Posted on 09/13/2008 6:14:15 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
ment is an enemy of the State and according to democratic conceptions of the State, an outlaw. The so-called nation of the Czechs has thus been selected by Providence, which in this case made use of those who once designed Versailles, to see that no one rose against this purpose of the State.
Should, however, some one belonging to the majority of the oppressed people of this nation protest against this, the nation may knock him down with force and kill him if it is necessary or desired. If this were a matter foreign to us and one that did not concern us, we would regard this case, as so many others, merely as an interesting illustration of the democratic conception of people’s rights and the right of self-determination and simply take note of it.
But it is something most natural that compels us Germans to take an interest in this problem. Among the majority of nationalities that are being suppressed in this State there are 3,500,000 Germans. That is about as many persons of our race as Denmark has inhabitants.
These Germans, too, are creatures of God. The Almighty did not create them that they should be surrendered by a State construction made at Versailles to a foreign power that is hateful to them, and He has not created 7,000,000 Czechs in order that they should supervise 3,500,000 Germans or act as guardians for them and still less to do them violence and torture.
The conditions in this nation are unbearable, as is generally known. Politically more than 3,500,000 people were robbed in the name of the right of self-determination of a certain Mr. Wilson of their self-determination and of their right to self-determination. Economically these people were deliberately ruined and afterward handed over to a slow process of extermination.
These truths cannot be abolished by phrases. They are testified to by deeds. The misery of the Sudeten Germans is without end. They want to annihilate them. They are being oppressed in an inhuman and intolerable manner and treated in an undignified way. When 3,500,000 who belong to a people of almost 80,000,000 are not allowed to sing any song that the Czechs do not like because it does not please the Czechs or are brutally struck for wearing white stockings because the Czechs do not like it, and do not want to see them, and are terrorized or maltreated because they greet with a form of salutation that is not agreeable to them, although they are greeting not Czechs but one another, and when they are pursued like wild beasts for every expression of their national life [cheers]. This may be a matter of indifference to several representatives of our democracies or they may possibly even be sympathetic because it concerns only 3,500,000 Germans. I can only say to representatives of the democracies that this is not a matter of indifference to us. [Cheers.]
And I say that if these tortured creatures cannot obtain rights and assistance by themselves, they can obtain both from us. An end must be made of depriving these people of their rights. I have already said this quite clearly in my speech of Feb. 22.
It was a short-sighted piece of work when the statesmen at Versailles brought the abnormal structure of Czechoslovakia into being. It was possible to violate the demands of millions of another nationality only so long as the brother nation itself was suffering from the consequences of general maltreatment by the world.
To believe that such a regime could go on sinning without hindrance forever was possible only through a scarcely credible degree of blindness. I declared in my speech of Feb. 22 before the Reichstag that the Reich would not tolerate any further continued oppression of 3,500,000 Germans, and I hope that the foreign statesmen will be convinced that these were no mere words.
The National Socialist State has consented to very great sacrifices indeed, very great national sacrifices for the sake of European peace; not only has it not cherished so-called thoughts of revenge, but on the contrary it has banished them from all its public and private life.
In the course of the seventeenth century France took Alsace and Lorraine from the old German Reich in the midst of peace. In 1870 to 1871, after a hard war that had been forced upon her, Germany demanded these territories back and obtained them. After the Word War they were lost again. The minster of Strasbourg meant a great deal to us Germans. When we decided finally to renounce it, it was for the purpose of serving the cause of European peace in the future.
Nobody could have forced us to give up these ideas of revenge of our own accord if we had not wanted to do so. We have given them up because we wanted once and for all to end this eternal dispute with France. At other frontiers also the Reich ordered that the same determined measures be taken and adopted the same attitude.
National Socialism advanced, truly supported by the spirit of responsibility. We shouldered voluntarily the greatest sacrifices in the form of claims surrendered in order to preserve peace for Europe in the future and, above all, in order to have on our part a way for a reconciliation of nations. We have acted far more than merely from loyalty. Neither in the press nor in the films nor on the stage was propaganda carried out contrary to these decisions.
