Adolf Hitler

“ Beside the dead of the World War lie now the fallen in continuation of this battle. And again, as then, the sons of our people lie in distant places, in the sea everywhere as courageous fighters for their great German home. It is the same German man-be it in World War work or in the present fight that has been thrust upon us-who risks and gives his life to win for his people a greater future, a surer peace, a better organization and human comradeship than that given us by the dictators of Versailles. ”

“ I am not saying this for the benefit of the German Volk. It does not need encouragement today in its moral attitude. For over a thousand days, the front has proved its silent heroism. At its side today stands the German homeland, with large parts of the Reich having become war zones themselves. Not only does it work to furnish our soldiers with weapons. No, it is forced to wage its own struggle. In tolerating and bearing the enemy’s destructive frenzy, women and even children display a heroism that can often no longer be differentiated from that of the front. ”

“ So we approach with still greater right than in 1940 the German heroes of the past. All of us remember what they accomplished and endured in the World War. But we bow before their sacrifice, ourselves no longer unworthy. As the German divisions started the advance in the West, today's memorial service has its most fitting beginning, because in countless soldiers' cemeteries in the West victorious sons stood for a moment of tribute at the graves of their heroic fathers.
The German people have recovered everything that once was sacrificed in a foolish delusion. ”

“ Only today we recognize the whole extent of the preparations of our enemies, today we see the action of the Jews who pull the strings, who, divided all over the earth, unified the common attack of a conspiracy of the Plutocracies and of Bolshevism to a society with common interests, and who hoped to be able to destroy all of Europe. That fate helped us to withstand this coalition of Jewish Marxism and Capitalism on all battlefields, we have to thank with all our hearts ... without whose protectional human force, all diligence and all suffering would be in vain. ”

“ We know one thing already today: The Bolshevist masses which were not able to conquer the German and allied soldier in the winter, will be beaten in every direction in the summer. The Bolshevist colossus which we only recognize now in all its cruel danger, this is our unchangeable resolution, must never again touch the dangerous territories of Europe, but will find its final frontier in a great distance away from them.
We all recognize the tragic greatness of the time in which we live. A new world is formed. ”

“ In times of long peace the memory of the terrible experiences of war, out of which rises heroism, gradually grows dim. It even happens that a whole generation knows nothing of war as such and honors its heroes without being in the least worthy of them.
In such a circumstance the greatest sacrifice of man is acknowledged with superficial phrases. There is even danger that, while remembering heroes of times past, the men of the present regard themselves as free of the obligation to conduct themselves with a similar spirit of heroism. ”

“ The soldiers of the World War did not fall in vain. If at that time the sacrifice was not immediately crowned by success, their heroic conduct left a heritage that an ever worthy German generation will prize with deepest emotion and that paralyzes the memories of our enemies.
It is perhaps this consciousness of strength that enabled the German people today to achieve such greatness. The people feel they are carrying out the will of heroic ancestors. ”

“ After all, one thing is certain: at such a time, nations can only exist in the long run if they take a clear stand. We should therefore be grateful to our enemies. With their own hands, they eliminate the spirit of false objectivity in the German Volk and put these natural instincts in its place: a glowing love for the homeland and our Volk, across all barriers of origin and birth, and a burning hatred of the enemy. ”

“ All the more so after the war, the German National Socialist state, which pursued this goal from the beginning, will tirelessly work for the realization of a program that will ultimately lead to a complete elimination of class differences and to the creation of a true socialist community. ”

“ We know today that as far back as 1935 and 1936 the determination for the new war has been made in England, France and especially in the United States in the alone responsible Jewish circles and the political leadership stratum which is following in their footsteps. We are able now to see the staggering spectacle which turns in the accusation of the deceived and heavily beaten peoples not against the powerful intention of the inducement of this war itself, but only against the lax, and thus in their eyes degenerated armed preparation. ”

“ But his intention to fashion the German, or even the European world according to his needs, in other words, to do away with our own kind of world, which we have come to love, and to replace it by one which we hate and which is foreign to us, will not only be frustrated, but, on the contrary, his own world will perish in the attempt. And as regards the intention to punish Europe with Bolshevism, I have once before stated, that the same country which has sold itself to Bolshevism the most will probably be the first to become its victim. ”

“ And so the German Wehrmacht is being more and more transformed into a fighting nation. National Socialism which long ago defeated its enemies at home in a bitter struggle-without ever even considering compromise-will today and in the future deal with the enemies of the Reich abroad, as its leading force. The Reich is being supported in this by the allied nations, which from Europe to East Asia are also determined to defend the substance of their blood and the values of their cultures. ”

“ The more final this confrontation is and the more uncompromisingly it is waged, the longer will be the ensuing peace, which our continent in particular needs for the healing of its wounds. However, the essence of this new age will not be determined by those men who failed to recognize the worth of the past peace, who agitated for war in their spiritual blindness, who thereby brought ruin to their nations, but by those statesmen who already understood before the war how to secure for their nations a high degree of social and cultural accomplishment, despite their modest earthly possessions. ”

