Here is a video excerpt of
Goebbels' speech with English subtitles. Scroll down for the
transcript.
It follows the English translation of the full text transcript of
Joseph Goebbels' Do You Want Total War? speech,
delivered in the Sportpalast at Berlin,
Germany - February 18, 1943.
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 January 30, the
Führer asked in a grave and compelling way what
would have become of Germany and Europe if, on
January 30, 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 June 22, 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
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. 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. 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. 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
[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.
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 therefore 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! 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. 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.
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 January 30 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.
This naturally
assumes that the burdens are shared equally. 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. 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. 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! 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 March 15. 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.
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 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 chants for several minutes, "Führer command,
we follow! Heil our Führer!"]
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. I have
invited to today's meeting a cross-section of
the German people in the best sense of the word.
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 crowd jumps
up and shouts Yes!]
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.
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! 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?
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.
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. 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!
[The minister's final words were lost in
unending stormy applause.]
Also called the
Persian Wars, the Greco-Persian Wars were
fought for almost half a century from 492 BC -
449 BC. Greece won against enormous odds. Here
is more:
