Joseph Goebbels’ speech at the Sportpalast in Berlin on February 18th, 1943

Joseph Goebbels’ speech at the Sportpalast in Berlin on February 18th, 1943. My German countrymen and women! It is now almost three weeks since I last spoke to you and the German people on the occasion of the reading of the Führer’s proclamation on the occasion of the ten-year anniversary of the seizure of power. The crisis in which our eastern front is currently located was at its peak at that time. On the 30th of January of that year, in the sign of the hard calamity that had plagued the nation in the battle for the Volga, we had come together for a demonstration of unity, unity, but also firm willpower, and the difficulties that this was in his fourth year before us, piled up to cope.It was shocking for me and probably for all of you, a few days later, to hear that the last heroic fighters of Stalingrad, in this hour connected with us by the etheric waves, participated in our uplifting sports palace rally. They wrote in their final report that they had heard the proclamation of the Führer, and perhaps for the last time in their lives they had sung the national anthems together with their hands upraised. What attitude of German soldierhood in this great time! But what obligation does this attitude include for all of us, especially for the whole German homeland? Stalingrad was and is the great alarm call of fate to the German nation. A people who have the strength to endure and overcome such misfortune, even to extract additional strength from it, is invincible. The memory of the heroes of Stalingrad should be a deep commitment for me and for all of us today in my speech before you and before the German people. …German: Joseph Goebbels speech in the Berlin Sportpalast 1943My German comrades!It has now been almost three weeks since I last spoke to you and the German people from this place on the occasion of the reading of the Führer’s proclamation on the tenth anniversary of the seizure of power. The crisis in which our Eastern Front currently finds itself was at its peak at that time. In the spirit of the severe blow of misfortune that struck the nation in the battle for the Volga, we came together on January 30th of this year for a demonstration of unity, unity, but also firm willpower, with the difficulties that this war brings looming before us in its fourth year to be finished.It was shocking for me, and probably for all of you, to hear a few days later that the last heroic fighters of Stalingrad, connected to us through the airwaves at that hour, took part in our uplifting Sports Palace rally. In their final report they radioed that they had heard the Führer’s proclamation and, perhaps for the last time in their lives, had sung the national anthems with us with their hands raised. What an attitude of German soldiers in this great time! But what an obligation this attitude entails for all of us, especially for the entire German homeland! Stalingrad was and is the great alarm call of fate to the German nation. A people who have the strength to endure and overcome such a misfortune, and even to draw additional strength from it, is invincible. The memory of the heroes of Stalingrad should also be a deep obligation for me and for all of us today in my speech to you and to the German people.I don’t know how many millions of people, connected to us via the airwaves, at the front and at home are taking part in this rally this evening and are listening to me. I want to speak to all of you from the bottom of my heart to the bottom of my heart. I believe that the entire German people are passionate about the matter that I have to present to you this evening. I therefore want to equip my remarks with all the holy seriousness and open frankness that the hour requires of us. The German people, raised, trained and disciplined under National Socialism, can tolerate the full truth. It knows how serious the situation of the Reich is, and its leadership can therefore call on it to draw the necessary harsh, even the harshest, conclusions from the dire situation.We Germans are armed against weakness and vulnerability, and blows and misfortunes of war only give us additional strength, firm determination and a mental and combative activity that is ready to overcome all difficulties and obstacles with revolutionary élan.Now is not the time to ask how everything happened. This will be left to a later accounting, which should take place in full openness and show the German people and the world public that the misfortune that has affected us in the last few weeks has its deep, fateful significance. The great heroic sacrifice that our soldiers made in Stalingrad was of crucial historical significance for the entire Eastern Front. It wasn’t in vain. The future will prove why!When I now look beyond the recent past, I do so with full intention.The hour is pressing!It leaves no time left for fruitless debates. We must act immediately, quickly and thoroughly, just as the National Socialists have always done.From its inception, the movement has done this in the many crises it has had to endure and fight through. And the National Socialist state, too, when a threat arose before it, confronted it with resolute willpower. We are not like the ostrich that buries its head in the sand so as not to see the danger. We are courageous enough to face it directly, to measure it coolly and ruthlessly, and then to face it with our heads held high and with firm resolve. Only then did we as a movement and as a people always develop our highest virtues, namely a wild and determined will to break and banish the danger, a strength of character that overcomes all obstacles, tenacious doggedness in the pursuit of the goal once recognized and a heart of iron that is armed against all internal and external temptations. That’s how it should be today too. My task is to give you an unvarnished picture of the situation and to draw the harsh consequences for the actions of the German leadership, but also for the actions of the German people.We are currently experiencing a severe military burden in the East. This burden has temporarily increased to greater proportions and is similar, if not in the type of system, then in its extent to that of the previous winter. We will talk about their causes later. Today we have no choice but to identify their existence and examine and implement the means and means to eliminate them. There is therefore no point in denying this burden yourself. I am too good to give you a deceptive picture of the situation, which could only lead to false conclusions and would be likely to lull the German people into a security in their way of life and their actions that would be entirely unsuited to the current situation.The onslaught of the steppe against our venerable continent broke out this winter with a force that dwarfs all human and historical imagination. The German Wehrmacht and its allies, on the other hand, form the only possible protective wall. In his proclamation on January 30th, the Führer raised the question in serious and emphatic terms what would have happened to Germany and Europe if a bourgeois or a democratic regime had taken power on January 30th, 1933 instead of the National Socialist movement! What dangers would then have struck the Reich, faster than we could have imagined at the time, and what defenses would still have been available to us to counter them? Ten years of National Socialism were enough to fully enlighten the German people about the seriousness of the fateful problem that arises from Eastern Bolshevism. One will now understand why we so often framed our Nuremberg party congresses under the banner of the fight against Bolshevism. At that time we raised our warning voice before the German people and before the world public in order to awaken Western humanity, which was afflicted by an unprecedented paralysis of will and spirit, and to open its eyes to the horrific historical dangers that arise from the presence of Eastern Bolshevism who had made a people of almost 200 million subservient to Jewish terror and prepared them for a war of aggression against Europe.When the Führer let the German Wehrmacht attack in the East on June 22, 1941, we were all aware that this was the beginning of the decisive battle in this gigantic world struggle. We knew what dangers and difficulties it would bring us. But we were also clear that the dangers and difficulties could only increase if we waited longer, but could never decrease.It was two minutes to twelve!Any further hesitation would easily have led to the destruction of the empire and the complete Bolshevization of the European continent.It is understandable that, given the large-scale camouflage and bluffing maneuvers of the Bolshevik regime, we did not correctly assess the war potential of the Soviet Union. Only now does it reveal itself to us in all its wild grandeur. Accordingly, the fight that our soldiers have to endure in the East is hard, difficult and dangerous beyond all human imagination. It requires the mobilization of all our national strength. There is a threat to the empire and the European continent here that far dwarfs all previous threats in the West. If we were to fail in this fight, we would be wasting our historical mission altogether. Everything we have built up and achieved so far pales in comparison to the gigantic task that is set before the German Wehrmacht directly and indirectly before the German people.In my remarks I first address the world public and proclaim to them three theses of our fight against the Bolshevik danger in the East.The first of these theses is: If the German Wehrmacht were not able to defeat the threat from the East, the Reich and, in short order, all of Europe would have fallen to Bolshevism.The second of these theses is: The German Wehrmacht and the German people alone, together with their allies, have the strength to fundamentally rescue Europe from this threat.The third of these theses is: Danger is imminent. Action must be taken quickly and thoroughly, otherwise it will be too late.Regarding the first thesis, I have to comment in detail: Bolshevism has always openly proclaimed the goal of revolutionizing not only Europe but the entire world and plunging it into Bolshevik chaos. This goal has been ideologically and practically advocated by the Kremlin since the beginning of the Bolshevik Soviet Union. It is clear that the closer Stalin and the other Soviet greats believe they are to realizing their world-destroying intentions, the more they strive to camouflage and conceal them. That can’t deter us. We are not those fearful minds who, like the hypnotized rabbit, watch the snake until it devours it. We want to recognize the danger in good time and counter it in good time with effective means. We understand not only the ideology, but also the practices of Bolshevism, because we have already dealt with them in the domestic political field with the greatest possible