The grounds for it are to give our Volk insight into the historic uniqueness of the events we have lived through; to express our thanks to the deserving soldiers; and to direct, once again and for the last time, an appeal to general reason.
Whoever contrasts the factors which triggered this historic conflict with the extent, the greatness, and consequence of the military occurrences, must realize that the events and sacrifices of this struggle stand in no relation to the alleged causes, unless these causes themselves were but pretexts for intentions yet concealed.
The program of the National Socialist Revolution, insofar as it concerned the future development of the Reich's relations with the surrounding world, was an attempt to obtain a revision of the Treaty of Versailles under all circumstances-and as far as this was possible-by peaceful means.
The untenability of the provisions of Versailles lay not only in the humiliating discrimination, the disarmament of the German Volk secured with the result that they lost their rights, but above all in the resultant material destruction of the present and the intended destruction of the future of one of the greatest civilized peoples in the world, in the completely senseless accumulation of vast terrains under the mastery of a few states, in the depriving of the losers of irreplaceable foundations for life and indispensable vital goods.
The fact that insightful men on the side of the adversary, even while this Diktat was being composed, warned against the conclusive realization of the terms of this work of lunacy, is proof of the persuasion prevalent even in these ranks that it would be impossible to maintain this Diktat in the future.
Their misgivings and their protests were silenced by the assurance that the statutes of the newly created League of Nations secured the possibility of a revision of these provisions, indeed that it was authorized for such a revision.
At no time was hope for a revision regarded as something improper, but always as something quite natural.
Regrettably, contrary to the will of the men responsible for the Versailles Diktat, the institution in Geneva never regarded itself as an agency for procuring sensible revisions, but rather, from the beginning, as the custodian of the ruthless implementation and maintenance of the provisions of Versailles.
All endeavors of democratic Germany failed to obtain, by means of revision, an equality of rights for the German Volk.
It lies in the interest of the victor to portray as universally sanctified those conditions that benefit him, while the essence of the instinct of self-preservation compels the vanquished to strive for a restoration of his general human rights.
For him this Diktat penned by an arrogant enemy has even less force of law insofar as the victory of this enemy was a dishonest one. It was a rare misfortune that the German Reich was led exceedingly badly in the years.
1914-18.
To this, and to the not otherwise instructed trust and faith of the German Volk in the word of democratic statesmen, must our fall be ascribed.
It was thus that the joint British-French endeavor to portray the Versailles Treaty as some type of international or higher justice must have appeared to every honest German as nothing other than an insolent usurpation.
The supposition that British or French statesmen of all people were custodians of justice itself, or even of human culture, was a stupid effrontery.
It was an affront which is sufficiently elucidated by their own inferior performances in these fields.
For rarely has this world been governed with a greater deficit of cleverness, morality, and culture than in that part of it which is presently at the mercy of the fury of certain democratic statesmen.
The National Socialist Movement has, besides its delivery from the Jewish capitalist shackles imposed by a plutocratic-democratic, dwindling class of exploiters at home, pronounced its resolve to free the Reich from the shackles of the Diktat of Versailles abroad.
The German demands for a revision were an absolute necessity, a matter of course for the existence and the honor of any great people.
Posterity will someday come to regard them as exceedingly modest.
All these demands had to be carried through, in practice against the will of the British-French potentates.
Now more than ever we all see it as a success of the leadership of the Third Reich that the realization of these revisions was possible for years without resort to war.
This was not the case-as the British and French demagogues would have it-because we were not then in a position to wage war.
When it finally appeared as though, thanks to a gradually awakening common sense, a peaceful resolution of the remaining problems could be reached through international cooperation, the agreement concluded in this spirit on September 29, 1938, at Munich by the four great states predominantly involved, was not welcomed by public opinion in London and Paris but was condemned as a despicable sign of weakness.
The Jewish capitalist warmongers, their hands covered with blood, saw in the possible success of such a peaceful revision the vanishing of plausible grounds for the realization of their insane plans.
Once again that conspiracy of pitiful, corrupt political creatures and greedy financial magnates made its appearance, for whom war is a welcome means to bolster business.
The international Jewish poison of the peoples began to agitate against and to corrode healthy minds.
Men of letters set out to portray decent men who desired peace as weaklings and traitors, to denounce opposition parties as a "fifth column," in order to eliminate internal resistance to their criminal policy of war.
Jews and Freemasons, armament industrialists and war profiteers, international traders and stockjobbers, found political blackguards: desperados and glory seekers who represented war as something to be yearned for and hence wished for.
It is to be ascribed to these criminal elements that the Polish State was incited to assume a posture which stood in no relation to the German demands and even less to the consequences that resulted.
The German Reich, in particular with regard to Poland, has shown restraint ever since the National Socialist rise to power.
One of the basest and stupidest provisions of the Versailles Diktat, namely the tearing away of an old German province from the Reich, already cried for a revision in and of itself.
But what was it that I demanded at the time?
I must in this context refer to my own person.
No other statesman could have afforded to propose a solution to the German nation in the way I did.
It comprised merely the return of Danzig-that is to say of an ancient, purely German city-to the Reich as well as the creation of a connection of the Reich to its severed province. And this only pursuant to plebiscites conducted, in turn, under the auspices of an international forum.
If Mr. Churchill or any other warmongers had but a fraction of the sense of responsibility I felt toward Europe, they could not have played so perfidious a game.
For it need be ascribed solely to these vested interests in war, both within Europe and beyond, that Poland rejected the proposals which neither compromised its existence nor its honor, and instead resorted to terror and arms.
And it was truly superhuman restraint, without precedent, which for months led us, in spite of persistent assassination attempts on ethnic Germans-yes, indeed, in spite of the slaughter of tens of thousands of German Volksgenossen, to continue to search for a path toward peaceful understanding.
For what was the situation like?
One of the creations of the Diktat of Versailles, the most divorced from reality, a bogy inflated militarily and politically, insulted a state for many months, threatening to beat it, to fight battles before Berlin, to smash the German Army to pieces, to transfer the border to the Oder or the Elbe; it went on and on.
And this other state, Germany, watches the goings-on patiently for months, although one sweeping gesture would have sufficed to wipe this bubble inflated by stupidity and arrogance off the face of the earth.
On September 2, this struggle could yet have been avoided.
Mussolini made a proposal to put an immediate end to the hostilities and to negotiate peacefully.
Though Germany saw its armies advancing victoriously, I accepted this, nonetheless.
But the Anglo-French warmongers needed war, not peace.
And they needed a long war, as Mr. Chamberlain put the matter at the time.
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS (/ˈtʃeɪmbərlɪn/; 18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940.
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It was to last for at least three years, since they had in the meantime invested their capital in the armament industry, bought the necessary machinery, and now needed the precondition of time for the thriving of their business and for the amortization of their investments.
And besides: what are Poles, Czechs, or other such nationalities to these citizens of the world?
A German soldier found a curious document while rummaging through train wagons at the La Charite station on June 19, 1940.
He immediately handed over the document- which bore a particular remark-to his superiors at departmental headquarters.
From there the paper passed to agencies.
It became clear that what had been discovered constituted evidence in a most important investigation.
The train station was once more thoroughly searched.
And it was thus that the High Command of the Wehrmacht came into possession of a collection of documents of unique historical significance.
What was found were the secret files of the Allied High War Council, including the protocols of all sessions of this illustrious association.
And this time it shall not be possible for Mr. Churchill to simply deny or lie about the authenticity of these documents, as he had attempted to do at the time in the case of documents found in Warsaw.
For these documents feature handwritten notes in the margins penned by:
Gamelin
Daladier
Weygand
and so on.
Hence these gentlemen are free either to admit to these or to disown them at any time.
And these documents enlighten us as to the dealings of these gentlemen who have an interest in the war and in its expansion.
They will above all demonstrate how these cold-blooded politicians and military men have used all these small peoples as a means to an end; how they tried to subject Finland to their interests; how they determined to make Norway and Sweden the theater of war; how they planned to set fire to the Balkans to procure the assistance of 100 divisions from there; how they prepared to bomb Batum and Baku under the cover of a shrewd as well as unscrupulous reading of the Turkish neutrality in favor of their own interests; how they spun their web around the Netherlands and Belgium, pulling its strings constantly tighter, and finally engaging them in general staff agreements; as well as many other things.
The documents afford us, moreover, a good picture of the entire amateurish method which these policy-making warmongers employed in an attempt to contain the fire they had kindled.
These speak of their military pseudo-democracy which is jointly responsible for the gruesome fate which they have inflicted on hundreds of thousands and millions of soldiers of their own countries; of their barbaric lack of conscience which led them to drive their own peoples from their homes in cold blood and deliberately, in a mass evacuation whose military consequences were not necessarily favorable to them, while the general human results were shockingly gruesome.
The same criminals are at the same time responsible for whipping up the Poles and inciting them to war.
Eighteen days later this campaign ended-for all practical purposes.
For a second time in the war, I spoke to the German Volk from this stand on October 6, 1939.
I was then able to report to it the glorious military defeat of the Polish State.
I then also directed an appeal to reason to the men responsible in the enemy states and to their peoples. I warned against further pursuit of the war, the consequences of which could only be devastating.
