Germany's Present Position

WE WILL WREST THE VICTORY

By ADOLF HITLER, Reichsfuehrer

Delivered over the radio from the Sportpalast in Berlin, January 30, 1941

[Excerpts Radioed to America]

Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. VII, pp. 280-283

GERMAN men and women: Changes in government have occurred frequently in history, even in the history of our own people. There, however, never have been changes in government accompanied by such far-reaching consequences as eight years ago.

The Reich's position then was desperate. We were not called to take over leadership of the nation at a moment when it seemed engaged in a great upward climb. We were given power under the hardest possible conditions, at a time when there was a realization that everything was lost, and in the eyes of well-wishers it represented a last attempt, while to malevolents it meant that thereby the national socialist movement would finally be condemned to destruction.

The consequences of the situation would have been catastrophic if the German people could not have been rescued by a miracle.

For fifteen years previously the way had led downward uninterruptedly. But the situation even then was only the result of the World War, our domestic, moral and military collapse.

Lists Causes of Disaster

On such a day it is therefore important to recall again the causes of the whole national misfortune. What was the reason for the World War? I do not want to descend to personalities. Too many dissertations have been writtenabout that. American doctors, acting on orders of President Roosevelt of that period have investigated the causes of the World War and confirmed that they could not be attributed to German guilt.

At such a great moment in history personalities are important only if they appear as outstanding events in world affairs around them. In those days that wasn't the case. Neither on the German nor on the other side were there outstanding personalities. Causes for the war could not be found in either the failure or desires of individuals, but rather they were deeper.

Germany was already a democracy—and what a democracy! It was copied strictly from foreign, Western examples. It was a compromise between monarchy and parliamentry democracy—so-called constitutional monarchy with democratic leadership. This state could in its form really not have been the reason for a war of the democracies against the Reich.

Germany as a world political factor could rather have been the reason because after century-long disunion and resultant impotence German nations and States found their way—at least when seen from the outside—together to form a new State, a new Reich, and thereby injected into the existing European balance of power a new forceful element which naturally was considered a foreign body.

Reich Seen as Economic Factor

More valid perhaps was a dislike of the Reich as an economic factor. While Germany for centuries had attempted to remove economic need by either gradually starving its people or forcing them to emigrate, Germany at that time raised by consolidation its political power and began also to develop itself to economic power.

That means it began to export products instead of people and to secure for itself necessary world markets—a development which from our standpoint was natural and just, but from the standpoint of others was encroachment on their most sacred precincts.

That brings us to the State which regarded this encroachment as insufferable—namely, England. During the three hundred years previously England had gradually built up her so-called world empire, not by free will intentions and ideas or by unified manifestations of the persons affected, but by force.

War after war was waged. Peoples after peoples were robbed of their freedom. Nation after nation was crushed and the structure was created which was called the British Empire. Thereby democracy was only a mask. Behind it stood externally a rule over peoples, but internally, enslavement and suppression of peoples.

This States today cannot risk permitting its members to vote whether they are ready after centuries of labor to remain members. On the contrary, Egyptian and Indian nationalists wander by thousands in chains and prisons. Concentration camps were not invented in Germany. The English disclosed this ingenious idea. They helped by this institution to break the backbones of other peoples.

Propaganda as Strong Weapon

It helped to break and crush national resistance and make peoples more inclined to assume this yoke of British democracy. A powerful weapon thereby was that of the lie phrase propaganda. Their proverb was, "When an Englishman speaks of God he means cotton." It is so today.

When one considers how outwardly pious and faithful are the people who with ice-cold hearts drive nations to battle against nations only to serve their interest one can say:

Hypocrisy has rarely risen to such a degree as with the British today. In any case this is the result of a three-hundred-year-long blood-covered path which followed British history.

It is important that we ever and again cry out into the world the fact that 46,000,000 Englishmen in the motherland today control one-fourth of the earth's surface in territory as well as regards population; that there are 40,000,000 square kilometers to 46,000,000 people because the brazen democratic liars maintain that totalitarian States want to conquer the world, while in reality the world conquerors are our old enemies.

The development of the British Empire left behind one single stream of blood and wars. Undoubtedly today it controls a great part of the earth. But it is a world dominated not by the power of an idea but essentially by the power of force and, where force is not applied, by the power of capitalist and economic interests.

If we keep this peculiar rise of the British Empire before our eyes, then the process itself is more easily understood whereby the continent of Europe was eliminated as a factor in this rise. This elimination was documented above all by the elimination of the German Reich. For 300 years there virtually was no Germany.

While Britons preached of God but kept their eyes on commercial interests the German people raised religious issues of such intensity that for centuries they waged bloody wars which facilitated establishment of the British Empire. In direct ratio to the extent to which Germany exhausted her strength internally the British were able to spread disorder among peoples and consolidate the empire.

But not only was Germany running put during these 300 years. The same was true of Italy, much like Germany but less on religious grounds because of a political dynasty and other reasons. There was exclusion of another nation in East Asia which for 400 years had begun to withdraw from the rest of the world but immersed itself in voluntary isolation and had not regarded its own living space as non-essential.

Thus an arrangement of powers arose, particularly in Europe, which England termed the balance of power but which in reality was disorganization of the European continent for the benefit of the British Isles.

* * * Where is it possible that in a State that has at its disposal the greatest riches on earth and the most gigantic living space possessed in all by scarcely one person per square kilometer—where is it possible that in such a country blessed by nature millions have not shared these blessings but live a more poverty-stricken life than those in our over-populated Central European States? * * * England in reality is the most reactionary country in the world. * * *

In Europe the awakening of peoples has removed the terror of the balance of power, the principle of disorganization.

Says Britain Sought War in 1914

Up to 1914 England, without reason, agitated for war against Germany, and on every occasion attacked Germany until finally the World War broke out as the result of quite a small group of conscienceless international crooks. * * * The World War from 1914 to 1918 that shook Europe was exclusively the international product of British statesmanship. * * *

(Here Herr Hitler declared he did not want to criticize past statesmen if he couldn't do better himself.)

I can only say that the (British) success of 1918 was exclusively the result of a rare agglomeration of personal incompetence in leadership of our people—an agglomeration that never occurred in the past and will never be repeatedin the future; these gentlemen can be sure of that. * * * Also, the defeat was partially due to the credulity of the German people. * * * Others learned nothing. The German people since then has learned but forgotten nothing. * * * Theirs was not one breach of promise but continuous broken promises. * * * A great nation never has been so duped as the German people at that time (after the World War). * * *

What assurances were we given, what promises made, to this credulous people and what was done to this people? It was plundered and squeezed. They made use of foreign statesmen of America to create greater credulity in the German people. And, perhaps, this was the reason why the German people fell for this manoeuvre. * * * Who was it that was plundered, duped, deceived, blackmailed, persuaded for fifteen years—National Socialism? No. German democracy.

(Herr Hitler then traced the international circumstances of the Nazis' rise to power.)

We are now experiencing the same as we experienced at home. Every prophecy of ours was ridiculed, every declaration was made to sound ridiculous, every picture of the future was described and branded as chimeric. They judged us only under derision and laughter. I can only say this to the world: We have armed and armed very well. The German people knows that today. But it does not yet know everything. But it isn't at all necessary for us to tell everything. The decisive thing is that everything has occurred.

"We Demand Nothing"

We demand nothing from others. When France entered this war it had no reason. It was simply a desire to fight against Germany again. They said: "We want the Rhineland, we want to tear Germany apart, tear Austria away and break up Germany." * * * And England! I continually offered a hand to England. That was the very point of my program. There was only one point—restoration of the colonies. I said: "We will discuss that some day"—and set no definite period. I said: "They are worthless for England. Forty million square kilometers—what can they do with them?" Absolutely nothing.