success. The Kremlin can’t fool us. In a fourteen-year struggle before the takeover and in a ten-year struggle after the takeover, we unmasked his intentions and infamous world deception maneuvers.The goal of Bolshevism is the world revolution of the Jews.They want to bring chaos over the Reich and over Europe in order to establish their international, Bolshevik-veiled capitalist tyranny in the resulting hopelessness and desperation of the people. (The crowd expresses their indignation with loud cries of pooh-pooh.)What that would mean for the German people does not need to be explained in more detail. The Bolshevization of the Reich would entail the liquidation of our entire intelligentsia and leadership class and, as a result, the transfer of the working masses into Bolshevik-Jewish slavery. Moscow is looking for forced labor battalions, as the Führer said in his proclamation on January 30th, for the Siberian tundras. The revolt of the steppe is preparing itself in front of our fronts, and the onslaught from the East, which is attacking our lines with increasing strength every day, is nothing other than an attempted repetition of the historical devastations that have so often endangered our continent in the past.But this also poses an immediate, acute threat to the lives of all European powers. One should not believe that Bolshevism, given the opportunity to begin its triumphal march over the Reich, would stop anywhere on our borders. He pursues a policy of aggression and aggressive warfare that is aimed at the Bolshevization of all countries and peoples.We are not impressed by paper declarations made by the Kremlin or by London or Washington as guarantees against these undeniable intentions. We know that in the East we are dealing with an infernal political devilry that does not recognize the usual relationships between people and states. When, for example, the English Lord Beaverbrook declares that Europe must be handed over to Sovietism for leadership, when an authoritative American Jewish journalist Brown supplements this thesis with the cynical announcement that a Bolshevization of Europe may actually represent the solution to our continental problem, we know exactly what is meant by that. (The name Beaverbrook raises cries of pooh, which escalate into loud expressions of disapproval.)The European powers are faced with their crucial question of life here. The West is in danger. Whether their governments and their intelligentsia want to see this or not is completely irrelevant.In any case, the German people are not willing to expose themselves to this danger even on an experimental basis. Behind the onrushing Soviet divisions we can already see the Jewish liquidation squads, but behind them rises the terror, the specter of hunger for millions and complete anarchy. Here again, international Jewry proves itself to be the devilish ferment of decomposition, which takes an almost cynical satisfaction in plunging the world into its deepest disorder and thus bringing about the downfall of millennia-old cultures in which it never had an inner part. So we know what historical task we face. Two thousand years of building work by Western humanity is in danger. This danger cannot be described seriously enough, but it is also significant that if one only calls it by its name, international Jewry in all countries protests against it with noisy statements. So things have come to this point in Europe that you can no longer call a danger a danger if it comes from Judaism. But that doesn’t stop us from making the necessary determinations.We have never been afraid of the Jews and are less afraid of them today than ever before. (Spontaneous stormy shouts arise from the meeting: Jews out!)We also did this earlier in our domestic political struggle, when communist Jewry made use of democratic Jewry in the “Berliner Tageblatt” and in the “Vossische Zeitung” in order to trivialize a danger that was becoming more threatening from day to day to trivialize it in order to lull the parts of our people threatened by it into security and to lull their defenses to sleep. If we were not to master this danger, we would see the specter of hunger, misery and forced labor of millions looming over the German people, we would see the most venerable continent of the world shaking in its foundations and the historical heritage of Western humanity buried under its rubble. That is the problem we face.My second thesis is: Only the German Reich and its allies are able to avert the danger just described. The European states, including England, claim to be strong enough to counter the Bolshevization of the European continent in a timely and effective manner, should it ever become a reality. This explanation is childish and deserves no refutation at all.If the strongest military power in the world were unable to break the threat of Bolshevism, who would have the strength to do so?(Stormy shouts from the crowd: Nobody!)The neutral European states have neither the potential nor the military means nor the mental attitude of their people to offer even the slightest resistance to Bolshevism. If necessary, they would be run over by his motorized robot divisions in a few days. In the capitals of the medium-sized and small European states, people comfort themselves with the idea that they must prepare themselves spiritually against the Bolshevik danger. (Laughter.) This is desperately reminiscent of the declarations of the middle parties in 1932 that the fight against communism could only be fought and won with spiritual weapons. Even back then, this claim was too silly for us to deal with. Eastern Bolshevism is not only a terrorist doctrine, but also a terrorist practice. He pursues his goals and purposes with an infernal thoroughness, completely exploiting his inner potential and without any consideration for the happiness, prosperity and peace of the peoples he subjugates.What would England and America want to do if, in the worst case of misfortune, the European continent fell into the arms of Bolshevism? Perhaps London is trying to persuade Europe that such a development would stop at the Channel border? I have already pointed out that Bolshevism already has its foreign legions in the communist parties on the soil of all democratic states. None of these states can claim to be immune to internal Bolshevization. A recent by-election to the English House of Commons showed that the independent, ie. communist candidate received 10,741 out of a total of 22,371 votes in a constituency that had previously been the absolute domain of the conservatives, which means that in this one district alone the right-wing parties received around 10,000, i.e. half of all votes, in just a short period of time the communists lost, further proof that the Bolshevik danger also exists in England and that it cannot be averted by not wanting to see it. All the territorial commitments that the Soviet Union undertakes have, in our eyes, no real value. Bolshevism also tends to draw its boundaries ideologically and not just militarily, and this is precisely where the danger of jumping beyond the boundaries of the people lies. The world therefore does not have the choice between a Europe that is reverting to its old fragmentation and a Europe that is reorganizing itself under Axis leadership, but only between a Europe that is under the military protection of the Axis and a Bolshevik Europe.Furthermore, I am firmly convinced that the lamenting lords and archbishops in London have no intention whatsoever of practically countering the Bolshevik danger that would be posed to the European states if the Soviet armies continued to advance. Judaism has already penetrated the Anglo-Saxon states so deeply intellectually and politically that they no longer see this danger or want to acknowledge it. Just as in the Soviet Union it disguises itself as Bolshevik, so in the Anglo-Saxon states it disguises itself as plutocratic-capitalist. The methods of mimicry are well known among the Jewish race. It has always aimed to euthanize its host peoples and thus paralyze their defenses against acute and life-threatening threats that come from it. (Shouts from the crowd: We’ve experienced it!)Our insight into this problem gave us the insight early on that the collaboration between international plutocracy and international Bolshevism is not at all absurd, but rather has a deep and causal meaning. Across our country, Western European pseudo-civilized Jewry and the Jewry of the Eastern Ghetto are already joining hands. This puts Europe in mortal danger.I do not flatter myself that these statements will alarm public opinion in the neutral or even in the enemy states. That is not their purpose or intention. I know that the English press will attack me tomorrow with an angry yap that I have put out the first peace feelers in view of our strain on the Eastern Front. (Stormy laughter.) There can be no question of that at all.In Germany today no one thinks of a lazy compromise; the whole people only thinks of a hard war.However, as a responsible spokesman for the leading country on this continent, I claim the sovereign right to call a danger a danger if it threatens not only our own country, but our entire continent. As National Socialists, we have the duty to sound the alarm against the attempted chaoticization of the European continent by international Jewry, which has built up a terrorist military power under Bolshevism, the threat of which cannot be overestimated at all.The third thesis that I would like to explain in more detail here is that danger is imminent. The paralysis of the Western European democracies in the face of their deadliest threat is heartbreaking. International Jewry promotes it with all its might. Just as the resistance to communism in our struggle for power in our own country was artificially put to sleep by the Jewish newspapers and only reawakened by National Socialism, this is exactly the case with other peoples today. Here, Judaism once again proves itself to be the incarnation of evil, a plastic demon of decay and a carrier of international culturally destructive chaos.Just to mention this, one can also understand our consistent Jewish policy in this contextWe see Judaism as an imminent danger for every country. How other peoples defend themselves against this danger is indifferent to us. But how we defend ourselves against this is our own business and we will not tolerate any objections.Judaism represents an infectious phenomenon that is contagious. If hostile foreign countries hypocritically protest against our anti-Jewish policies and shed hypocritical crocodile tears over our measures against Judaism, this cannot prevent us from doing what is necessary. In any case, Germany has no intention of bowing to this threat, but rather of countering it in a timely manner and, if necessary, with the most radical countermeasures. (The minister was prevented from continuing to speak for minutes by loud chants.)