Not even in literature was an exception tolerated. In this spirit I myself made an offer for a solution of the questions at issue in order to remove tension in Europe. We ourselves voluntarily restricted our power in an important field in a hope never to have to cross swords again with the nation in question [a reference to the naval agreement with Britain].
This was not done because we could not have built more than 35 per cent of its ships, but it was done in order to make a contribution toward a final lessening of tension, and appeasement in a serious situation. They immediately accepted it and confirmed an agreement that meant for Europe’s peace more than all the talk made in Geneva’s League of Nations. Germany had definitely become reconciled to a large number of her frontiers. Germany is determined to accept these frontiers as unalterable and definite, and thereby give Europe a feeling of peace.
This self-restriction of Germany is obviously interpreted by many people as a sign of Germany’s weakness. I wish to put this view right today. I think it would hardly serve European peace if I left any doubt about the following: Acceptance of these frontiers does not mean that Germany is disinterested in all European problems and particularly that she is indifferent to what is happening to 3,500,000 Germans and that she does not feel with them in their plight.
We quite understand that the French and British defend their interests in the whole world. I may assure the statesmen in Paris and London that there are also German interests that we are determined to defend in all circumstances.
May I remind you of my speech to the Reichstag in 1933, when for the first time I stated before the world that there may be national questions that I would take it upon me to fulfill in spite of all distress and danger that may be connected with them. No European nation has done more for peace than Germany. No nation has made greater sacrifices.
But it must be realized that these sacrifices also have their limits and that the National Socialist State must not be confused with the Germany of Bethmann-Hollweg and Hertling. [Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg was German Chancellor during the World War up to July, 1917 and Count Georg von Hertling was a successor.]
If I make this statement here, it is done especially because in the course of this year an event took place that forced us all to subject our attitude to certain correction. In this year, as you know, after endless postponement of any king of plebiscite had occurred, local elections, at any rate, were to take place in Czechoslovakia.
Even in Prague people were convinced of the untenable nature of the Czech situation. They were afraid of Germans joining up with other nationalities. They thought that at last measures must be taken to influence the result of the election by bringing pressure on the conduct of the elections.
The Czech Government discovered the idea that the only effective thing to do was brutal browbeating. To give effect to this they decided to make a demonstration to the Sudeten Germans of the forces of the Czechoslovak State. Above all, the brute force of the Czechs’ power must be displayed to warn them against representing their national interests and to make them vote accordingly. In order to make this demonstration plausible before the election, Dr. Benes [Czech President] and the Czech Government invented the lie that Germany had mobilized troops and was about to invade Czechoslovakia.
I have the following statement to make on this subject today: There is nothing new about making such lying statements. Last year the press of other countries published the false news that 20,000 German soldiers had landed in Morocco. The Jewish fabricators of these press lies hoped to bring about war by this means. A statement to the French Ambassador sufficed to put an end to this lie. Also the Ambassador of another great power was immediately informed that there was not a word of truth in this Czech statement. This statement was repeated a second time and immediately brought to the notice of the Prague Government. But the Prague Government needed this lie as a pretext for their own monstrous work and terrorist oppression in influencing the elections.
I can assure you in addition that, first, at that time not a single German soldier more was called up and, second, not a regiment marched to the frontier. At this time there was not one soldier who was not in his peacetime garrison. On the contrary, an order was given that anything that might appear like pressure on the Czechs of our side was to be avoided. Despite this, this base campaign took place in which the whole Europe was mobilized with the object of holding elections under military pressure, browbeating citizens and thus depriving them of their right to vote.
For this purpose moral justification was needed so that no one should shrink from the unscrupulousness of plunging a great State and Europe into a great war. As Germany had no such intention, and, indeed, on the contrary, was convinced that local elections would confirm the rights of the Sudeten Germans, nothing was done by the Reich government.