I warned the French especially not to start a war which, by necessity, would eat its way inward from the frontier and which, irrespective of its outcome, would have dire consequences.
At this time, I directed an appeal to the rest of the world as well.
However, as I said then, I did so with the apprehension that not only might I not be heard, but that thereby I might only elicit the wrath of the warmongers interested.
The responsible elements in England and France smelt a rat, seeing my appeal as a dangerous assault on their lucrative profiteering in the war.
Thus, they hurriedly and eagerly declared that any thought of an understanding was a waste of time-yes, that this would even have to be regarded as a crime.
The war had to be pursued in the name of:
culture
humanity
good fortune
progress
civilization
and-Good God! -even in the name of sacred religion, and in subservience to this end Negroes and Bushmen (Buschmenschen) had to be mobilized.
And then, of course, victory would come about of its own accord, so to speak.
It would then be within grasp; one need only reach out for it.
And, naturally, so they said, I was very well aware of all this myself, and indeed had known it for a long time, and it was only because of this that I had laid before the world my appeal for peace.
For, if I were in a position to believe in victory, I would not have approached England and France with an understanding without any conditions attached.
In a few days these agitators succeeded in portraying me as a coward before the eyes of the world.
I was scolded for my peace proposal, even personally insulted.
Mr. Chamberlain virtually spat in my face before the world public and declined to even talk of peace, according to the directives of the warmongers and agitators backing him:
Churchill
Duff Cooper
Eden
Hore-Belisha
and so on.
Not to mention negotiating a peace.
And it was thus that the big capitalist clique of war profiteers cried for a continuation of the war.
And this continuation has now begun.
I have already asserted, and all of you, my Volksgenossen, know this:
if I do not speak for some time, or nothing much happens, then this does not mean that I am not doing anything.
With us it is not necessary to multiply by a factor of five or twelve every airplane built, and then to proclaim it loudly to the world.
Besides, hens would be ill-advised to cry out to the world every egg just laid.
It would be all the more ill-considered of statesmen to announce projects barely beyond the planning stage, in nervous chatter, to the surrounding world, so as to inform it in a timely manner.
To the excited garrulousness of two of these great democratic state leaders we owe ever-current information on the plans for an expansion of the war by our adversaries, and especially on the concentration of the war effort in Norway and Sweden.
While the Anglo-French clique of warmongers was on the lookout for new opportunities to expand the war, and trying to trap new victims, I have labored to bring to a conclusion the organizational buildup of the Wehrmacht, to set up new units, to start up production for the war, to get material to flow, as well as to order training of the entire Wehrmacht for its new missions.
Beyond this, however, the bad weather of the late autumn and winter forced a postponement of military operations.
In the course of the month of March, we gained knowledge of British- French ambitions to intervene in the Russo-Finnish conflict, which was less to help the Finns and more to damage Russia, the latter being seen as a power cooperating with Germany.
This ambition grew into the determination to intervene actively in Finland itself and, if possible, to gain a base for carrying the war to the Baltic Sea.
And, at this time also, suggestions of the Allied High War Council appeared with ever greater insistence either to set afire the Balkans or Asia Minor in an effort to bar the Reich from its Russian and Romanian oil imports, or to gain possession of Swedish iron ore.
Landings in Norway were to serve this end with the goal of occupying all ore railroads leading from Narvik across Sweden to the port of Lulea.
The Russo-Finnish peace accords prevented, at the last minute, the carrying out of the already envisioned action in the Nordic States.
Yet, merely a few days later, similar ambitions surfaced anew and precipitated a clear decision.
England and France had agreed to move, in one sudden strike, to occupy numerous important locations in Norway under the pretext of preventing further support for the German war effort with Swedish ore.
To secure access completely to the Swedish ore, they intended to march into Sweden themselves and to push aside the few forces Sweden could muster, either, if possible, in a friendly manner or, if necessary, by force.
Of the imminence of this danger, we were informed personally by the untamable garrulousness of the First Lord of the British Admiralty.
Moreover, we received confirmation through a hint made by the French Premier Reynaud in a talk with a foreign diplomat.
That the date had been postponed twice before the eighth of April, and that the occupation was scheduled for the eighth, that the eighth, therefore, was the third and final day-of this we gained knowledge only recently.
It was conclusively established only with the discovery of the protocols of the High Allied War Council.
I then ordered the Wehrmacht, as soon as the danger of dragging the North into the war was becoming apparent, to take the appropriate measures.
The case of the Altmark already demonstrated that the Norwegian Government was not willing to uphold its neutrality.
Beyond this, reports of secret agents also revealed that, at least insofar as the leading heads of the Norwegian Government and the Allies were concerned, there was already full agreement.
Finally, Norway's reaction to the violation of its territory by British minelayers dispelled all remaining doubts.
The German operation, prepared down to the last detail, was launched.
In fact, the situation was a bit different from what we perceived it to be on April 9.
While we then believed we had anticipated the British occupation by a few hours, we know today that the landing of the English troops had been scheduled for the eighth.
The embarkation of the British contingents had already begun on the fifth and sixth.
However, the moment the first news reached the British Admiralty of the German steps, i.e., that a German fleet had put to sea, this development so impressed Mr. Churchill that he decided to have the contingents already embarked disembark once again, so that the British fleet would first be able to search for and attack German ships.
This attempt ended in failure.
Only a single English destroyer came into contact with the German naval forces and was shot out of the water.
This vessel could not relay any sort of message to the British Admiralty or to the fleet of the English naval combat contingents.
And thus, on the ninth, the landing of German forward units was carried out along a coastal front stretching from Oslo north to Narvik.
When news of this reached London, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Churchill, had already been on the lookout for many hours-eagerly awaiting first reports of the successes of his fleet.
And this strike, my Deputies, was the most daring undertaking in the history of German warfare.
Its successful implementation was possible only thanks to the leadership and the behavior of all German soldiers involved.
What our three arms:
the Army
the Navy
the Luftwaffe
have accomplished in the struggle for Norway assures them mention in the records of the highest soldiership.
The Navy conducted its operations, and later handled the troop transports, faced by an enemy who, all in all, possessed an almost tenfold superiority.
All units of our young Reich War Navy have covered themselves with eternal glory in this venture.
Only after the war will it be appropriate to discuss the difficulties faced especially in this campaign: the numerous unexpected setbacks, losses, and accidents suffered.
To have overcome all this in the end goes to the credit of the behavior, the leadership, and the troops.
The Luftwaffe, which often was the only means of transport and communications in so gigantically vast a terrain, outdid itself in all respects.
Death-defying attacks on the enemy, on his ships and landing troops, are hardly more impressive than the tenacious heroics of the transport plane pilots, who in spite of unimaginably adverse weather started time and time again on their way to the land of the midnight sun, only to unload soldiers or freight in the midst of a snowstorm.
Norway's fjords have become the graveyard of many a British warship.
Because of the uninterrupted wild attacks of German bombers and Stukas, the British fleet was forced to retreat from and to evacuate the very arena of which a few weeks earlier an English newspaper had so tastefully stated:
"That it would be a pleasure for England to oblige the German invitation to do battle there."
The Army.
The crossing already constituted a great challenge for the soldiers of the Army.
In a few cases, airborne troops had opened up the area where they first set foot.
Then division after division flooded the land which, due to its natural characteristics, already possessed considerable defenses, and which-as far as the Norwegian units were concerned-was very valiantly defended.
Of the Englishmen who had landed in Norway, one can say that the only remarkable thing was the unscrupulousness with which such badly trained, insufficiently equipped, and miserably led soldiers had been put ashore as an expeditionary corp.
From the beginning, they were certain to lose.
By contrast, what our German infantry, the pioneers, what our artillery, our communications and construction units, have achieved in Norway can only be termed the proud heroism of struggle and labor.
The word Narvik will enter our history as glorious evidence of the spirit of the Wehrmacht of the National Socialist Greater German Reich.
and so on, have, until recently, been exceedingly ill-informed as to the essence of the Greater German unification process.
Édouard Daladier (French: [edwaʁ daladje]; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (center-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II.
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At the time, I announced that the future would probably teach them better.
And I may well assume that in particular the deployment of mountain troops from the Ostmark at this front furthest north in our battle for freedom has enlightened them sufficiently as far as the Greater German Reich and its sons are concerned.
It is lamentable that the grenadiers of Mr. Chamberlain did not pay sufficient and, above all, persistent attention to this conflict, and instead preferred to be satisfied with the first test of the inner disposition of the tribes of our Volk which have newly come to the Reich.
Paul Nikolaus von Falkenhorst (17 January 1885 – 18 June 1968) was a German general and a war criminal during World War II. He planned and commanded the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in 1940 and was commander of German troops during the occupation of Norway from 1940 to 1944. After the war, Falkenhorst was tried by a joint British-Norwegian military tribunal for war crimes. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1946. The sentence was later commuted to twenty years' imprisonment. Falkenhorst was released in 1953 and died in 1968.
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Eduard Wohlrat Christian Dietl (21 July 1890 – 23 June 1944) was a German general during World War II who commanded the 20th Mountain Army. He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.