Underlying all of these considerations is the military burden on the empire in the east. The war of mechanized robots against Germany and against Europe has reached its climax. The German people and their Axis partners are fulfilling a European mission in the truest sense of the word when they counter this immediate and serious threat to life with arms. We will not allow ourselves to be deterred by the cries of international Jewry all over the world in the courageous and upright continuation of the gigantic fight against this global plague. It can and must only end with victory. (Loud heckling sounds: “German men, get to the guns”, “German women get to work!”)With its tragic implications, the struggle for Stalingrad became a symbol of this heroic, masculine resistance to the turmoil of the steppe. It therefore had not only a military, but also a spiritual and spiritual significance for the German people that had a profound effect. Only here have our eyes been fully opened to the problems arising from this war. We don’t want to hear any more about false hopes and illusions. We want to courageously look the facts in the eye, no matter how harsh and cruel they are. Because it has been proven every time in the history of our party and our state that a danger that has been recognized is soon a danger that has been averted. Our further most difficult defensive battles in the East will be under the sign of this heroic resistance. They place demands on our soldiers and their weapons to an extent that was completely unknown to us in all previous campaigns. A war without mercy is raging in the East. The Führer characterized it correctly when he declared that it would not produce victors and vanquished, but only survivors and those destroyed.

The German people have clearly recognized this. With its healthy instincts it has made its own way through the maze of daily mental and spiritual difficulties of this war. Today we know exactly that the blitzkrieg of the Polish and Western campaigns only has a limited validity for the East. Here the German nation is fighting for everything. In this struggle we have come to the realization that the German people have their most sacred assets here, their families, their women and their children, the beauty and untouchedness of their landscape, their cities and villages, the two thousand-year heritage of their culture and everything that is us that makes life worth living has to be defended. Of course, Bolshevism does not have the slightest understanding of these treasures of our rich nationality, and it would not pay the slightest attention to them if necessary. He doesn’t even do that to his own people. The Soviet Union has been exploiting the Bolshevik war potential for 25 years to an extent that was completely unimaginable for us and was therefore misjudged by us. Terrorist Jewry has made itself at the service of 200 million people in Russia, marrying its cynical methods and practices with the blunt tenacity of the Russian race, which therefore represents an even greater danger to the civilized European peoples. In the East an entire people is forced to fight. Here men, women and even children are not only driven into the arms factories, but also into the war.

