Nation, Rise Up, and Let the Storm Break Loose[1]
by Joseph Goebbels
The Nazi
Propaganda Minister’s most famous speech in 1943, just after the disastrous
defeat at Stalingrad, had a big effect on the German people.
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 afterward 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 then occurring on the Volga, we gathered together on the 30th
of January[2]
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 Sports
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 us 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 have 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. They know the
gravity of the situation, and their 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 barriers 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 hour is at hand! There is no time for
fruitless debates. We must act, immediately and decisively, as has always been
the National Socialist way.
The movement has from its
beginning acted in that way to overcome the many crises it faced and overcome.
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 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
situation in the East.[3]
The crisis is at the moment a broad one, similar but not identical in many ways
with that of the previous winter. Later we will discuss the causes. Now, we
must accept things as they are and look for the ways and means to turn things
again in our favour. There is no point in disputing the seriousness of the
situation. I do not want to give you a false impression of the situation that
could lead to false conclusions, perhaps giving the German people a false sense
of security that is altogether inappropriate in the present situation.
The storm raging against our
venerable continent from the steppes this winter overshadows all previous human
and historical experience. The German army and its allies are the only possible
defense. In his proclamation on 30 January, the Führer asked in a grave and
compelling way what would have become of Germany and Europe if, on 30 January 1933,
a bourgeois or democratic government had taken power instead of the National
Socialists! What dangers would have followed, faster than we could then have
suspected, and what powers of defense would we have had to meet them? Ten years
of National Socialism have been enough to make plain to the German people the
seriousness of the danger posed by Bolshevism from the East. Now one can
understand why we spoke so often of the fight against Bolshevism at our
Nuremberg Party Rallies. We raised our voices in warning to our German people
and the world, hoping to awaken Western humanity from the paralysis of will and
spirit into which it had fallen. We tried to open their eyes to the horrible
danger from Eastern Bolshevism, which had subjected a nation of nearly 200
million people to the terror of the Jews and was preparing an aggressive war
against Europe.
When the Führer ordered the
army to attack the East on 22 June 1941, we all knew that this would be the
decisive battle of this great struggle. We knew the dangers and difficulties.
But we also knew that dangers and difficulties always grow over time, they
never diminish. It was two minutes before midnight. Waiting any longer could
easily have led to the annihilation of the Reich and a total Bolshevization of
the European continent.[4]
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.[5]
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 energy. 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 is a motivating force. 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 also 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 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 enough 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[6] slavery.
They find workers for the Siberian tundra in the forced labour battalions of
Moscow, 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. The goal of its aggressive policies 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.
The German people, in any event, are
unwilling to bow to this danger. Behind the oncoming Soviet divisions we see
the Jewish liquidation commandos, and behind them terror, the spectre 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 in which it played no role in
building.
We also know our historic responsibility. Two
thousand years of Western history 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 proper
conclusions. That is what we did in our former 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 spectre of hunger,
misery, and forced labour by millions of Germans. We could see our venerable
part of the world collapse, and bury in its ruins the ancient inheritance of
the West. That is the danger we face today.
My second thesis: Only the German Reich and
its allies are in the position to resist this danger. The European nations,
including England, believe that they are strong enough to resist effectively
the Bolshevization of Europe, should it come to that. This belief is childish
and not even worth refuting. If the strongest military force in the world is
not able to break the threat of Bolshevism, who else could do it? (The crowd in
the Sportpalast shouts "No one!"). The neutral European nations have
neither the potential or the military means or the spiritual strength to
provide even the least resistance to Bolshevism. Bolshevism's robotic divisions
would roll over them within a few days. In the capitals of the mid-sized and
smaller European states, they console themselves with the idea that one must be
spiritually armed against Bolshevism (laughter). That reminds us of the
statements by bourgeois parties in 1932, who thought they could fight and win
the battle against communism with spiritual weapons. That was too stupid even
then to be worth refuting. Eastern Bolshevism is not only a doctrine of
terrorism, it is also the practice of terrorism. It strives for its goals with
an infernal thoroughness, using every resource at its disposal, regardless of
the welfare, prosperity or peace of the peoples it ruthlessly oppresses. What
would England and America do if 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 people to sleep, paralysing their defensive abilities. (Shouts from the
crowd: "We have experienced it!"). Our insight into the matter led us
to the early realization that cooperation between international plutocracy and
international Bolshevism was not a contradiction, 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 or even in the enemy
states. That is also not my intention. I know that, given our problems on the
Eastern Front, the English press tomorrow will furiously attack me with the
accusation that I have made the first peace feelers (loud laughter). That is
certainly not so. No one in Germany thinks any longer of a cowardly compromise.
The entire people thinks only of a hard war. As a spokesman for the leading
nation of the continent, however, I claim the right to call a danger a danger
if it threatens not threatens not only our own land, but our entire continent.
We National Socialists have the duty to sound the alarm against International
Jewry's attempt to plunge the European continent into chaos, and to warn that
Jewry has in Bolshevism a terrible 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, the 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 people 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, rather intends to take the most radical
measures in good time (After this sentence, the chants of the audience prevent
the Minister from going on for several minutes).