That, however, was made the occasion for saying, after nothing had happened, that Germany had drawn back in consequence of the agitation of the Czechs and the intervention of Great Britain and France.
You all understand that a great power cannot suddenly submit a second time to such a base attack. In consequence I took the necessary precautions. I am a National Socialist and as such I am parrying every attack. I know exactly that by yielding to such an irreconcilable enemy as Czechoslovakia that this enemy could never be reconciled but only incited to a still higher opinion of itself.
The old German Reich is a warning for us. In its love for peace it went as far as self-sacrifice without thereby being able to prevent war. Conscious of this, I took very serious measures on May 28.
First, the strengthening of the army and air force was, on my order, considerably increased forthwith and immediately carried out.
Second, I ordered an immediate extension of our fortifications in the West.
I may assure you that since May 28 the most gigantic fortifications that ever existed are under construction there. With the same aim in view, I have entrusted the Inspector General of German Road Constructions, Dr. Todt, with a new task. He has accomplished one of the greatest works of organization of all time. On the construction of the defenses in the West there are now 278,000 workmen in Dr. Todt’s army. In addition, there are, further, 84,000 workmen and 100,000 men of the labor service as well as numerous engineer and infantry battalions.
The German railways are taking to these districts daily 8,000 cars of material apart from the materials transported by motor vehicles.
The daily consumption of gravel is more than 100,000 tons. Before the beginning of Winter Germany’s fortifications in the west will be finished. Their power of defense is already in existence to its full extent. After completion it will comprise 17,000 armored and concrete fortifications. Behind this front of steel and concrete, which is laid out in three and partly in four lines, of a total depth up to fifty kilometers, there stands a German people in arms.
These most gigantic efforts of all time have been made at my request in the interest of peace. In no circumstances shall I be willing any more to regard with endless tranquility a continuation of the oppression of German compatriots in Czechoslovakia.
Herr Benes indulges in tactics and speeches. He is trying to organize negotiations to clear up questions of procedure on the lines of Geneva and to make small concessions. This cannot go on forever. This is not a matter of phrases; it is of right - that is, of violated right.
What the Germans demand is the right of self-determination, which every other nation also possesses. It is not up to Herr Benes to give the Sudeten Germans gifts. They have the right to claim a life of their own just as much as any other people.
If the democracies, however, should be convinced that they must in this case protect with all their means the oppressors of Germans, then this will have grave consequences. I believe I am serving peace the more if I do not leave any doubts about this. I did not raise the claim that Germany may oppress 3,500,000 French or then that 3,500,000 English shall be surrendered to Germany for oppression. But I demand that the oppression of 3,500,000 Germans in Czechoslovakia shall cease and be replaced by the free right of self-determination.
We would regret it if thereby our relations with other European nations should suffer harm. However, we are not to be blamed. Moreover, it is up to the Czechoslovak Government to discuss matters with the authorized representatives of the Sudeten Germans and bring about an understanding in this or that way.
My business and the business of us all, however, my comrades, is to see today that right does not become injustice in this case, for German comrades are concerned. Moreover, I am not willing to allow a second Palestine to be created here in the heart of Germany by actions of other statesmen.
The poor Arabs are defenseless and perhaps deserted. The Germans of Czechoslovakia, however, are neither defenseless nor deserted. I believe I must state this especially at this party convention at which for the first time representatives of our German Austrian legion take part. They know best how much pain it causes to be separated from a mother country. They, too, will first understand the meaning of my statements today. They will also agree with me most enthusiastically if I state before the entire nations that we would not deserve to be Germans if we were not willing to adopt such an attitude and bear the consequences in this or that way arising from it.
If we remember the exacting demands that in past years even small nations believed they could address to Germany, the only explanation that we can find is that there is scant willingness to see the German Reich as a State that is more than a temporary upstart.
