your thoughts
and each of your actions will be one single prayer for our Germany.