Two hundred million are facing us here, partly under the terror of the GPU, partly in a diabolical view, with wild dullness. The masses of tanks pouring into our Eastern Front this winter are the result of twenty-five years of social misfortune and misery of the Bolshevik people. We have to take appropriate countermeasures if we don’t want to give up the game as lost.I express my firm conviction that we can only defeat the Bolshevik danger in the long term if we confront it, if not with the same methods, at least with equivalent methods. The German nation is thus faced with the most serious question of this war, namely that of mustering the determination to use everything in order to preserve everything that it has and to gain everything that it needs for later life.So it’s no longer about maintaining a high standard of living at the expense of our defensive power against the East; it’s more about strengthening our defensive power at the expense of a high standard of living that is no longer up to date. This has absolutely nothing to do with imitating Bolshevik methods. We also used different methods in the fight against the Communist Party than we used against the bourgeois parties. Because here we were faced with an opponent who had to be dealt with differently if we wanted to deal with him. He used terror to crush the National Socialist movement. But terror is not broken with intellectual arguments, but only with counter-terror.

The spiritual threat posed by Bolshevism is well known; it is not disputed even in neutral countries. Beyond the spiritual threat, however, it now represents a direct military threat to us and Europe. Trying to counter it with only intellectual arguments would probably trigger a storm of merriment among the Kremlin rulers. We are not so stupid and so short-sighted as to even attempt to fight Bolshevism with such inadequate means. We also don’t want to see the saying applied to us that only the very largest calves choose their own butchers. We are determined to defend our lives by all means, regardless of whether the world around us sees the need for this fight or not.Total war is the order of the day.There must now be an end to the bourgeois squeamishness that wants to proceed according to the principle in this fateful battle: Wash my fur, but don’t get me wet! (Each sentence from the Minister is accompanied by growing applause and the strongest agreement.) The danger we face is enormous. The efforts we make to combat it must therefore be enormous. So now is the time to take off your kid gloves and bandage your fist. (A hurricane of applause erupts like a single scream. Chants from the galleries and stands confirm the crowd’s full approval.)It is no longer acceptable to exploit the war potential not only of our own country, but of the significant parts of Europe at our disposal, only fleetingly and on the surface. It must be fully exploited, and as quickly and as thoroughly as is conceivable from an organizational and objective point of view. False consideration would be completely out of place here. Europe’s future depends on our fight in the East. We stand ready to protect him. The German people are making their most precious national blood available for this fight. The rest of Europe should at least make their work available for this. Anyone in the rest of Europe who does not understand this fight today will be on their knees thanking us tomorrow for taking on it courageously and undeterred.We are not even annoyed when our enemies abroad claim that the measures we are now taking to totalize the war are quite close to those of Bolshevism. They hypocritically declare that one must therefore conclude that under these circumstances the fight against Bolshevism is unnecessary at all.

This is not about the method by which Bolshevism is defeated, but rather about the goal, namely the elimination of the danger. (Minutes of applause.)The question is not whether the methods we use are good or bad, but whether they lead to success. In any case, we as the National Socialist popular leadership are now determined to do anything. We take action, regardless of the objections of one or the other. (Shout: Immediately!)In the interest of maintaining a high, sometimes almost peacetime, internal standard of living for a certain class of people, we do not want to weaken Germany’s war potential and thereby endanger our conduct of the war. On the contrary, we voluntarily give up a significant part of this standard of living in order to increase the war potential as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.Furthermore, as I have learned from countless letters from home and demonstrations of approval from the front, there is only one opinion among the entire German people. Everyone knows that if we lose this war it would destroy us all. And that is why the people and their leadership are determined to resort to the most radical self-help. The broad working masses of our people do not accuse the government of being too ruthless, but rather of being too considerate. If you ask the German people across the country, you will only get one answer: the most radical thing is radical today, and the most total thing is total enough today to achieve victory. That is why total warfare is a matter for the entire German people. No one can ignore their demands with even a semblance of legitimacy.

When I proclaimed total war from this spot in my speech on January 30, I was met with hurricanes of approval from the crowds gathered around me. I can therefore state that the leadership’s measures are in complete agreement with the entire German people at home and at the front. The people want to take on all, even the heaviest, burdens and are ready to make any sacrifice if it serves the great goal of victory. (Lively shouts.)But the prerequisite for this is, of course, that the burdens are distributed fairly. It must not be tolerated that the vast majority of the people bear the entire burden of war, and a small passive part tries to avoid the burdens and responsibilities of war. The measures that we have taken and must still take will therefore be imbued with the spirit of National Socialist justice.We don’t take your status or profession into account!

Poor and rich and high and low must be claimed equally. In this most serious phase of our fateful struggle, everyone will be required, if necessary, forced, to fulfill their duty to the nation. We also know that we are in full agreement with the national will of our people. We would rather use too much force than too little to achieve victory. Never in the history of nations has a war been lost because the leadership had too many soldiers and weapons. But very many were lost because the opposite was the case.I have already stated publicly that the decisive task of the present war is to provide the Führer with an operational reserve through the most drastic measures at home, which will give him the opportunity to take up the offensive again in the coming spring and summer and to attempt to do so to deal the decisive blow to Soviet Bolshevism. The more power we give the leader, the more devastating this blow will be. It is therefore no longer appropriate to pay homage to outdated ideas of peace. The German people have every reason to think only of war. This does not contribute to its lengthening, but only to its acceleration. The most total and radical war is also the shortest. We have to go on the offensive again in the East! To do this, we must mobilize the necessary forces, which are still available in abundance in the country, not only in an organizational way, but also in an improvisational way. A cumbersome bureaucratic procedure only leads slowly to the goal. But the hour is pressing; Haste is their commandment. Even earlier, in the fight of the National Socialist movement against the democratic state, we did not work according to a cumbersome procedure. Back then, too, we often lived from hand to mouth and pursued our political strategy as a system of endlessly repeating temporary workers. That must be the case again today.