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Operations at sea were conducted under the leadership of Admiral General Saalwächter and the Admirals Carls and Boehm, and Vice Admiral Lutjens.
Alfred Saalwächter (10 January 1883 – 6 December 1945) was a high-ranking German U-boat commander during World War I and General Admiral during World War II.
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Erhard Milch (30 March 1892 – 25 January 1972) was a German general field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) who oversaw the development of the German air force (Luftwaffe) as part of the re-armament of Nazi Germany following World War I. He was State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Aviation and Inspector General of the Air force. During most of World War II, he was in charge of all aircraft production and supply. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Milch Trial, which was held before a U.S. military court in 1947 and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, Milch's sentence was commuted to 15 years in 1951. He was paroled in 1954 and died in 1972.
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Hans-Ferdinand Geisler (19 April 1891 – 25 June 1966) was a German general during World War II.
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The High Command of the Wehrmacht, Colonel General Keitel, as the Chief of the High Command,
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (German pronunciation: [ˈkaɪ̯tl̩]; 22 September 1882 – 16 October 1946) was a German field marshal who held office as chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's armed forces, during World War II. He signed a number of criminal orders and directives that led to numerous war crimes. Keitel's rise to the Wehrmacht high command began with his appointment as the head of the Armed Forces Office at the Reich Ministry of War in 1935. Having taken command of the Wehrmacht in 1938, Adolf Hitler replaced the ministry with the OKW and Keitel became its chief. He was reviled among his military colleagues as Hitler's habitual "yes-man". After the war, Keitel was indicted by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg as one of the "major war criminals". He was found guilty on all counts of the indictment: crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, criminal conspiracy, and war crimes. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in 1946.
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and General Jodl, as the Chief of the Wehrmacht leadership staff, were responsible for implementing my directives for the entire undertaking.
Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (German: [ˈjoːdl̩] (listen); 10 May 1890 – 16 October 1946) was a German Generaloberst who served as the Chief of the Operations Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht – the German Armed Forces High Command – throughout World War II. After the war, Jodl was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity at the Allied-organized Nuremberg trials. The principal charges against him related to his signature of the criminal Commando and Commissar Orders. Found guilty on all charges, he was sentenced to death and executed in Nuremberg in 1946.
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Even before the conclusion of the campaign in Norway, news in the West took on an ever more threatening character.
While, in fact, preparations had been made before the war to break through the Maginot Line in the event of a necessary conflict with France or England, an undertaking for which the German troops had been trained and had been equipped with the weaponry required, the course of events in the first months of the war compelled us to contemplate the possibility of moving against Holland and Belgium.
While Germany had positioned hardly any units against Belgium or the Netherlands, other than those necessary for security reasons, as well as beginning to expand upon its fortification system, a visible mass of French units began to array itself along the French-Belgian border.
In particular, the concentration of tanks and motorized divisions in this sector revealed that it was intended-at any rate it was possible-for these to be hurled at lighting speed through Belgium at the German border.
Decisive in this context was the following observation: While, in the case of a loyal reading of the Belgian-Dutch neutrality, these two countries would have been forced, by the concentration of strong Anglo- French forces at their border, to focus their attention on the West, both began to reduce their troop strengths along this border to the same degree they began to build up the units stationed along the border with Germany.
News of ongoing talks at the general staff level also shed a peculiar light on [this interpretation of] Belgian-Dutch neutrality.
I need not emphasize that these talks, had they been conducted in the spirit of true neutrality, would have had to be held with both sides.
Besides this, such an intensification of signs indicating that a move of the Anglo-French troops across Holland and Belgium against the German industrial area was taking place required that we should regard this threat as a serious danger.
Hence, I took the German Wehrmacht into my confidence, informing it of the possibility of such a development and entrusting it with the appropriate, detailed directives. In numerous conferences at the High Command of the Wehrmacht with the Commanders in Chief of the three branches of the Wehrmacht, the leaders of the Army groups and of the armies, down to the leaders of important, individual undertakings, the tasks facing us were enumerated and thoroughly discussed.
Among the troops these were taken up with great understanding, as the basis for a special type of training.
Correspondingly, the entire German deployment underwent the necessary adjustments.
The thorough observations which had been conducted everywhere gradually led to the compelling recognition that, from the beginning of May on, an Anglo-French advance had to be expected at any moment.
In the days of May 6 and 7, telephone conversations between London and Paris took place, of which we gained intelligence, and which reinforced suspicions that an invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium by the so-called Allies had to be expected at any moment.
Thus, on the following day, May 8, 1 ordered an immediate attack for May 10, 5:35 in the morning.
The basic thought behind this operation was to deploy, without worrying about peripheral successes, the entire Wehrmacht-especially the Army and the Luftwaffe-in so decisive a manner that the envisioned operations had to attain the complete annihilation of the Anglo-French forces.
In contrast to the Schlieffen Plan of the year 1914, I ordered the main thrust of the operation along the left flank of the breakthrough front, while, however, keeping up appearances of a reversed version.
Conduct of the entire operation was made easy for me by measures our adversaries themselves took.
For the concentration of the entire Anglo-French motorized combat forces against Belgium revealed as certain that the High Command of the Allied armies had arrived at the decision to advance most speedily into this area.
We relied on the steadfastness of all German infantry divisions deployed in the thrust against the right flank of the Anglo-French motorized Army Group.
Such a drive had to lead to its complete shattering and dissolution-yes, perhaps even to its encirclement.
As a second operation, I had planned the taking of the Seine up to Le Havre, as well as securing bases at the Somme and Aisne for a third assault.
Within this framework and in this sequence, operations were in fact carried out.
The success of this mightiest sequence of battles in world history we owe first and foremost to the German soldier himself.
He held his own at all places he was deployed to the highest degree.
The German tribes all share equally in this glory.
The soldiers of the young, new Reichsgaus, added only since 1938, also fought in an exemplary fashion and took a heavy toll of lives.
The heroic risk of life by all Germans in this war will make the emerging National Socialist Greater German Reich eternally sacred and dear not only to the present generation, but to all that follow.
When I undertake to honor all those forces to whose activities, we owe this most glorious of victories, then first mention is due to a leadership which, in particular in this campaign, has met the highest of requirements.
Walther Heinrich Alfred Hermann von Brauchitsch (4 October 1881 – 18 October 1948) was a German field marshal and the Commander-in-Chief (Oberbefehlshaber) of the German Army during World War II. Born into an aristocratic military family, he entered army service in 1901. During World War I, he served with distinction on the corps-level and division-level staff on the Western Front. After the 1933 Nazi seizure of power, Brauchitsch was put in charge of Wehrkreis I, the East Prussian military district. He borrowed immense sums of money from Adolf Hitler and became dependent on his financial help. Brauchitsch served as Commander-in-Chief of the German Army from February 1938 to December 1941. He played a key role in the Battle of France and oversaw the German invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece. For his part in the Battle of France, he became one of twelve generals promoted to field marshal. After suffering a heart attack in November 1941 and being blamed by Hitler for the failure of Operation Typhoon, the Wehrmacht's attack on Moscow, Brauchitsch was dismissed as Commander-in-Chief. He spent the rest of the war in enforced retirement. After the war, Brauchitsch was arrested on charges of war crimes, but he died of pneumonia in 1948 before he could be prosecuted.
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Franz Halder (30 June 1884 – 2 April 1972) was a German general and the chief of staff of the Army High Command (OKH) in Nazi Germany from 1938 until September 1942. During World War II, he directed the planning and implementation of Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. Halder became instrumental in the radicalisation of warfare on the Eastern Front. He had his staff draft both the Commissar Order (issued on 6 June 1941) and the Barbarossa Decree (signed on 13 May 1941) that allowed German soldiers to execute Soviet citizens for any reason without fear of later prosecution, leading to numerous war crimes and atrocities during the campaign. After the war, he had a decisive role in the development of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht.
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If the leadership of the German Army of long ago was regarded as the best in the world, then it is deserving today of at least equal admiration.
Yes, since success is decisive for passing judgment, the leadership of the new German Army must be considered even better.
Wilhelm Josef Franz Ritter von Leeb (5 September 1876 – 29 April 1956) was a German field marshal of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, who was subsequently convicted of war crimes. Leeb was a highly decorated officer in World War I and was awarded the Military Order of Max Joseph which granted him the title of nobility. During the Battle of France, he commanded Army Group C, responsible for the breakthrough of the Maginot Line. During Operation Barbarossa—the invasion of the Soviet Union—Leeb commanded Army Group North, which advanced through the Baltic States towards Leningrad (present day St. Petersburg), eventually laying siege to the city. Units under Leeb’s command committed war crimes against the civilian population and closely cooperated with the SS Einsatzgruppen, death squads primarily tasked with the murder of the Jewish population as part of the Holocaust. Leeb was a beneficiary of Adolf Hitler's bribery scheme for senior Wehrmacht officers, receiving secret, extra-legal gifts of 250,000 Reichsmark in 1941 and of an estate valued at 638,000 Reichsmark in 1943. Following the war, Leeb was tried in the High Command Trial as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. He was convicted of transmitting the Barbarossa Decree and its criminal application by subordinate units and sentenced to three years' imprisonment time served.