The military difficulties of the Reich in the
East are at the centre of everything. The war of mechanized robots against
Germany and Europe has reached its high point. In resisting the grave 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 worldwide plague will not be hindered by the worldwide outcry of International
Jewry. It can and must end only with victory (Here there are loud shouts:
"German men, to arms! German women, to work!"[7]).
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 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 in its own land. 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 faith, 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. 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 gain in the future.
Total war is the demand of the hour. We must
put an end to the bourgeois attitude which we have also seen in this war: Wash
my back, but don't get me wet! (Every sentence is met with growing applause and
agreement.) The danger facing us is enormous. The efforts we take to meet it
must be just as enormous. The time has come to remove the gloves and use our
fists. (A cry of elemental agreement rises. Chants from the galleries and seats
testify to the full approval of the crowd.) We can no longer make only partial
use of the war potential at home and throughout Europe. 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 blood in this battle. The rest of Europe
should at least work to support us. There are 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. But the
danger is to us all, and we must all do our share. Those who today do not
understand that will thank us tomorrow on bended knees that we courageously and
firmly took on the task.
It bothers us not in the least that our
enemies abroad claim that our total war measures resemble those of Bolshevism.
They claim hypocritically that that means there is no need to fight Bolshevism.
The question here is not one of method, but of the goal, namely eliminating the
danger. (Applause for several minutes) The question is not whether the methods
are good or bad, but whether they work. 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 giving up a significant part of our living standard to increase
our war effort as quickly and completely as possible. This is 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 in our favour.
As countless letters from the Homeland and
the Front have shown, by the way, the entire German nation agrees. Everyone
knows that if we lose, we 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
hurricane of applause greeted my call on 30 January for total war[8].
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 victory. (Lively applause)
This naturally assumes that the burdens are shared equally. (Loud approval) We cannot tolerate a situation in which most people carry the burden of the war, while a small portion attempts to escape its burdens and responsibilities. The measures we have taken and will 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 has ever been lost because of too many soldiers or weapons. Many, however, have been lost because the opposite was true.
It is time to get the
slackers moving. (Stormy agreement) They must be shaken out of their comfortable ease.
We cannot wait until they come to their senses. That might be too late. The
alarm must sound throughout the nation. Millions of hands must get to work
throughout the country. The measures we have taken, and the ones we will now
take, and which I shall discuss later in this speech, are critical for our
whole public and private life. The individual may have to make great
sacrifices, but they are tiny when compared to the sacrifices he would have to
bring if his refusal brought down on us great 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 life of the patient.
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 draconic penalties. (Agreement)
Leniency here would be completely out of place, leading in time to a confusion
in the people's emotions and attitudes that would be a grave danger to our
public morale.
We are therefore compelled to adopt a series
of measures that are not essential from the military point of view, but which
seem to be essential to maintaining morale at home and at the Front. The
"optics of the war," the way things look, is of decisive political
importance in this fourth year of war. In view of the superhuman sacrifices of
those at the Front, our soldiers have the basic right to expect that no one in
the Homeland avoids his duties. And not only the Front, but the overwhelming
decent majority of those in the homeland make the same demand. (Stormy
applause) 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 its war effort.
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.[9]
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
disturbed the scenery. We have nothing against such amusements. 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 same 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 impresses foreigners. Other countries will be impressed only
by a German victory! (Stormy applause). Everyone will want to be our friend
when we have won the war. But if we lose, we will be able to count our friends
on the fingers of one hand. We have put an end to such illusions. We want to
put these people standing in empty shops to useful work in the war economy.
This process is already in motion, and will be completed by 15 March. It is of
course a major transformation in our entire economic life. We are following a plan.
We do not want to accuse anyone unjustly or open them to complaints 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 the returning soldiers
without their peacetime finery. (Applause)
Government offices will work faster and less
bureaucratically. It does not leave a good impression when the office closes on
the dot after eight hours. The people are not there for the offices, the
offices are there for the people. One has to work until the work is done. That
is a requirement of the war. If the Führer can do that, so can the state's
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 nation.
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!,"[10] 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
rest since the war began. Since the first man of the county takes his duty so
seriously, 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 people. That which serves the people and keeps
up their fighting and working strength is good and essential to the war effort.
We want to eliminate the opposite. I have therefore ordered that intellectual
and spiritual establishments that serve the people not be decreased, but
increased. As long as they aid the war effort, they must be supported by the
government. That applies to sport as well. Sports are not only for the upper
circles today, but a matter for the entire nation. 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 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, 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 Socialists 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, rather light. The
people want to be led. Never in history has a brave and determined leadership
failed its people at 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 cancelled. These exemptions were
given because we did not have enough skilled labor to fill the positions that
would 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. We do not need to point out
Bolshevism's example. For years, millions of the best German women have been
working successfully, and they wait impatiently to be joined 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 and work with the NSV [the party welfare organization].
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 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 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. Maintain and strengthen this good name! If I appeal to my fellow
Berliners to do some important work quickly and without complaint, I know they
will 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 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. 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 greater
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 proud to reveal this plan for victory (Stormy
applause) to the German people. They not only accept these measures, they have
demanded them, demanded them more strongly than ever before during the war. The
people want action! It is time for it! We must use our time to prepare for
coming surprises.