So it’s time to put a stop to the defaulters. They need to be shaken out of their comfortable calm. We cannot wait until they come to their senses on their own and then it may be too late. It has to be like oneAlarm call from the whole people go. The work of millions of hands has to be put in place, all over the country. The measures that we have already taken and still have to take, and which I will explain in more detail in the further part of my remarks, are drastic for all of private and public life. The sacrifices that individual citizens have to make are sometimes difficult; but they mean little compared to the sacrifices he would have to make if he refused to make these sacrifices and thereby brought about the greatest national disaster on our people. It is better to make a cut at the right time than to wait and let the disease take hold. But you shouldn’t blame the surgeon who makes the cut or even accuse him of bodily harm. He does not cut to kill, but to save the patient’s life.

Once again I must emphasize here that the heavier the sacrifices that the German people have to make, the more urgently the demand must be made that they be distributed fairly. The people want that too. Today, no one is opposed to taking on even the heaviest burdens of war. But of course it must seem irritating to everyone when certain people keep trying to avoid the burdens. The National Socialist government has a moral and political duty to combat such attempts manfully, if necessary with draconian punishments. Compassion would be completely out of place here and would gradually lead to confusion in the feelings and views of our people, which would seriously endanger our public morale.We are therefore forced to take a number of measures which, although not of vital importance for the conduct of the war in themselves, appear necessary to maintain war morale at home and at the front. Also the optics of war, ie. The external image of warfare is of crucial importance in the fourth year of the war.

has to make every day, the front has a fundamental right to ensure that not a single person at home claims the right to live bypassing the war and its duties. But it’s not just the front that demands this, but also the overwhelmingly decent part of the homeland. The hard-working people have a right to the fact that when they work ten, twelve and sometimes fourteen hours a day, the slackers don’t lounge right next to them and even think that the others are stupid and not sophisticated enough. The homeland must remain clean and intact in its entirety. Nothing is allowed to tarnish their wartime image.A number of measures have therefore been taken to take this new look of the war into account. For example, we have ordered the closure of bars and nightclubs. I can’t imagine that there are still people today who fully fulfill their wartime duties and at the same time sit around in bars until late at night. All I have to conclude is that they don’t take their wartime duties too seriously. We closed these entertainment venues because they began to be a nuisance to us and tarnished the image of the war. We are not pursuing any silly goals with this. After the war we would like to go back to the principle: live and let live. During war, however, the principle applies: fight and let fight!

Luxury restaurants, whose expenditure is disproportionate to the effect achieved, have also been forced to close. It may be that one or the other still sees the care of the stomach as a main task even during the war. We can’t take him into account. If our fighting troops at the front, from grenadiers to field marshals, eat from the field kitchen, I believe it is not too much to ask if we force everyone at home to at least take into account the most elementary commandments of community thinking. We want to become gourmets again after the war. Today we have more important things to do than take care of our stomachs. Countless luxury and representative stores have now also been closed. They were often a constant stumbling block for the buying public. There was hardly anything to buy there anymore, except if you paid here and there with butter or eggs instead of money. What purpose do shops have that no longer sell goods and only use electric light, heating and human labor, which we lack everywhere else, especially in arms production.One should not object here that maintaining a pleasant semblance of peace impresses foreign countries.Only a German victory impresses foreign countries!

When we win, everyone will want to be our friend. But if we ever lost, we could count our friends on the fingers of one hand. We have therefore put an end to these false illusions that blur the image of war. We will direct the people who stood idle in the empty shops to more useful work in the public war economy. This process is currently underway and will be completed by March 15th. Of course, it represents a huge reorganization of our entire economic life. We are not proceeding haphazardly. We also don’t want to accuse anyone unjustly or spread blame and reproach on all sides. We just do what is necessary. But we do this quickly and thoroughly.We would rather wear mended clothes for a few years than create a situation in which our people would have to walk around in rags for a few centuries. What’s the use of fashion salons today that use up light, heating and human labor? They will be reborn after the war, when we have the time and desire for it again. What is the point of hairdressing salons in which a cult of beauty is cultivated, which requires an enormous amount of time and manpower, which is very beautiful and pleasant for peace, but superfluous for war. Our women and girls will one day please our victorious soldiers returning home, even without a peacetime outfit.

In the future, public offices will work a little faster and less bureaucratically. It doesn’t look good at all if, after eight hours of working time, the work ends exactly to the minute. The people are not there for the offices, but the offices are there for the people. So you work until the job is done. This is the commandment of war. If the leader can do it, so will the servants of the state. If there is not enough work for longer working hours, 10 or 20 or 30 percent of the employees are given to the economy that is important to the war effort, thus releasing a corresponding number of men for the front. This applies to all offices at home. Perhaps this is precisely why work in the offices will be a little faster and a little less cumbersome. In war we must learn to work not only thoroughly but also promptly. The soldier at the front doesn’t have weeks to think about a measure, pass it from hand to hand or let it gather dust in files. He must act immediately because otherwise he will lose his life. Although we at home do not lose our own lives through laborious work, we endanger the lives of our people in the long run.

Even silly work that has nothing to do with the war must be stopped in industry and administration. Many things that were beautiful and desirable in peacetime seem ridiculous in wartime. If, for example, as I have been told, a number of places have been dealing for weeks with the question of whether the word accumulator should be replaced by the word collector, and are even creating extensive files on the matter, then I have the impression, and I believe, that it is in German Volk agrees that people who engage in such childish activities during wartime are not fully utilized and would be more expediently put into an ammunition factory or sent to the front.In general, everyone who works in the service of the people must always give the people a shining example in their work as well as in their external and internal attitude.Even small things sometimes spark public anger. For example, it is provocative when young men and women ride through the Tiergarten in Berlin at 9 a.m. and perhaps come across a working-class woman who has completed a ten-hour night shift and has to look after three or four or five children at home. The image of a cavalcade galloping past as if in complete peace can only arouse bitterness in the soul of this good working woman. I therefore banned riding on public streets and squares in the imperial capital for the duration of the war. In doing so, I think I also take into account the psychological demands of the war and probably also the demands of consideration for the front. The soldier who goes home from the Eastern Front on vacation for a few days and perhaps takes a day’s break in Berlin will get a completely wrong impression of the Reich capital when he sees such a spectacle. He doesn’t see the hundreds of thousands of hard-working and decent workers working twelve, fourteen and sometimes sixteen hours a day in the armaments factories, but rather a happy riding society. You can imagine what impressions from home he passed on to the front. In general, everyone must make it a self-evident imperative of war morale to give the greatest consideration to the legitimate demands of the working and fighting people. We’re not spoilsports, but we won’t let ourselves spoil the game either.