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Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt (12 December 1875 – 24 February 1953) was a German Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) in the Heer (Army) of Nazi Germany during World War II. Born into a Prussian family with a long military tradition, von Rundstedt entered the Prussian Army in 1892. During World War I, he served mainly as a staff officer. In the interwar period, he continued his military career, reaching the rank of Colonel General (Generaloberst) before retiring in 1938. He was recalled at the beginning of World War II as commander of Army Group South in the invasion of Poland. He commanded Army Group A during the Battle of France and requested the Halt Order during the Battle of Dunkirk. He was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in 1940. In the invasion of the Soviet Union, he commanded Army Group South, responsible for the largest encirclement in history, the Battle of Kiev. He was relieved of command in December 1941 after authorizing the withdrawal from Rostov but was recalled in 1942 and appointed Commander-in-Chief in the West. He was dismissed after the German defeat in Normandy in July 1944 but was again recalled as Commander-in-Chief in the West in September, holding this post until his final dismissal by Adolf Hitler in March 1945. Though aware of the various plots to depose Hitler, von Rundstedt neither supported nor reported them. After the war, he was charged with war crimes, but did not face trial due to his age and poor health. He was released in 1949 and died in 1953.
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Moritz Albrecht Franz Friedrich Fedor von Bock (3 December 1880 – 4 May 1945) was a German Generalfeldmarschall who served in the German Army during the Second World War. Bock served as the commander of Army Group North during the Invasion of Poland in 1939, commander of Army Group B during the Invasion of France in 1940, and later as the commander of Army Group Center during the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941; his final command was that of Army Group South in 1942. Bock commanded Operation Typhoon, the ultimately failed attempt to capture Moscow during the autumn and winter of 1941. The Wehrmacht offensive was slowed by stiff Soviet resistance around Mozhaisk, and also by the rasputitsa, the season of rain and mud in Central Russia. The Soviet counteroffensive soon drove the German army into retreat, and Bock was subsequently relieved of command by Adolf Hitler. A monarchist, Bock was not heavily involved in politics, and he did not sympathize with plots to overthrow Adolf Hitler. Bock was also uncommonly outspoken, a privilege Hitler extended to him only because he had been successful in battle. Bock, his second wife and his stepdaughter were killed by a strafing Royal New Zealand Air Force fighter-bomber on 4 May 1945 as they traveled by car towards Hamburg.
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The Army Group of General Ritter von Leeb had the initial mission to maintain the left flank of the German front in the West, stretching from the Swiss border up to the Moselle, in a state of highest defensive readiness.
It was anticipated that, in the later course of the operation, this front would also actively intervene in the battle of destruction with two armies under the leadership of Colonel General von Witzleben
Job Wilhelm Georg Erdmann Erwin von Witzleben (4 December 1881 – 8 August 1944) was a German field marshal in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. A leading conspirator in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was designated to become Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in a post-Nazi regime had the plot succeeded.
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Friedrich Karl Albert Dollmann (2 February 1882 – 29 June 1944[1][2]) was a German general during World War II who commanded the 7th Army during the Invasion of France and the early phases of the Allied invasion of Normandy until his death in June 1944.
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At 5:35 in the morning of May 10, the two Army Groups under Colonel Generals von Rundstedt and von Bock launched the attack.
It was their mission, along the entire front from the river Moselle to the North Sea, to break through the enemy lines along the frontier; to occupy the Netherlands; to move against Antwerp and the troops stationed at Dyle; to take Liege; and, above all, to reach the left flank along the river Meuse with massive forces for the attack, to force a crossing between Namur and Carignan with a main thrust of the tank and motorized divisions at Sedan and, in the further course of operations, to assemble all available tank and motorized divisions to push onward, along the system of canals and rivers between the Aisne and the Somme, to the sea.
To Rundstedt's southern Army Group fell also the important task of preventing a repetition of the Miracle of the Marne of 1914.
He was to accomplish this task by securing, according to plan, the cover of the left flank in the course of the breakthrough.
This massive operation, which already decided the further course of the war, led, as planned, to the annihilation of the main mass of the French Army as well as of the entire British Expeditionary Force, and already added luster to the German leadership.
Hans Eberhard Kurt Freiherr von Salmuth (11 November 1888 – 1 January 1962) was a German general of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Salmuth commanded several armies on the Eastern Front, and the Fifteenth Army in France during the D-Day invasion. Following the war, he was tried in the High Command Trial, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 20 years. He was released in 1953.
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the following leaders of the Army are deserving of the highest of distinctions:
Günther Adolf Ferdinand von[a] Kluge (30 October 1882 – 19 August 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II who held commands on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. He commanded the 4th Army of the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the Battle of France in 1940, earning a promotion to Generalfeldmarschall. Kluge went on to command the 4th Army in Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union) and the Battle for Moscow in 1941. Amid the crisis of the Soviet counter-offensive in December 1941, Kluge was promoted to command Army Group Centre replacing Field Marshal Fedor von Bock. Several members of the German military resistance to Adolf Hitler served on his staff, including Henning von Tresckow. Kluge was aware of the plotters' activities but refused to offer his support unless Hitler was killed. His command on the Eastern Front lasted until October 1943 when Kluge was badly injured in a car accident. Following a lengthy recuperation, Kluge was appointed OB West (Supreme Commander West) in occupied France in July 1944, after his predecessor, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, was dismissed for defeatism. Kluge's forces were unable to stop the momentum of the Allied invasion of Normandy, and he began to realize that the war in the West was lost. Although Kluge was not an active conspirator in the 20 July plot, in the aftermath of the failed coup he committed suicide on 19 August 1944, after having been recalled to Berlin for a meeting with Hitler. Kluge was replaced by Field Marshal Walter Model.
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Colonel General List as leader of the Twelfth Army
Walter Karl Ernst August von Reichenau (8 October 1884 – 17 January 1942) was a German Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) in the Heer (Army) of Nazi Germany during World War II. Reichenau commanded the 6th Army, during the invasions of Belgium and France. During Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, he continued to command the 6th Army as part of Army Group South as it captured Ukraine and advanced deep into Russia. While in command of the 6th Army during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, he issued the notorious Severity Order which encouraged German soldiers to murder Jewish civilians on the Eastern Front. Reichenau's troops cooperated with the SS Einsatzgruppen in the commission of the massacre of over 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, and assisted with other crimes against humanity that occurred in areas under his command during the Holocaust.
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Georg Carl Wilhelm Friedrich von Küchler (30 May 1881 – 25 May 1968) was a German field marshal of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, who was subsequently convicted of war crimes. He commanded the 18th Army and Army Group North during the Soviet-German war of 1941–1945. After the end of the war, he was tried in the High Command Trial, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg trials. On 27 October 1948 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Soviet Union. He was released in 1953.
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Ernst Bernhard Wilhelm Busch (6 July 1885 – 17 July 1945) was a German Generalfeldmarschall during World War II who commanded the 16th Army (as a Generaloberst) and Army Group Centre. During World War I, Busch served as an infantry officer and was retained in the postwar army of the Weimar Republic. He steadily rose in seniority and by 1936 was a general and commander of the 23rd Infantry Division. During the invasion of Poland, he commanded VIII Army Corps. In 1940, he was appointed commander of the 16th Army; he led it during the 1940 Battle of France and Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. By October 1943, Busch was a field marshal and commander of Army Group Center. He was dismissed in June 1944 after the collapse of his command during the Red Army's Operation Bagration. He was later the commander of Army Group Northwest in the final months of the war and died as a prisoner of war in England.
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Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (8 August 1881 – 13 November 1954) was a German field marshal of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Born into the Prussian noble family von Kleist, Kleist entered the Prussian Army in 1900 and commanded a cavalry squadron during World War I. Kleist joined the Reichswehr of inter-war Germany before being discharged in 1938. Recalled to active duty at the beginning of World War II, Kleist commanded a motorized corps in the Invasion of Poland. He then became the commander of Panzer Group Kleist (later 1st Panzer Army), the first operational formation of several Panzer corps in the Wehrmacht during the Battle of France, the Battle of Belgium, the Invasion of Yugoslavia and Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. During the Battle of France, units under Kleist's command included Heinz Guderian's armored corps and spearheaded the "blitzkrieg" attack through the Ardennes Forest, outflanking the Maginot Line. His panzer divisions eventually pushed deep into France, resulting in Allied defeat. He then commanded the 1st Panzer Army as it drove deep into Ukraine and the Caucasus during Operation Barbarossa. Kleist was appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group A during the last days of Case Blue, the 1942 German summer offensive in southern Russia. His disagreements with Hitler over strategic decisions led to his dismissal in March 1944 after the German defeat in right-bank Ukraine. Following the war, Kleist was extradited to the Soviet Union where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes; he died in prison.