Standing in Rome in the Spring of this year I realized how the history of mankind is viewed and judged in intervals that are too short and therefore inadequate. The history of a millennium comprised only a few successions of generations. What becomes exhausted in the present can rise up again in the same time. The Italy and Germany of today are proof of this. They are rejuvenated nations that one may describe as new in this sense.
But this youth does not rest on new soil, but on old historic soil. The Roman Empire begins to breathe again; however, though historically and infinitely younger, it is likewise no new creation in its national new form.
I had the insignia of the old Reich brought to Nuremberg in order to induce not only my own nation but also the whole world to consider that more than a thousand years before the discovery of a new world a mighty Germanic Deutsches Reich existed. Dynasties came and disappeared. Outer forms have changed. The people today have been rejuvenated, but substantially they always remained the same. The German Reich has slumbered a long time and the German people have now awakened and taken their thousand-year-old crown to themselves.
For us, the whole historical witnesses of this revival, there is proud joy and a humble sense of gratitude to the Almighty. For the rest of the world it should equally be a suggestion and a lesson that they should study history again from a higher vantage point and a lesson not to fall into their old mistakes again.
The new Italian Roman Empire and the German Empire are in all truth very old creations. People do not need to love them, but no power in the world can any more remove them.
Comrades and National Socialists, in this hour the first party day of Greater Germany comes to a close. We are all filled with powerful historical impressions of these days. Your national pride and your confidence have been strengthened in the face of this demonstration of strength, resolution and determination of our nation.
Go now again into those little districts that you for almost two decades have borne in your hearts as Germans and National Socialists. You have the right to be able to carry your German heads raised once again in pride. We all have a duty never to bow them again to a foreign will. May this be our pledge, so help us God!
“National Socialists and party members: On Sept. 2, 1923 – that is, fifteen years ago – the first German congress took place at Nuremberg. On that day the fighting units of the party for the first time moved into the foreground. Since that day it could not be overlooked that something new had entered the nation’s life. At that time already the National Socialist party was the people’s movement. It was a nationalist movement consisting of working people. However, as the party was the people’s party it had more manual laborers than intellectuals in its ranks.”
Then Hitler criticized the Communist and Marxist parties, of which he said that in the past they had wanted to destroy the nation in order to surrender the people to Jewish intellectuals. Hitler spoke of the growth of the party and the criticism and opposition that it had met in its early days.
“We all remember those times with pride,” he continued. “They are very close to us even today. Among us we see fighters of the Ostmark of Austria. How much did they have to endure? How many thousands of them went to prison?
“There is yet another point that reminds us of those times today. In the world today those events are being repeated. The enemies of today are the same as they were then.
“Our flag today is the flag of 75,000,000 people in our Reich alone. For the first time the whole of Germany marches through this city. The Nazi State has become the organization of the large masses and not of different classes of society.”
Hitler recalled that in the past all parties from the Right to the extreme Left had turned against the young Nazi party, which was prosecuted and persecuted.
“But,” he emphasized, “we are proud of it.”
Attacking the Jews, Hitler said:
“Because we are National Socialists, we cannot permit an alien race to dominate us. We know that great tasks can be solved only by the whole people under an authoritative government composed of the most capable sons of the people. We are fighting the Jews so fanatically because National Socialism wants to create a true unity of the nation. In this State even the poorest child must be able to ascend to the highest posts. This explains the struggle against a leadership foreign to the people. This is a preliminary condition for genuine national unity. This alone made it possible for us to solve the tasks others could not solve.
“Supported by the faith of the people, I succeeded in casting off the terrible shackles designed to enslave the people forever.
“The formation of the people’s unity demands an organization that trains the people. Its nucleus is the National Socialist party. Today there is hardly a German who is not enrolled in some party unit. The organization reaches into every house and workshop and even to Germans living abroad, combining them in one unity. It is the first time in our history that a movement has been created that got its impetus from the people. This movement serves the interests of all. I will always have the welfare of the people in mind.