For example, when certain men and women loll around in the health resorts for weeks, gossiping about rumors and taking away places from seriously injured war veterans and workers who are entitled to vacation after a year of hard work, that is intolerable and has therefore been stopped. War is not the right time for a certain amount of fun. Our joy until the end is the work and the struggle; in this we find our deep inner satisfaction. Anyone who does not understand this because of their own sense of duty must be educated and, if necessary, forced to have this sense of duty. Only tough action can help hereIt does e.g. It will not make a good impression on the people if we use huge propaganda to issue the slogan: “Wheels must roll for victory!”, the whole people draws the conclusion from this and does not go on useless journeys, while unemployed pleasure travelers only have more space on the train receive. Today the railway is used for transport that is important to the war effort and for business trips that are necessary for the war effort.

Only those whose ability to work or fight would otherwise be seriously endangered are entitled to vacation. The Führer has not had a day’s vacation since the beginning of the war or long before. So if the first man in the state takes his duty so seriously and so responsibly, then this must be a silent but unmistakable invitation for every citizen of the state to act accordingly.On the other hand, the government is doing everything it can to give working people the opportunity to relax during this difficult time. Theaters, cinemas and music halls remain fully operational. The radio will strive to expand and perfect its program. We have absolutely no intention of conjuring up a gray winter mood among our people. What serves the people, what maintains, strengthens and increases their fighting and working power, that is good and important for the war effort. The opposite must be abolished. As a counterbalance to the measures just described, I have therefore ordered that the people’s mental and spiritual places of recreation not be reduced, but increased. To the extent that they do not harm our war efforts but promote them, they must also receive appropriate support from the state and popular leadership.This also applies to sport.Today, sport is not a matter for privileged circles, but rather a matter for the entire people. UK positions are completely pointless in the field of sport. Sport has the task of steeling physical strength, but probably mainly for the purpose of using it at least in the worst times of need for the people.

The front wants all of this too. This is what the entire German people are demanding with enthusiastic approval. They no longer want to hear about busyness that is unimportant to the war effort and similar pomposities that only require time and effort. They don’t want to hear any more about an over-the-top, cumbersome questionnaire for all sorts of nonsense. It doesn’t want to get bogged down in a thousand little things that may have been important for peace but have no significance for war. Nor does it need to be reminded of its duty by constantly reminding us of the heavy sacrifice of our soldiers in Stalingrad. It knows what to do and what not to do. It wants a Spartan way of life for everyone, for high and low, and rich and poor. Just as the leader sets an example for the entire people, the entire people in all its classes must also take this example as a role model. If he only knows work and worries, we don’t want to leave him work and worries alone, but we also want to take on the part that we can relieve him of.

The time we are living through today has, in its entirety, a striking resemblance to the Kamp era for any true National Socialist. We always acted like that. We have always stood with the people through thick and thin, and that is why the people have followed us on every path. We have always borne all burdens together with the people, and that is why the burdens did not seem heavy to us, but light. The people want to be led. There has never been an example in history of the people refusing to obey a brave and decisive leadership at a critical hour in national life.In this context, I would also like to say a few words about some of the practical measures of total war that we have already taken.The problem at hand is: freeing up soldiers for the front, freeing up workers for the armaments industry. All other needs must be subordinated to these two goals, even at the expense of our social standard of living during the war. This is not intended to represent a final stabilization of our standard of living, but only as a means to achieve the end, namely that of total victory.As part of this campaign, hundreds of thousands of British positions at home must be abolished. These UK positions were previously necessary because we did not have sufficient skilled and key workers available to fill the positions that would become vacant when the UK positions were abolished. The purpose of the measures taken and still to be taken is to mobilize the necessary workforce. That is why our appeal goes to the men who are still outside the war economy and the women who are still outside the work process. You will not want to and will not be able to refuse this appeal. The obligation to work for women has been defined very broadly. However, this does not mean that only those who are named in the law are allowed to work. Everyone is welcome to us, and the more who make themselves available for the major redeployment process in the internal economy, the more soldiers we can free up for the front.

Our enemies claim that German women are incapable of replacing men in the war economy. This may be true for certain heavy physical labor in our war production. Beyond that, I am convinced that the German woman is determined to fill the place vacated by the man who goes to the front in the shortest possible time. We don’t even need to refer to Bolshevik examples. Millions of the best German women have also been working with great success in the German war economy for years, and they are waiting impatiently for their ranks to be expanded and supplemented by new arrivals as soon as possible. All those who make themselves available for this work are only fulfilling a duty of gratitude to the front line. Hundreds of thousands have already come, hundreds of thousands will come. In the shortest possible time, we hope to free up armies of workers, who in turn will free up armies of fighting frontline soldiers.I would have to be very mistaken about the German women if I thought that they wanted to ignore the appeal made to them. They will not cling to the law in the most narrow-minded way or even try to slip through its cracks. Furthermore, the few who pursue such intentions would not end up with us. Medical certificates will not be accepted as valid instead of the requested worker. We will also respond with appropriate countermeasures to any alibi that you obtain from your husband, brother-in-law or a good acquaintance in order to continue to avoid work without supervision. The few who pursue such plans can only do themselves in the public eye. The people will show them the greatest contempt. Nobody demands that a woman who does not have the necessary physical requirements go into the heavy production of a tank factory. But there are a huge number of productions, including in the war industry, that can be carried out without too much physical exertion and for which a woman, even if she comes from privileged circles, can calmly make herself available. Nobody is too good for that, and the only choice we have is to do something whole here or lose the whole thing