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Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (German: [ɡuˈdeːʁi̯an]; 17 June 1888 – 14 May 1954) was a German general during World War II who, after the war, became a successful memoirist. An early pioneer and advocate of the "blitzkrieg" approach, he played a central role in the development of the panzer division concept. In 1936, he became the Inspector of Motorized Troops. At the beginning of the Second World War, Guderian led an armored corps in the Invasion of Poland. During the Invasion of France, he commanded the armored units that attacked through the Ardennes Forest and overwhelmed the Allied defenses at the Battle of Sedan. He led the 2nd Panzer Army during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The campaign ended in failure after the German offensive Operation Typhoon failed to capture Moscow, after which Guderian was dismissed. In early 1943, Adolf Hitler appointed Guderian to the newly created position of Inspector General of Armored Troops. In this role, he had broad responsibility to rebuild and train new panzer forces but saw limited success due to Germany's worsening war economy. Guderian was appointed Acting Chief of the General Staff of the Army High Command, immediately following the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler. Guderian was placed in charge of the "Court of Honour" by Hitler, which in the aftermath of the plot was used to dismiss people from the military so they could be tried in the "People's Court" and executed. He was Hitler's personal advisor on the Eastern Front and became closely associated with the Nazis. Guderian's troops carried out the criminal Commissar Order during Barbarossa, and he was implicated in the commission of reprisals after the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Guderian surrendered to the United States forces on 10 May 1945 and was interned until 1948. He was released without charge and retired to write his memoirs. Entitled Panzer Leader, the autobiography became a bestseller, widely read to this day. Guderian's writings promoted several post-war myths, including that of the "clean Wehrmacht". In his autobiography, Guderian portrayed himself as the sole originator of the German panzer force; he omitted any mentions of crimes that he authorized or condoned. Guderian died in 1954 and was buried in Goslar.
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Hermann Hoth (12 April 1885 – 25 January 1971) was a German army commander, war criminal, and author. He served as a high-ranking panzer commander in the Wehrmacht during World War II, playing a prominent role in the Battle of France and on the Eastern Front. Contemporaries and later historians consider Hoth one of the most talented armored warfare commanders of the war. He was a strong believer in Nazism, and units under his command committed several war crimes including the murder of prisoners of war and civilians. Born in Prussia, Hoth embarked on a career as a military officer early in his youth. After graduating from the Royal Prussian Military Academy, he slowly rose in the ranks of the Imperial German Army. Hoth mainly served in various staff positions in World War I, and after the conflict's conclusion continued to do so in the armed forces of the newly formed Weimar Republic. Following Hitler's seizure of control in Germany, Hoth began to rapidly rise in the ranks and became known as a proponent of motorization in the Wehrmacht. When World War II broke out, Hoth successfully led the XV Army Corps during the German invasions of Poland and France. He commanded the 3rd Panzer Group during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, a position in which he assisted in the destruction of several Soviet armies. From October 1941, Hoth headed the 17th Army, a period during which he advocated for a war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, the merciless destruction of partisans, and the murder of Jews. In the Wehrmacht's 1942 summer offensive, Hoth led the 4th Panzer Army and took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. When the German 6th Army was encircled at Stalingrad in November 1942, Hoth's army group made an unsuccessful relief attempt. Afterwards, Hoth was involved in the Third Battle of Kharkov as well as the Battle of Kursk, while increasingly suffering from near-burnout. He led the German defense in eastern Ukraine during the Battle of the Dnieper but was sacked by Adolf Hitler due to the surprise Soviet reconquest of Kiev in November 1943. For the rest of the war, he was mostly relegated to powerless positions. After the war, Hoth was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the High Command Trial, mainly regarding his implementation of the criminal Commissar Order and the mistreatment of POWs as well as civilians. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but released on parole in 1954. Hoth subsequently became an author, writing about armored warfare, the development of West Germany's military, and in support of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht.
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Erich Kurt Richard Hoepner (14 September 1886 – 8 August 1944) was a German general during World War II. An early proponent of mechanization and armored warfare, he was a Wehrmacht army corps commander at the beginning of the war, leading his troops during the invasion of Poland and the Battle of France. Hoepner commanded the 4th Panzer Group on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. During the invasion of Poland, he resisted mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war, but in Russia, units under his authority closely cooperated with the Einsatzgruppen and he implemented the Commissar Order that directed Wehrmacht troops to summarily execute Red Army political commissars immediately upon capture. Hoepner's Panzer group, along with the 3rd Panzer Group, spearheaded the advance on Moscow in Operation Typhoon, the failed attempt to seize the Soviet capital. Dismissed from the Wehrmacht after the failure of the 1941 campaign, Hoepner restored his pension rights through a lawsuit. He was implicated in the failed 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler and executed in 1944.
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as leaders of the tank and motorized troops.
Large additional numbers of generals and officers who distinguished themselves in these operations are known to you already, my Deputies, because of the high distinctions granted them.
The further conduct of the operation in the general direction of the Aisne and the Seine was not intended to conquer Paris primarily, but rather to create, or better secure, a basis for a breakthrough to the Swiss border.
This massive offensive action, thanks to the outstanding leadership of all grades, also went according to plan.
A change of personnel in the High Command of the French Army, which had meanwhile taken place, was to revive its resistance and to bring about a change, much desired by the Allies, in the fortunes of the battle so unhappily begun.
Indeed, it was possible to get the German armies and their offensive actions going at several locations, only after overcoming the strongest of resistance.
Here, not only the courage, but also the training of the German soldier had the opportunity to hold its own to a high degree.
Inspired by the zeal of countless officers and non-commissioned officers, as well as of individual men of valor, the infantry itself, time and time again, was compelled onward even in the most difficult of situations.
Paris fell!
The breaking of the enemy's resistance at the Aisne opened the way to a breakthrough to the Swiss border.
In one gigantic envelopment the armies stormed to the back of the Maginot Line.
Now abandoning its reserve, the Army Group Leeb went on the offensive in two locations west of Saarbrucken and Neubreisach.
Under orders from Generals von Witzleben and Dollmann, they achieved the breakthrough.
And thus, it was possible not only to surround the gigantic front of the French resistance, but to dissolve it into little particles and to force it to the well-known capitulation.
These operations were crowned by the now generally beginning advance of the German armies.
At their head moved the incomparable Panzer and motor divisions of the Army with the goal of driving a left flank down the Rhone in the direction of Marseilles, and a right flank across the Loire in the direction of Bordeaux and the Spanish border.
This was to destroy the dissolving remains of the French Army, or rather to occupy French territory.
I will report in detail at a later point on the intervention of our allies in this war.
When Marshal Petain offered France's laying down of arms, he was not laying down a weapon he still held.
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (/peɪˈtæ̃/, French: [filip petɛ̃]) or Marshal Pétain (French: Maréchal Pétain) was a general who commanded the French Army in World War I and became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944, during World War II. His journey from military obscurity to hero of France during World War I, to collaborationist ruler during World War II, led his successor Charles de Gaulle to declare that Pétain's life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre". Petain was admitted to the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1873 and pursued a career in the military, achieving the rank of colonel by the outbreak of World War I. He led the French Army to victory at the nine-month-long Battle of Verdun, for which he was called "the Lion of Verdun" (French: le lion de Verdun). After the failed Nevelle Offensive and subsequent mutinies, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief and succeeded in restoring control. Pétain remained in command for the rest of the war and emerged as a national hero. During the interwar period he was head of the peacetime French Army, commanded joint Franco-Spanish operations during the Rif War and served twice as a government minister. During this time, he was known as le vieux Maréchal ("the Old Marshal"). On 17 June 1940, with the imminent Fall of France and the government desire for an armistice, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned, recommending to President Albert Lebrun that he appoint Pétain in his place, which he did that day, while the government was at Bordeaux. The government then resolved to sign armistice agreements with Germany and Italy. The entire government subsequently moved briefly to Clermont-Ferrand, then to the spa town of Vichy in central France. It voted to transform the French Third Republic into the French State, better known as Vichy France, an authoritarian puppet regime that was allowed to govern the southeast of France and which collaborated with the Axis powers. After Germany and Italy occupied all of France in November 1942, Pétain's government worked closely with the Nazi German military administration. After the war, Pétain was tried and convicted for treason. He was originally sentenced to death, but due to his age and World War I service his sentence was commuted to life in prison. Pétain, who was 84 years old when he became Prime Minister, remains the oldest person to become the head of state of France.
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Rather he merely put an end to a situation completely untenable in the eyes of every soldier.
Only the bloody dilettantism of a Mr. Churchill either fails to comprehend as much or lies about it in spite of better knowledge.
In the second, third, and last phase of this war, the following Army leaders distinguished themselves as did the earlier mentioned generals: Colonel General von Witzleben; the Generals von Weichs, Dollmann, Strauss.
Maximilian Maria Joseph Karl Gabriel Lamoral Reichsfreiherr[a] von und zu Weichs an der Glon (12 November 1881 – 27 September 1954) was a field marshal in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. Born into an aristocratic family, Weichs joined the Bavarian cavalry in 1900 and fought in the First World War. At the outbreak of the Second World War he commanded the XIII Corps in the invasion of Poland. He later commanded the 2nd Army during the invasions of France, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. In August 1942 during Case Blue, the German offensive in southern Russia, he was appointed commander of Army Group B. In 1944, Weichs commanded Army Group F in the Balkans overseeing the German retreat from Greece and most of Yugoslavia. During the Nuremberg Trials, Weichs was implicated in war crimes committed in the Balkans and was scheduled to take part in the US Army's Hostages Trial. He was removed from the proceeding for "medical reasons" without having been judged or sentenced.