That is the ambition of old profiteers who do not want to give up their possessions, psychopathic beings who see that their neighbors have nothing to eat and cannot use what they possess but dump it into the sea. They get sick, however, at the idea of giving up anything. I demanded nothing more from England.

(Herr Hitler then severely criticized social conditions in Britain.)

The year that lies behind us and the year before last practically decided this war. * * *

I read that the English intend to begin a great offensive. I only wish they would inform me about it in advance. Then I would have that territory in Europe evacuated in advance. I would gladly spare them the difficulties of landing. Then we would be reintroduced and have a good talk, and, what's more, in the only language they apparently understand.

They must have hopes. On what do they still expect? We stand here on this continent and nobody is going to oust us from where we stand. We created definite bases and when the time comes we will launch a decisive blow. These gentlemen will realize in this historic year that we used time well. And what do they hope? For other help? From America? I can only say: We considered every possibility in advance.

That Germany has nothing against the American people is known to every one who is not intentionally misrepresenting the truth and claiming the opposite. Germany never had interests on the American continent. * * * If now this continent attempts, perhaps, to intervene in the European continent, that will only bring all the more quickly a change in our objective. Europe will then defend itself.

Would Torpedo Ships

They should not deceive themselves about us. Whoever imagines he can aid England must, in all circumstances, know one thing: Every ship, whether with or without escort, that comes before our torpedo tubes will be torpedoed.

We are in a war that we did not want. On the contrary, we could not have extended our hand more often. If these financial hyenas, however, want to battle with the eventual aim of the extirpation of the German nation, they will see blue stars. This time they are not fighting a worn-out Germany as in the World War, but they are in conflict with a Germany that is mobilized and ready for battle, determined to the highest degree.

If they have other hopes, I say I cannot understand that. They say Italy will fall away. The gentlemen should not invent revolutions in Milan, but should watch out that unrest does not break out at home. They have viewed German-Italian relations according to their own standards. When one democracy helps another it demands something—military bases or something that it then retains.

When the Italians sent airplanes to the Atlantic coast English newspapers wrote that the Italians meddled in our conduct of the war and that in the future they would demand bases on the Atlantic. Now when German squadrons are in Sicily they say that Germany probably will take over Sicily. These gentlemen may be assured that these stupidities affect no one in Italy or Germany. They betray the morbid mentality of those persons in England who did not grasp the significance of this war as we grasped it.

Wherever we can defeat England we will defeat her. They see in a few failures of our partners proof of their own victory. In that I cannot understand the English. In the past they always have seen in their own failure proof of great victories. These gentlemen may be convinced when this balancing of accounts is complete, and at the end of the war it will be drawn up point for point, square kilometer for square kilometer.

And they can be convinced of another thing: Il Duce and I are neither Jews nor opportunists. When we shake hands it is the handshake of men of honor. I hope that will be impressed on those gentlemen during the course of this year.

Every Possibility Weighed

Maybe they speculate on the Balkans. I don't think much about that because one thing is certain: Wherever England appears we will attack it—and we are strong enough to do so. Maybe they hope to embroil other States. I do not know. But I can tell you, my comrades, who know me as a conscientious man who always looks ahead, we have considered and weighed coolly every conceivable possibility. Our victory will stand at the end. They may hope for something—for something I do not know.

We organized our life. We knew in advance that there can be no surplus in war, but the German people will never starve. The English people will starve sooner. The gentlemen can be convinced of that.

Raw materials? We have foreseen that, too. That is the reason for our four-year plan. Perhaps that has entered the consciousness of some Englishmen now.

There would be only one other thing they really believe—that they can once again becloud the German people with lies and propaganda. I can only say: they should not haveslept so long but should have paid some attention to the German people's internal development. Now they make this idiotic attempt to alienate the Italian people from II Duce. One British lord stands up and appeals to the Italian people to follow Il Duce no longer but to follow his lordship. It's too idiotic when such a simpleton does that.