Here I appeal, above all, as Berlin Gauleiter to my fellow Berliners. In the course of this war they have already given so many noble examples of a brave attitude to life that they certainly do not want to be embarrassed by this demand. They have earned a good name throughout the world through their practical way of life and the freshness of their outlook on life, even during wartime. It is now important to maintain and strengthen this good name through generous actions. So when I call on my fellow Berliners to make themselves available to work that is important to the war effort quickly, promptly and without much objection, I know that everyone will heed this appeal. We don’t want to complain about the difficulty of the time or argue with each other, we want to take action, as is not just the Berlin but German way, to take action, to take the initiative, to do something ourselves and not to leave everything to others to do.Which German woman would have the heart to evade such an appeal that I make to the German women’s world, especially for the fighting front? Who now wanted to put bourgeois convenience above national duty? Who would now, in view of the serious threat to which we are all exposed, want to think about their selfish private needs and not about the overriding necessities of war?I reject with contempt the accusation made by our enemies that this is an imitation of Bolshevism. We do not want to imitate Bolshevism, we want to defeat it with means and methods that are equal to it. The German woman is most likely to understand this, because she has long since recognized that the war that our men are waging today is a war primarily to protect their children. In this war, your most sacred asset will be protected by the use of the most precious blood of our people. With this struggle of men, German women must also spontaneously express their solidarity to the outside world. Tomorrow rather than the day after, she must join the ranks of the millions of working employees and increase the army of the working homeland through her own person. It must pass through the German people like a current of willingness. I expect that countless women and, above all, men who have not yet done any work important to the war effort will now report to the registration offices. If you give yourself quickly, you give yourself twice as much.In addition, large-scale consolidations are taking place in our general economy.I know that large parts of our people will have to make heavy sacrifices. I understand these victims, and the popular leadership is trying to keep them to a minimum. But a certain remainder will remain that must be borne. After the war, we will rebuild what we are dismantling today, bigger and more beautiful than ever, and the state will lend a helping hand.In this context, I strongly object to the claim that our measures are intended to shut down small and medium-sized businesses or to monopolize our economy. After the war, the middle class was immediately restored economically and socially to a large extent.The current measures are exclusively emergency measures for war purposes and war needs. They are not seeking structural change in the economy, but are simply focused on helping to achieve victory as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. Because here lies the path to victory.I do not deny that we still have worrying weeks ahead of us, even given the implementation of the measures just described. But now we can finally clear the air. We adapt these measures to the actions of the coming summer and get to work today, without paying any attention to the enemy’s threats and boasts. I am happy to be able to present this program of victory (stormy applause) to a German people who not only willingly accept these measures, but demand them more urgently than has ever been the case in the course of this war. The people want drastic and quick action. It’s time! We must seize the moment and the hour so that we are protected from coming surprises.In recent years we have often referred to the Frederick example in our newspapers and speeches. We had no right to do that at all. In the Third Silesian War, Frederick II temporarily faced five million Prussians, as Schlieffen calculated, against 90 million Europeans. And in the second of the seven hellish years he suffered a defeat that left the entire Prussian state reeling. He has never had enough soldiers and weapons to fight his battles without great risk. He always ran his strategy as a temporary system. But his principle was to attack the enemy wherever he had an opportunity and to defeat him wherever he faced him. The fact that he suffered defeats is not the decisive factor. What is more important is that the great king remained unbroken in all the blows of fate, that he steadfastly accepted the changing fortunes of war and that his iron heart overcame every danger. At the end of the seven years he stood at the age of 51, a toothless old man suffering from gout and tormented by a thousand pains, but victorious on the devastated battlefield. What do we have to counter this?! At most, only the will and determination to do as he did when the hour demands it, to remain unshakable like him in all the fortunes of fate, to force victory even under the most unfavorable circumstances, and never to the great cause that we to advocate, to despair.

I express my deep conviction that the German people have been deeply purified internally by the tragic blow of fate at Stalingrad. It saw war in its harsh and merciless face. It now knows the cruel truth and is determined to stick with the leader through thick and thin.(The enthusiastic crowd rises like a sea and never-ending chants of “Fuhrer command, we will follow you!” and “Hail to our Fuhrer!” prevent the minister from continuing to speak for minutes.)We have loyal and reliable allies at our side. The Italian people will continue with us undeterred on the path to victory under the leadership of their great Duce. Fascist doctrine has made it ripe for all great tests of fate. (At this moment the crowd of the Italian delegation, led by the member of the Fascist Grand Council, Excellency Alfieri, brings a stormy demonstration, for which Alfieri thanks with great cordiality.) In East Asia, the brave Japanese inflicts blow after blow. (Again warm applause.) Three world and great powers together with their allies are leading the fight against plutocratic tyranny and the Bolshevik threat. What can happen to us if we submit to the harsh trials of this war! We have no doubt about the security of our victory. While our fronts in the East are fighting their gigantic defensive battles against the onslaught of the steppe, the war of our submarines is racing across the world’s oceans. The enemy’s tonnage space suffers losses that cannot be made up for by any artificially increased replacement and new buildings. Otherwise, the enemy will get to know us! The German people are determined to give the leader the necessary opportunity to do this by using all their energies.

In recent days the English and American press have dealt extensively with the attitude of the German people in the current crisis. According to your boasts, the English know the German people much better than we do, their own leadership. They hypocritically give us advice about what we should and shouldn’t do, always in the mistaken belief that the German people of today are like the German people of November 1918, who fell for their seduction skills. I don’t need to provide counter-evidence to this assumption. The counter-evidence is substantiated every day by the fighting and working German people.But I would like to ask you, my German comrades, a series of questions about the truth, which you must answer to the best of your knowledge and belief. When my listeners spontaneously expressed their agreement to my demands on January 30th, the English press claimed the next day that it was a propaganda theater and in no way corresponded to the true mood of the German people. (Spontaneous shouts: Ugh! Lie! They should just come here! They’ll get to know us!) Today I have invited a section of the German people in the best sense of the word to this meeting. (The minister’s list is accompanied by stormy demonstrations, which manifest themselves in never-ending applause and the strongest support for the representatives of the Wehrmacht present in the Sports Palace.) Sitting in front of me are rows of German wounded from the Eastern Front, leg and arm amputees, with their limbs shot to pieces , war blind people who came with their Red Cross sisters, men in the prime of their years who have their crutches in front of them. In between I count about fifty holders of the Oak Leaves and the Knight’s Cross, a brilliant delegation from our fighting front. Behind them rises a block of armaments workers from the Berlin tank works. Behind them again sit men from the party organization, soldiers from the fighting Wehrmacht, doctors, scientists, artists, engineers and architects, teachers, civil servants and employees from the departments and offices, a proud representative of our intellectual life in all its layers, that of the Reich especially now in the war we owe miracles to invention and human genius. I see thousands of German women spread all over the sports palace. Young people are represented here, as are old people. No status, no profession and no year of life was ignored in the invitation. So I can rightly say: What I am sitting here in front of is a section of the entire German people at the front and at home. (At the moment when this question is asked, the Sports Palace is experiencing a demonstration that even this old battle site of National Socialism has only experienced at special highlights of national events. The mass jumps from its seats as if electrified. Like a hurricane, a voice of many thousands of voices roars through the wide area. What The participants in this rally experience is a referendum and expression of will that cannot be expressed more spontaneously.)