“The people have confirmed again and again that they regard us as working solely for the whole nation. The leadership is quite absolute. It can even adopt unpopular measures if necessary. Its only goal is to secure that the people are healthy, strong and prosperous.
“We can step before the nation with full confidence every year and ask for its verdict. The last occasion on which the people approved our work was on April 10 of this year.”
The army and the air force were the chief exhibitors, but there was a small navy contingent in the march past. The air force provided the real novelties. One was a helicopter, that in the middle of a sham battle descended vertically and delivered a message at a marked spot visible from the air and took off again vertically.
Another novelty was a group of four Storsch planes that landed together in a very limited area directly in front of Hitler at a very slow speed. It was reported to be only thirty miles per hour. They took off together just as slowly. There were several new types of planes, including some extremely fast bombers and also planes with twin fuselages and one whose fuselage carried something looking like a sidecar for an observer.
An acrobatic squadron did some remarkable stunts over the field and three gliders from the Nazi Flying Corps performed the feat of disconnecting from the airplanes that had brought them and after maneuvering alone landing on the field. An anti-aircraft regiment with heavy and light batteries beat off a sham attack from bombers that were simultaneously tackled from above by swift fighters.
The army gave an exhibition of a tank attack and repulse, establishing signal connections with troops on the field and laying down a protective smoke screen. It put on also a highly realistic skirmish between “Red” and “Blue” troops.
Taking part in the exhibition were 13,000 men, 2,000 horses and 1,500 motor vehicles and tanks. They made a wonderful showing in the march past but the real interest was remote from all this. Everybody knows the marvelous efficiency of the German Army and everybody was waiting to hear what Hitler would say.
In a four-minute address after the march past he reminded the troops that they were present for the first time as soldiers of Greater Germany. That this dream of centuries had become a reality, he said, was due first, to the national community created by National Socialism, and second, “by our new defense forces which brought it about by marching into Austria.”
This led to two conclusions: First, never to abandon National Socialism, which in less than two decades had united the German people, and second, to hold that the only protection against the outside world was force of arms.
“No negotiations, conference or agreement gave us our right to national unity,” he declared. “We could take our right only because of your existence, my soldiers. You are entrusted with a task whose solution wins you the people’s love.
“The nation relies on you and knows that it can rely on you for you have the best weapons and the best training that there is today and I know you have the best character. In the past few months I have had many opportunities of seeing you on manoeuvres and on the rifle ranges and I know that the nation can look on you with gratification. I thank you, my soldiers!”
After the speech there is a highlight summary and a description of the display of military might put on for Der Fuehrer at Nuremberg.
I was interested to see that God, and faith were more than once mentioned in this boring prelude to what became the Second World War. He didn’t leave anyone out either. From Jews to Arabs, czech’s to the poor oppressed Sudaten Germans. I’m sure you had to be there to get the full impact of the Fuhrer’s delivery. The translation doesn’t do it justice.
There is some description of audience reaction on my other post from this morning. The folks at the Nuremberg rally got plenty worked up.
"The misery of the Sudeten Germans is without end. They want to annihilate them. They are being oppressed in an inhuman and intolerable manner and treated in an undignified way."
"and when they are pursued like wild beasts for every expression of their national life [cheers]."
"And I say that if these tortured creatures cannot obtain rights and assistance by themselves, they can obtain both from us"
"the Reich would not tolerate any further continued oppression of 3,500,000 Germans,"
Considering the actual record of the Holocaust, where Hitler carried out just such acts, and worse, against Jews, this is very curious hyperbole for 1938.
And calculated. He was completely serious about being ready to attack Czechslovakia. He needed the German people to be 100% behind him (even if the generals weren't, as Jodl's diary entry I posted on the other thread shows). They would no doubt put their hearts into such a war if they believed they were saving their ethnic brothers from extermination rather than just moving the lines on the map of Europe around.
Thank you for an excellent thread.
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