Then another lord gets up and advises the German people to follow his lordship and break from me. I can only tell these men: other people have tried that in Germany. They have a fine idea of the German people, or national socialism, of our community, of our army, of our marching masses of German people; they have an idea of our propaganda.

Sees Softening of the Brain

Since they themselves apparently are not entirely convinced of the cleverness of their ideas, they borrowed a few from Germany. We see it in their pamphlets. Exactly as it used to be here. Only that here it used to be Vossische Zeitung and now it is The Times. And they imagine that because it worked once in Vossische Zeitung it now works in The Times or The Daily Telegraph. Ach! A wonderful softening of the brain has broken out in these democracies.

They may calm their fears. The German people will do everything necessary for their interests. They will follow their leadership. They know that today a man stands at the head of the Reich who does not have a packet ofstock market shares in his pocket. The German people knows that, and I know that, and I am proud of it. It is sworn to me and goes with me through thick and thin. The old spirit has come to life in this people, a spirit that long has accompanied us, a fanaticism of willingness to take everything upon oneself. Every blow we receive we will return with interest and compound interest and make it harder. Whatever they mobilize against us—even "if the world were peopled with devils, we shall nevertheless prevail."

Even if they say, "Yes, but what mistakes they make!" God, but who doesn't make mistakes? I read this morning that an English Minister added up that during 1940 I made seven mistakes. That man was wrong. I reckoned backand found that I made not seven mistakes but 724, and I reckoned further that my enemies made 1,824,000. He should believe that I've added it up exactly.

We shall get on despite our mistakes. If I make as many mistakes this year as last year, then at the end of this year I'll get down on my knees and thank the Lord God that he only let me make seven mistakes, and if the enemy makes only as many mistakes as last year I shall also be satisfied.

Now we are starting a new year with armed forcesequipped as never before in German history. On land the number of our divisions has been mightily increased and their pay increased. War experiences have been evaluated by men and officers. Work has been done and work continues unceasingly. Equipment has been improved and our enemies shall see how it was improved.

Schedules U-Boat War

On the seas the U-boat war will begin in the Spring, and they will see that there, too, we have not slept. And the Air Force will also put in an appearance, and all the armed forces together will force a decision one way or another. Our production in all fields has been greatly increased. What others plan is reality to us. The German people stands behind its leaders, believing in their armed forces and ready to endure what destiny demands of it.

The year 1941, I am convinced, will be a historic year for the new European order. The problem cannot be other than opening of the world for all, smashing of individual prerogatives, smashing tyranny of certain nations and still better, that of their financial rulers. And, finally, this year will assist in the securing of the real fundamentals of international understanding and reconciliation.

I want to avoid mentioning something I already said to the Reichstag on Sept. 1, 1939: Should the rest of the world be plunged into general war by Jewry, then Jewry will have played its part in Europe to the end.

They may laugh today just as they once laughed at my domestic prophecies. The coming months and years will testify that there, too, I prophesied correctly. Already, however, we see how our racial ideology spreads from nation to nation, and I hope that the peoples who today stand in enmity to us will one day recognize their greatest domestic enemy and still enter a great common front with us which will be a front of Aryan humanity against international Jewish destroyers and exploiters.

The year preceding this Jan. 30 was a year of greatest success, but also of many sacrifices. Even if the number of dead and wounded is small in comparison with earlier times, sacrifice was heavy for each family that had to bear it. Our thanks and care belong to those who makes these sacrifices.

The nation worked in all fields. In the place of absent men, German women worked. It is a wonderful community spirit that rules our people. That this thought in full force may remain with us this year is my wish this day. It is our belief and our conviction that the armed forces in the service of this community will wrest victory. It is our pledge that we work for this community, and that God in this struggle of the coming year shall not forsake us shall be our prayer.

Deutschland, Sieg heil!