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(right) Adolf Strauß (6 September 1879 – 20 March 1973) was a German officer who served in the Imperial German Army, the Reichswehr, and later as a general in the Heer of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht during World War II. As commander of the II Army Corps, Strauß participated in the German Invasion of Poland. On 30 May 1940, he was appointed commander of the 9th Army in France. Strauß participated in Operation Barbarossa with Army Group Center. In January 1942 he was replaced in command of the 9th Army by Walter Model following the initial breakthrough of the Soviet forces during commencement of the Rzhev Battles. He died on 20 March 1973 in Lübeck. As with all German armies on the Eastern Front, Strauß's 9th Army implemented the criminal Commissar Order. Adolf Strauß is mentioned by author Sven Hassel in his work of fiction Wheels of Terror.
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The valiant divisions and standards of the Waffen-SS also fought within the framework of these armies.
When I express my gratitude and that of the German Volk to the aforementioned generals, in their capacity as leaders of the Army and Army Groups, this applies at the same time to all other officers, all of whom it is not possible to mention by name, and especially to all the nameless workers of the General Staff.
In this battle, my Deputies, the rank and file of Germany has proved itself to be what it has always been: the best infantry in the world.
And with it all other branches of the Army compete: artillery and pioneers, and, above all, the young units of our tanks and motorized troops.
The German Panzer weapon, through this war, has made its entry into world history.
Yet the communications units, the construction units of the pioneers, the railroad construction men, etc., are also worthy, in accordance with their performance, of the highest praise we have to offer.
In the wake of the armies followed the commandos of the Todt Organization, of the Reich Labor Service, and of the NSKK, and these also helped to repair roads, bridges, as well as to restore order to traffic.
Within the framework of the Army, this time there also fought parts of the Flak artillery of our Luftwaffe.
At the foremost front, they helped to break the enemy's power of resistance and attack.
A detailed account of their effectiveness can be rendered only at a later date.
The Luftwaffe itself.
At dawn on the morning of May 10, thousands of fighter planes and dive bombers, under the cover of fighters and destroyers, descended on enemy airfields.
Within a few days uncontested air superiority was assured.
And not for one minute in the further course of the battle was it allowed to slip.
Only where temporarily no German airplanes were sighted, could enemy fighters and bombers make short appearances.
Besides this, their activities were restricted to night action.
The Field Marshal [Goring] had the Luftwaffe under his orders during this mission in the war.
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering;[a] German: [ˈhɛʁman ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈɡøːʁɪŋ] (listen); 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite ("The Blue Max"). He was the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG I), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine which persisted until the last year of his life. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as minister without portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934. Following the establishment of the Nazi state, Göring amassed power and political capital to become the second most powerful man in Germany. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (air force), a position he held until the final days of the regime. Upon being named Plenipotentiary of the Four-Year Plan in 1936, Göring was entrusted with the task of mobilizing all sectors of the economy for war, an assignment which brought numerous government agencies under his control. In September 1939, Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag designating him as his successor. After the Fall of France in 1940, he was bestowed the specially created rank of Reichsmarschall, which gave him seniority over all officers in Germany's armed forces. By 1941, Göring was at the peak of his power and influence. As the Second World War progressed, Göring's standing with Hitler and with the German public declined after the Luftwaffe proved incapable of preventing the Allied bombing of Germany's cities and resupplying surrounded Axis forces in Stalingrad. Around that time, Göring increasingly withdrew from military and political affairs to devote his attention to collecting property and artwork, much of which was stolen from Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Informed on 22 April 1945 that Hitler intended to commit suicide, Göring sent a telegram to Hitler requesting his permission to assume leadership of the Reich. Considering his request an act of treason, Hitler removed Göring from all his positions, expelled him from the party, and ordered his arrest. After the war, Göring was convicted of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. He was sentenced to death by hanging but committed suicide by ingesting cyanide hours before the sentence was to be carried out.
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Its tasks were:
To destroy the enemy air forces, i.e., to remove these from the skies.
To support directly or indirectly the fighting troops by uninterrupted attacks.
To destroy the enemy's means of command and movement.
To wear down and break the enemy's morale and will to resist.
To land parachute troops as advance units.
The manner of their deployment in the operation in general, as well as their adjustment to the tactical demands of the moment, was exceptional.
Without the valor of the Army, the successes attained should never have been possible.
Equally true is it that, without the heroic mission of the Luftwaffe, the valor of the Army should have been for naught.
Both Army and Luftwaffe are deserving of the greatest glory!
The deployment of the Luftwaffe in the West took place under the personal command of Field Marshal Goring.
Hans Jeschonnek (9 April 1899 – 18 August 1943) was a German military aviator in the Luftstreitkräfte during World War I, a general staff officer in the Reichswehr in the inter–war period and Generaloberst (Colonel-General) and a Chief of the General Staff in the Luftwaffe, the aerial warfare branch of the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was born in 1899 and joined the military as a cadet in 1909. Trained as an officer at a military academy, he was granted his commission in 1914 and served in the infantry on the Western Front. In 1916 he transferred to the Luftstreitkräfte and trained as a fighter pilot. Jeschonnek shot down two enemy aircraft by the time of the German defeat in November 1918, earning the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class. Jeschonnek remained in the military, joining the Reichswehr, the Weimar Republic armed forces. He fought in the Silesian Uprisings in 1919 and then served as a junior general staff officer in the 1920s. In 1933 the National Socialists seized power in Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Jeschonnek admired Hitler and under the leadership of his close associate Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the newly formed Luftwaffe, Jeschonnek's career began a meteoric rise from Hauptmann (Captain) in 1932 to Generalmajor (Brigadier General) in 1939. In November 1938 Jeschonnek was appointed chief of the general staff at just 39. Jeschonnek's rise depended, in part, on his slavish and unquestioning loyalty to Hitler and Göring. Jeschonnek oriented the Luftwaffe away from the broadly based doctrines of the inter-war period upon the outbreak of World War II. He was a pupil of the short-term concept, the so-called Blitzkrieg war. Jeschonnek neglected industrial production, military intelligence, logistics, air defence, strategic bombing and the creation of reserves, the sustenance of a military organisation. Jeschonnek's way of war was based on the full commitment of the Luftwaffe to close air support operations in cooperation with the German Army. The military victories, until 1942, largely masked the failures of Jeschonnek, Göring and the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (High Command of the Air Force). As the German war effort failed on the Eastern and North African Fronts in 1942 and 1943, the British and American Combined Bomber Offensive began a strategy to destroy the Luftwaffe in a war of attrition for which Jeschonnek and Göring had failed to prepare. In 1943, Jeschonnek experienced at least one emotional breakdown over the failures and the inability of the Luftwaffe to defend Germany. Undermined by Göring and his subordinates, Jeschonnek shot himself on 18 August 1943. The suicide was covered up by Göring to preserve German morale and prevent the enemy powers from gaining any intelligence advantages.
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Wilhelm Hugo Sperrle (7 February 1885 – 2 April 1953), also known as Hugo Sperrle, was a German military aviator in World War I and a Generalfeldmarschall in the Luftwaffe during World War II. Sperrle joined the Imperial German Army in 1903. He served in the artillery upon the outbreak of World War I. In 1914 he joined the Luftstreitkräfte as an observer then trained as a pilot. Sperrle ended the war at the rank of Hauptmann (Captain) in command of an aerial reconnaissance attachment of a field army. In the inter-war period Sperrle was appointed to the General Staff in the Reichswehr, serving the Weimar Republic in the aerial warfare branch. In 1934 after the Nazi Party seized power, Sperrle was promoted to Generalmajor (Brigadier General) and transferred from the army to the Luftwaffe. Sperrle was given command of the Condor Legion in November 1936 and fought with the expeditionary force in the Spanish Civil War until October 1937. Sperrle was appointed as commanding officer of Luftwaffengruppenkommando 3 (Air Force Group Command 3) the forerunner of Luftflotte 3 (Air Fleet 3) in February 1938. Sperrle was used during the Anschluss and Czech crisis by the Nazi leadership to threaten other governments with bombardment. Sperrle attended several important meetings with Austrian and Czech leaders for this purpose upon the invitation of Adolf Hitler. In September 1939 World War II began with the invasion of Poland. Sperrle and his air fleet served exclusively on the Western Front. He played a crucial role in the Battle of France and Battle of Britain in 1940. In 1941 Sperrle directed operations during The Blitz over Britain. From mid-1941 his air fleet became the sole command in the west. Through 1941 and 1942 he defended German-occupied Europe against the Royal Air Force, as well as the United States Army Air Forces from 1943. Sperrle's command was depleted in the battles of attrition forced on him by the Combined Bomber Offensive. By mid-1944, Sperrle's air fleet had been reduced to impotence and it could not repel the Allied landings in Western Europe. As a consequence, Sperrle was dismissed to the Führerreserve and never held a senior command again. On 1 May 1945 he was captured by the British. After the war, he was charged with war crimes at the High Command Trial but was acquitted. Sperrle was involved in the bribery of senior Wehrmacht officers.