So you, my listeners, represent the nation at this moment. And I would like to ask you ten questions that you and the German people should answer to me in front of the whole world, but especially in front of our enemies, who also listen to us on their radio. (It is only with difficulty that the minister can make himself heard for the following questions. The crowd is in a state of extreme high spirits. The individual questions are razor-sharp. Each individual feels personally addressed. The crowd responds to each one with ultimate sympathy and enthusiasm Question the answer. The Sports Palace echoes with a single cry of approval.)The nation’s answerThe English claim that the German people have lost faith in victory.I ask you: Do you believe with the Führer and with us in the final, total victory of the German people?I ask you: Are you determined to follow the Leader in the pursuit of victory through thick and thin and even the most severe personal burdens?Second: The English claim that the German people are tired of fighting.I ask you: Are you prepared, with the Führer as the phalanx of the homeland behind the fighting Wehrmacht, to continue this fight with fierce determination and undeterred by all the fates until victory is in our hands?Third: The English claim that the German people no longer have any desire to undergo the excessive war work that the government demands of them.

I ask you: Are you and is the German people determined, when the Führer orders them, to work ten, twelve, and if necessary fourteen and sixteen hours a day and to give everything they have for victory?Fourth: The English claim that the German people are resisting the government’s total war measures. It doesn’t want total war, but surrender. (Shouts: Never! Never! Never!)I ask you: Do you want total war? Do you want it, if necessary, to be more total and radical than we can even imagine today?Fifth: The English claim that the German people have lost their trust in the leader.I ask you: Is your trust in the leader greater, more faithful and more unshakable today than ever before? Is your willingness to follow him in all his ways and to do whatever is necessary to bring the war to a victorious end absolute and unconditional?(The crowd rises as one man. The enthusiasm of the masses is released in a demonstration of unprecedented proportions. Thousands of voices roar through the hall: “Fuhrer commands, we follow!” A never-ending wave of cries for healing to the Fuhrer erupts. How At a command, the flags and standards are raised, the highest expression of the consecrated moment in which the masses pay homage to the leader.)My sixth question to you is: Are you ready from now on to use all your strength and to provide the Eastern Front with the people and weapons it needs to deal the fatal blow to Bolshevism?Seventhly, I ask you: Do you swear to the front with a sacred oath that the homeland will stand behind it with strong morale and will give it everything it needs to fight for victory?Eighthly, I ask you: Do you, especially you women, want the government to ensure that German women also make their full strength available to the war effort and step in wherever possible to free men for the front? and thereby help their men at the front?I ask you ninthly: Do you, if necessary, approve of the most radical measures against a small circle of shirkers and racketeers who want to play peace in the middle of war and exploit the people’s need for selfish purposes? Do you agree that anyone who offends against war will lose their head?I ask you tenthly and finally: Do you want, as the National Socialist party program demands, equal rights and equal duties to prevail, especially in war, that the homeland takes the heavy burdens of the war on its shoulders in solidarity and that it stands for high and low and poor and rich are distributed equally?

I asked you; you gave me your answer. You are a part of the people, and the position of the German people has manifested itself through your mouth. You have spoken to our enemies what they need to know so that they do not fall into illusions and misconceptions.Thus, as from the first hour of our power and throughout all these ten years, we are firmly and fraternally united with the German people. The most powerful ally there is in this world, the people themselves, stands behind us and is determined to fight for victory with the leader, no matter the cost, and with the acceptance of even the heaviest sacrifices. What power in the world could now prevent us from achieving and fulfilling everything we have set ourselves as our goals? Now we will and must succeed! I stand here before you not only as a spokesman for the government, but also as a spokesman for the people. Sitting around me are my old friends from the party who hold high positions in the leadership of the people and the state. Sitting next to me is party comrade Speer, who was given the historic mandate by the Führer to mobilize the German arms industry and supply the front with weapons in abundance. Sitting next to me is party comrade Dr. Ley, who was commissioned by the Führer to lead the German workforce and to train and educate them in tireless commitment to their wartime duties. We feel connected to our party comrade Sauckel, who received the order from the Führer to bring countless hundreds of thousands of workers into the Reich, which represents a subsidy to the national economy that the enemy cannot at all overtake. In addition, all leaders of the party, the Wehrmacht and the state are united with us.All of us, children of our people, welded together with the people in the greatest fateful hour of our national history, we vow to you, we vow to the front, and we vow to the Führer that we want to weld the homeland together into a block of will on which the Führer and his fighting soldiers can unconditionally and blindly abandon him. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to win in our lives and work. We want to fill our hearts with that political passion that always consumed us like an ever-burning fire during the great times of struggle for the party and the state. In this war we never want to succumb to that false and hypocritical obsession with objectivity to which the German nation has already owed so much misfortune in its history.When this war began, our eyes were solely on the nation. Whatever serves her and her life’s struggle is good and must be preserved and promoted. Whatever harms her and her life’s struggle is bad and must be eliminated and cut off. We want to approach tackling the major problems of this period of the war with a warm heart and a cool head. We are thus on the path to final victory. It is based on faith in the leader. So this evening I will once again remind the entire nation of their great duty.

The leader expects a performance from us that will eclipse anything that has come before. We don’t want to refuse his request. As we are proud of him, so he should be proud of us.Only in the greatest crises and shocks in national life do the true men, but also the true women, prove themselves. You no longer have the right to speak of the weaker sex; both sexes demonstrate the same fighting determination and fortitude. The nation is ready for anything. The leader has ordered, we will follow him. If we ever believed faithfully and unwaveringly in victory, it was in this hour of national reflection and inner upheaval. We see it lying before us, close enough to touch; we just have to grasp it. We just have to find the resolve to subordinate everything else to His service. This is the need of the hour. And that’s why the slogan is:Now people, get up and let the storm break!(The minister’s last words are drowned in never-ending, stormy applause.)