“ But we think also of the Italian soldiers, who as allies also must give up their lives in distant parts of the world. Their ideals and objectives are the same as ours: The world is not here for a few people, and an order based eternally on the distinction between the haves and the have-nots does not exist any more because the have-nots have determined to lay claim to their portion of God's earth.
The home front, too, in this war must make a greater sacrifice than formerly. The heroism of the home front contributes its bit to the most decisive battle in German history. ”

“ Only a glance at Bolshevism’s gigantic preparations for the destruction of our world is sufficient to let us realize with horror what might have become of Germany and the rest of the Continent, had not the National Socialist movement taken power in this state ten years ago, and had it not begun the rebuilding of the German Wehrmacht with the determination that is so peculiar to it, following many fruitless efforts for disarmament. ”

“ What the German and allied soldiers today protect in the east is not the stony face of this continent or its social and intellectual character, but its eternal human substance, whence all values originated ages and ages ago and which gave expression to all human civilizations today, not only to those in Europe and America. ”

“ And here it is not only the man who must show the power of his resistance but the woman, too. The nation has become a battling unity. And not because they sought this fight but because it was forced on them.
Behind us lies a Winter of work. What remained to be improved has been done. The German Army is now the strongest military instrument in our history. In the months of this Winter our allies bore the brunt of the whole power of the British attack, but from now on German forces again will resume their share of this load. ”

“ They were the elements whose goal that time was to rob the German nation of the most primitive right of life, who in the years of the Versailles dictate raised as the dogma of the new world order political enslavement and economic impotence, and now are opposed to the revival of our people with the same hatred with which they once pursued the Second Reich. ”

“ So today we can recall with lightened hearts the sacrifice of life in the World War. But in the illustrious events of the present we must not overlook the vast spiritual powers for which the German people and its soldiers must thank the heroism of their ancestors. ”

“ The German people are today sufficiently enlightened regarding this bestial doctrine, and above all, are strong enough to resist effectively this deadly danger to our existence.
Aware of the great year which is behind us, which will be followed by one at least equally as great, we think of our heroes, and of those of our brave allies, past and present, determined to see to it that these sacrifices were not in vain and will not be in vain. ”

“ And behind us is a year, not only of the greatest fight in human history, but also of the hardest trials of our own people, a trial which has been withstood, that can be said now, by the front as well as by the people at home. ”

“ When we celebrated in 1940 for the first time the Memorial Day of the Heroes of our people in this hall, the German people and its armed force after decades of most humiliating enslavement was again fighting for their freedom and future against the old enemies. ”

“ By solemnly proclaiming this resolution we shall come the closest to doing justice to the victims and sacrifices demanded by the war of 1914-1918, by the battle of the national socialistic movement, by the inner resurrection of our people, and, finally, by the present war, and to those victims and sacrifices which are still to be demanded by the events to come.
We Germans do not care how the people in the rest of the world formulate their lives. ”

“ When England and France declared this war, England immediately began a fight against civil life. To the blockade of the World War, that war against women and children, it added this time air and fire war against peaceful villages and cities. In both of these modes of war England will be defeated. The air war that Churchill started will destroy not Germany but England itself. ”

“ May therefore God give us the strength to continue to do our duty and with this prayer we bow in homage before our dead heroes, before those whom they have left behind in bereavement, and before all the other victims of this war. ”

“ In addition to this world of barbarity threatening from the east, we are witnessing the satanic destructive frenzy of its ally, the so-called West. We know about our enemies’ war objectives from countless publications, speeches, and open demands. ”

“ But even this development was not able to instill a clear view of the true necessities of the future into the life of all peoples who were directed by the leadership of our old enemies, which was for the most part dominated by Jewish elements. As soon as the National Socialists had taken over the power, they began to find fault with the model economic and social measures of Germany, to take out the old hatred, in order to prepare their peoples for the new declaration of war and to make them ready for it. ”

“ Above all, it has comrades in arms in those nations which realize that their own future is possible only within the framework of an order which successfully opposes Bolshevism as a devilish instrument of destruction. ”

“ After all, the driving force behind this remains the eternal hatred of that cursed race which, as a true scourge of God, chastised the nations for many thousands of years, until they began to defend themselves against their tormentors in times of reflection. ”

“ The fires in our cities and villages will increasingly harden the determination of our Volk, which is no longer clouded by cosmopolitan sentiments, but nurtured by the recognition of a deadly threat and inspired by a grim fanaticism, willing to eliminate this threat once and for all in Europe and in our own Volk. ”

“ After four months, in Summer, the German Wehrmacht, after the successful finish of the Balkan war of 1941, has started the march into the vastness of the Russian space. Battles were fought and victories won which in the far future will be valued as the greatest deeds of glory. Together with their brave allies they had attacked everywhere new Russian armies, had beaten them, eliminated them, in order to ... new masses of men. ”

“ We could not celebrate this occasion any more sincerely than by realizing that today's generation has again become worthy of the great periods in the past, in regard to its soldiers on the front, as well as in regard to its men and women in the homeland. ”

“ However, the attempt of such nations who from outside of this continent are continuously meddling in strictly European affairs, and especially in matters concerning our own people, alone, will now forever be spoiled and made impossible.
The form of living to which the ... world, or the American President are used, does not concern us Germans. ”