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Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring (30 November 1885 – 16 July 1960) was a German military officer and convicted war criminal who served in the Luftwaffe during World War II. In a career which spanned both world wars, Kesselring became one of Nazi Germany's most highly decorated commanders. Kesselring joined the Bavarian Army as an officer cadet in 1904, serving in the artillery branch. He completed training as a balloon observer in 1912. During World War I, he served on both the Western and Eastern fronts and was posted to the Army Staff, despite not having attended the War Academy. Kesselring served in the Reichswehr after the war but was discharged in 1933 to become head of the Department of Administration at the Ministry of Aviation, where he became involved in the re-establishment of the German aviation industry and the laying of the foundations for the Luftwaffe, serving as its chief of staff from 1936 to 1938. During World War II, he commanded Luftwaffe forces in the German invasions of Poland and France, the Battle of Britain and the invasion of the Soviet Union. As Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief South, he was the overall German commander in the Mediterranean theatre, which included the North African campaign. Kesselring conducted a defensive campaign against Allied forces in Italy, being involved in ordering several massacres, until he was injured in an accident in October 1944. In his final campaign of the war, he commanded German forces on the Western Front. During the war, he won the respect of his Allied opponents for his military accomplishments. After the war, Kesselring was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death for ordering the murder of 335 Italian civilians in the Ardeatine massacre, and for inciting and ordering his troops to kill civilians as part of reprisals against the Italian resistance movement. The sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. A political and media campaign resulted in his release in 1952, ostensibly on health grounds. He published his memoirs, Soldat bis zum letzten Tag ("A Soldier to the Last Day"), in 1953. Kesselring accepted the honorary presidency of three veterans' organisations: the Luftwaffenring, consisting of Luftwaffe veterans; the Verband Deutsches Afrikakorps, the veterans' association of the Afrika Korps; and, most controversially, the right-wing Der Stahlhelm before dying in 1960.
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Ulrich Grauert (6 March 1889 – 15 May 1941) was a general in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded 1st Air Corps. He was killed on 15 May 1941 when his Junkers Ju 52 aircraft was shot down by F/Lt Jerzy Jankiewicz and Sgt Wacław Giermer, both flying a Supermarine Spitfire II, from the No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron near Saint-Omer on the French channel coast.
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Karl Koller (22 February 1898 – 22 December 1951) was a German General der Flieger and the Chief of the General Staff of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe during World War II.
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Bruno Loerzer (22 January 1891 – 23 August 1960) was a German air force officer during World War I and World War II. Credited with 44 aerial victories during World War I, he was one of Germany's leading flying aces, as well as commander of one of the first Imperial German Air Service Jagdeschwaders. Loerzer's close friendship with Hermann Goering led to Loerzer's service in the World War II Luftwaffe, with subsequent promotion to Generaloberst by the war's end. Goering described Loerzer as "his laziest general," but swept aside criticisms of him, commenting "I need someone I can drink a bottle of red wine within the evening.
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Robert Ritter von Greim (born Robert Greim; 22 June 1892 – 24 May 1945) was a German field marshal and First World War flying ace. In April 1945, in the last days of World War II in Europe, Adolf Hitler appointed Greim commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) after Hermann Göring had been dismissed for treason. He is the last person ever promoted to field marshal in the German armed forces. After the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945, Greim was captured by the Allies. He committed suicide in an American-controlled prison on 24 May 1945.
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Wolfram Karl Ludwig Moritz Hermann Freiherr von Richthofen (10 October 1895 – 12 July 1945) was a German World War I flying ace who rose to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall in the Luftwaffe during World War II. Born in 1895 into a family of the Prussian nobility, Richthofen grew up in prosperous surroundings. At the age of eighteen, after leaving school, he opted to join the German Army rather than choose an academic career and joined the army's cavalry arm in 1913. On the outbreak of the First World War, Richthofen fought on the Western Front, winning the Iron Cross Second Class. In 1915 he was posted to the Eastern Front, where he stayed until 1917. The Richthofen family produced several notable personalities that would become famous during the First War. His cousins, the brothers Lothar and Manfred, both became flying aces and encouraged him to join the Luftstreitkräfte (German Imperial Air Service). He did so and joined Manfred's Jagdgeschwader 1 (Fighter Wing 1). On Wolfram's first mission with his cousin, on 21 April 1918, Manfred (internationally known as 'The Red Baron') was killed. Wolfram went on to claim eight aerial victories before the armistice in November 1918. Lothar survived the war but died in a flying accident in 1922. After the war Richthofen resumed civilian life after being discharged from the army. He studied engineering at a university before rejoining the Reichswehr, the German armed forces of the Weimar Republic era. In 1933 Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany, and the Reichswehr was transformed into the Wehrmacht. Richthofen joined the new Luftwaffe. He also served as part of the Condor Legion which supported the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. During this time, he recognized the need for close air support in military campaigns and championed the dive bomber. He also made innovations in ground-air communications. When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, Richthofen commanded a specialized ground-attack air unit, Fliegerkorps VIII (8th Air Corps), first as a small active service unit in the Polish Campaign, and then as a full-sized Air Corps in Western Europe, from May to June 1940. The effectiveness of his units proved decisive at certain points in the French Campaign, particularly covering the German thrust to the English Channel. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 23 May 1940, in view of his achievements. He continued in frontline service during the Battle of Britain and the Balkans Campaign in 1940 and 1941. Richthofen achieved his greatest success on the Eastern Front. In particular, he achieved notable success in the Crimean Campaigns during 1942. Despite offering vital tactical and operational support to Army Group South, he was moved to the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, where he commanded Luftwaffe forces in the Italian Campaign. He remained in active service until late 1944, when he was retired on medical grounds. Soon after the capitulation of Germany in May 1945, he was taken prisoner by the United States Army, but on 12 July he died in captivity of a brain tumor. Richthofen's reputation, according to his biographer, James Corum, was of a competent but ruthless practitioner of air power. Richthofen is not considered a war criminal for his command of air forces, but he knew of the German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war and was marginally involved in disseminating orders pertaining to their treatment—though the Luftwaffe in general had only partial responsibility for them. Richthofen was a de facto war criminal, as virtually all other senior commanders on the Eastern Front were guilty of violating the Geneva Conventions in the handling of civilians and prisoners of war, whose abuse Richthofen condoned. Richthofen's death weeks after the war prevented his probable arrest and subsequent prosecution at the High Command trial.
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Otto Dessloch (11 June 1889 – 13 May 1977) was a German Luftwaffe general during World War II and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany.
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Joachim Coeler (1 June 1891 – 14 May 1955) was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.
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Kurt Arthur Benno Student (12 May 1890 – 1 July 1978) was a German general in the Luftwaffe during World War II. An early pioneer of airborne forces, Student was in overall command of developing a paratrooper force to be known as the Fallschirmjäger, and as the most senior member of the Fallschirmjäger, commanded it throughout the war. Student led the first major airborne attack in history, the Battle for The Hague, in May 1940. He also commanded the Fallschirmjäger in its last major airborne operation, the invasion of Crete in May 1941. The operation was a success despite German losses and led the Allies to hasten the training and development of their own airborne units. In 1947, Student was tried and convicted of war crimes for the mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war by his men in Crete. Student was also responsible for a wave of reprisal massacres committed against Cretan civilians in 1941 but avoided harsh punishment.
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Hans-Jürgen Stumpff (15 June 1889 – 9 March 1968), was a German general during World War II and was one of the signatories to Germany's unconditional surrender at the end of the war.
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While millions of German soldiers of the Army, Luftwaffe, and Waffen SS took part in these battles, others could not be spared at home as they were needed for the buildup of the local reserve formations.
Many of the most capable officers-as bitter as this was for them- were forced to conduct and oversee the training of those soldiers who, as reserve units, or perhaps in new formations, were to go to the front only later.
Despite my sympathy for the inner sentiments of those who felt at a disadvantage, the greater common interest, as a matter of principle, was decisive.
Party and State
Army
Navy
Luftwaffe
and SS sent every man to the front whom they were able to spare somehow.
Yet, without securing a Replacement Army, a reserve air force, reserve SS formations, as well as Party and State in general, the war at the front could not have been waged.
As the organizers of the Replacement Army at home and of the armament and supplies for the Luftwaffe, the following have attained special merit:
Friedrich Wilhelm Waldemar Fromm (8 October 1888 – 12 March 1945) was a German Army officer. In World War II, Fromm was Commander in Chief of the Replacement Army (Ersatzheer), in charge of training and personnel replacement for combat divisions of the German Army, a position he occupied for most of the war. A recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, he was executed for failing to act against the plot of 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
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Ernst Udet (26 April 1896 – 17 November 1941) was a German pilot during World War I and a Luftwaffe Colonel-General (Generaloberst) during World War II. Udet joined the Imperial German Air Service at the age of 19, and eventually became a notable flying ace of World War I, scoring 62 confirmed victories by the end of his life. The highest scoring German fighter pilot to survive that war, and the second-highest scoring after Manfred von Richthofen, his commander in the Flying Circus, Udet rose to become a squadron commander under Richthofen, and later under Hermann Göring. Udet spent the 1920s and early 1930s as a stunt pilot, international barnstormer, light aircraft manufacturer, and playboy. In 1933, Udet joined the Nazi Party and became involved in the early development of the Luftwaffe, where he was appointed director of research and development. Influential in the adoption of dive-bombing techniques as well as the Stuka dive bomber, by 1939 Udet had risen to the post of Chief of Procurement and Supply for the Luftwaffe. The stress of the position and his distaste for administrative duties led to Udet developing alcoholism. The launch of Operation Barbarossa, combined with issues with the Luftwaffe's needs for equipment outstripping Germany's production capacity and increasingly poor relations with the Nazi Party, caused Udet to choose suicide on 17 November 1941 by shooting himself in the head.