I turn now to the entire German people, and
particularly to the party, as the leader of the totalization of our domestic
war effort. This is not the first major task you have faced. You will bring the
usual revolutionary elan 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
Europeans. 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 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 tragic outcome at Stalingrad. It has looked into
the face of hard and pitiless war. It knows now the awful truth, and is
resolved to follow the Führer through thick and thin. (The crowd rises and like
the roaring ocean chants: Führer command, we follow! Heil our Führer!" The
Minister is unable to continue for several minutes.)
The English and American press in recent days
has been writing at length about the attitude of the German people during this
crisis. The English seem to think that they know the German people much better
than we do, its own leadership. They give hypocritical advice on what we should
do and not do. They believe that the German people today are 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
honestly. When my audience cheered on 30 January, the English press reported
the next day that it was all a propaganda theater that did not represent the
true opinion of the German people. (Spontaneous shouts of Pfui!"
"Lies!" "Let them come here! They will learn differently!")
I have invited to today's meeting a cross-section of the German people in the
best sense of the word. (The Minister's words were accompanied by stormy
applause that increased in intensity as he came to the representatives of the
army present at the meeting.) In front of me are rows of wounded German
soldiers from the Eastern Front, missing legs and arms, with wounded bodies,
those who have lost their sight, those who have come with nurses, men in the
blush of youth who stand with crutches. Among them are 50 who bear the Knight's
Cross with Oak Leaves, shining examples of our fighting Front. Behind them are
armaments workers from the Berlin tank factory. Behind them are party
officials, soldiers from the fighting army, doctors, scientists, artists,
engineers and architects, teachers, officials and employees from offices, proud
representatives of every area of our intellectual life that even in the midst
of war produce miracles of human genius. Throughout the Sportpalast I see
thousands of German women. The youth is here, as are the aged. No class, no
occupation, no age remained uninvited. I can rightly say that before me is
gathered a representative sample of the German population, both from the
Homeland and the Front. Is that true? Yes or no? (The Sportpalast experiences
something seen only rarely even in this old fighting locale of National
Socialism. The masses spring to their feet. A hurricane of thousands of voices
shouts ‘yes’. The participants experience a spontaneous popular referendum and
expression of will.) You, my hearers, at this moment represent the whole
nation. I wish to ask you ten questions that you will answer for the German
people throughout the world, but especially for our enemies, who are listening
to us on the radio. (Only with difficulty can the Minister be heard. The crowd
is at the peak of excitement. The individual questions are razor sharp. Each
individual feels as if he is being spoken to personally. With full
participation and enthusiasm, the crowd answers each question. The Sportpalast
rings with a single shout of agreement.)
The English maintain that the German people
has lost faith in victory.
I ask you: Do you believe with the Führer and
us in the final total victory of the German people?
I ask you: Are you resolved to follow the
Führer through thick and thin to victory, and are you willing to accept the
heaviest personal burdens in the fight for victory?
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 are resisting the government's total war
measures. They do not want total war, but capitulation! (Shouts: Never! Never!
Never!)
I ask you: Do you want total
war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that
we can even imagine today?
Fifth: The English
maintain that the German people have lost faith in the Führer.
I ask you: Is your confidence in the Führer
greater, more faithful and unshakable than ever before? Are you absolutely and
completely ready to follow him wherever he goes and do all that is necessary to
bring the war to a victorious end? (The crowd rises as one man. It displays
unprecedented enthusiasm. Thousands of voices join in shouting: "Führer
command, we follow!" A wave of shouts of Heil flows through the hall. As
if by command, the flags and standards are raised as the highest expression of
the sacred moment in which the crowd honours the Führer.)
Sixth, I ask you: Are you ready from now on to give your full strength to provide the Eastern Front with the men and munitions it needs to give Bolshevism the death blow?
Seventh, I ask you: Do you take a holy oath to the Front that the Homeland stands firm behind them, and that you will give them everything then 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 marketeers 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
false illusions or 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 themselves,
stand behind us and are 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 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 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 eventual 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)
[1] The source: "Nun, Volk steh auf, und Sturm brich los! Rede im Berliner Sportpalast," Der steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944), pp. 167-204.
Translation by http://www.calvin.edu/
[2] Also the 10th anniversary of Hitler’s seizure of power. It was a day of humiliation as an air raid forced Goering, the head of the air force, to make his speech in an air raid shelter.
[3] The German strength in southern Russia had been halved after the total annihilation of the Sixth Army.
[4] Is this really true? Soviet intelligence reveals that they were actually planning an invasion of Germany.
[5] Hitler’s intelligence reports often grossly underestimated the Soviet strength.
[6] The Germans always linked the Russians and the Jews together.
[7] After the disaster at Stalingrad, the German Reich got the people moving.
[8] That speech was Goebbel’s second most famous.
[9] This was part of the mourning for the entire German nation.
[10] This German slogan was adopted until April 1945, when it became, “Victory or Siberia!”