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I cannot conclude the enumeration of all these meritorious generals and admirals without paying tribute to those who are my closest co-workers in the Staff of the High Command of the Wehrmacht:
Colonel General Keitel as Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, and Major General Jodl as his Chief of Staff.
They have made the greatest of contributions to the realization of my plans and ideas throughout long months of many cares and much work.
An appreciation of the accomplishments of our Navy and its leaders will only be possible, to a full extent, at the end of the war.
When I now conclude these purely military reflections on events, truth compels me to state the historic fact that none of this would have been possible without the disposition of the home front-or without, at its fore, the foundation, the work, and the activities of the National Socialist Party.
Already in 1919, in the age of great decline, it proclaimed its program for the establishment of a German People's Army and has stood up for it throughout the decades with a zealous determination.
Without its activities, the conditions necessary for both the re- emergence of the German Reich and the creation of a German Wehrmacht would not have existed.
Above all, it lent the struggle its ideological (weltanschaulich) foundation.
To the senseless sacrifice of life of our democratic opponents in the interests of their plutocracies, it opposes the defense of a Volksgemeinschaft. Its activities have resulted in a solidarity between front and homeland, which regrettably did not exist in the World War.
From its ranks, therefore, I should like to name the men, who along with countless others, attained great merit in securing the opportunity to celebrate victory in a new Germany:
Party comrade Reich Minister Hess, himself an old soldier of the World War, has been one of the most loyal fighters for the erection of the present state and its Wehrmacht ever since the early days of the foundation of the Movement.
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate the United Kingdom's exit from the Second World War. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace. He was still serving his life sentence at the time of his suicide in 1987. Hess enlisted as an infantryman in the Imperial German Army at the outbreak of World War I. He was wounded several times during the war and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd Class, in 1915. Shortly before the war ended, Hess enrolled to train as an aviator, but he saw no action in that role. He left the armed forces in December 1918 with the rank of Lieutenant der Reserve. In 1919, Hess enrolled in the University of Munich, where he studied geopolitics under Karl Haushofer, a proponent of the concept of Lebensraum ('living space'), which became one of the pillars of Nazi ideology. Hess joined the Nazi Party on 1 July 1920 and was at Hitler's side on 8 November 1923 for the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed Nazi attempt to seize control of the government of Bavaria. While serving a prison sentence for this attempted coup, he assisted Hitler with Mein Kampf, which became a foundation of the political platform of the Nazi Party. After Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933, Hess was appointed Deputy Führer of the Nazi Party in April. He was elected to the Reichstag in the March elections, was made a Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party in June and in December 1933 he became Minister without Portfolio in Hitler's cabinet.[7] He was also appointed in 1938 to the Cabinet Council and in August 1939 to the Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich. Hitler decreed on the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939 that Hermann Göring was his official successor and named Hess as next in line.[8] In addition to appearing on Hitler's behalf at speaking engagements and rallies, Hess signed into law much of the government's legislation, including the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which stripped the Jews of Germany of their rights in the lead-up to the Holocaust. On 10 May 1941, Hess made a solo flight to Scotland, where he hoped to arrange peace talks with the Duke of Hamilton, whom he believed to be a prominent opponent of the British government's war policy. The British authorities arrested Hess immediately on his arrival and held him in custody until the end of the war, when he was returned to Germany to stand trial at the 1946 Nuremberg trials of major war criminals. During much of his trial, Hess claimed to be suffering from amnesia, but he later admitted to the court that this had been a ruse. The court convicted him of crimes against peace and of conspiracy with other German leaders to commit crimes. He served a life sentence in Spandau Prison; the Soviet Union blocked repeated attempts by family members and prominent politicians to procure his early release. While still in custody as the only prisoner in Spandau, he hanged himself in 1987 at the age of 93. After his death, the prison was demolished to prevent it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine. His grave, bearing the inscription "Ich hab's gewagt" (I dared it), became a site of regular pilgrimage and demonstrations by Neo-Nazis. In 2011, authorities refused to renew the lease on the gravesite, and his remains were exhumed and cremated and the gravestone destroyed.
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Party comrade Chief of Staff of the SA Lutze has organized the mass of millions of SA men, in the sense of supporting the state to the utmost and has secured its pre- and post- military training.
Viktor Lutze (28 December 1890 – 2 May 1943) was a German Nazi Party functionary and the commander of the Sturmabteilung ("SA") who succeeded Ernst Röhm as Stabschef and Reichsleiter. After he died from injuries received in a car accident, Lutze was given an elaborate state funeral in Berlin on 7 May 1943.
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Party comrade Himmler has organized the entire security of our Reich as well as the units of the Waff and SS.
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (German: [ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈluːɪtpɔlt ˈhɪmlɐ] (listen); 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was the Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany, and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, primarily known for being a main architect of the Holocaust. As a member of a reserve battalion during the First World War, Himmler did not see active service or combat. Having joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925, he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Adolf Hitler in 1929. Over the next sixteen years, Himmler developed the SS from a 290-man battalion into a million-strong paramilitary group. He was known for good organisational skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich in 1931. From 1943 onwards, he was both Chief of the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police) and Minister of the Interior, overseeing all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo (Secret State Police). He also controlled the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS. Himmler's interest in occultism and Völkisch topics influenced the development the racial policy of Nazi Germany; he also incorporated esoteric symbolism and rituals into the SS. He was the principal overseer of Nazi Germany's genocidal programs, forming the Einsatzgruppen and administering extermination camps. In this capacity, Himmler directed the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Romani people, and other victims. A day before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, Himmler commissioned the drafting of Generalplan Ost, which was approved by Hitler in May 1942. The total number of civilians killed by the Nazi regime is estimated to be between 11 to 14 million people, most of whom were Polish and Soviet citizens. Late in the Second World War, Hitler briefly appointed Himmler as military commander and later Commander of the Replacement (Home) Army and General Plenipotentiary for the administration of the entire Third Reich (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung). Specifically, he was given command of the Army Group Upper Rhine and the Army Group Vistula. After Himmler failed to achieve his assigned objectives, Hitler replaced him in these posts. Realizing the war was lost, Himmler attempted to open peace talks with the western Allies without Hitler's knowledge, shortly before the end of the war. Hearing of this, Hitler dismissed him from all his posts in April 1945 and ordered his arrest. Himmler attempted to go into hiding but was detained and then arrested by British forces once his identity became known. While in British custody, he died by suicide on 23 May 1945.
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Party comrade Hierl has been the founder and leader of the Reich Labor Service.
Konstantin Hierl (24 February 1875 – 23 September 1955) was a major figure in the administration of Nazi Germany. He was the head of the Reich Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst; RAD) a Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party and an associate of Adolf Hitler before he came to national power.
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Party comrade Ley is the guarantor of the behavior of the German worker.
Robert Ley (German: [ˈlaɪ]; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a German politician during the Nazi era, who headed the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the German Nazi Party, including Gauleiter, Reichsleiter and Reichsorganisationsleiter. He committed suicide while awaiting trial at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
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Party comrade and Reich Minister Major General Todt is the organizer of the production of armament and ammunition and has gained eternal merit as a master builder in the construction of our massive, strategic [!] road network as well as of the fortified front in the West.
Fritz Todt ([fʁɪt͡s toːt]; 4 September 1891 – 8 February 1942) was a German construction engineer and senior figure of the Nazi Party. He was the founder of Organisation Todt (OT), a military-engineering organisation that supplied German industry with forced labour, and served as Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition in Nazi Germany early in World War II, directing the entire German wartime military economy from that position. An engineer by training, Todt served in the Luftstreitkräfte during World War I and was a recipient of the Iron Cross. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1931. Steadily rising through the ranks, Todt became Inspector General for German Roadways after Adolf Hitler came to power. In that capacity, he was responsible for the construction of the German autobahns. In 1938, he founded Organization Todt and directed large-scale engineering projects such as the Westwall (Siegfried Line) and the Atlantic Wall. In 1940, he was appointed Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. During World War II Todt made extensive use of forced labor, with as many as 800,000 laborers from German-occupied territories in the service of his organization. Todt was killed in February 1942 near Rastenburg when his aircraft crashed shortly after take-off. He was succeeded as Reichsminister and head of the OT by Albert Speer.
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Party comrade Minister Goebbels is the leader of a propaganda apparatus whose refinement is best ascertained in comparison with that of the World War.
Paul Joseph Goebbels (pronounced [ˈpaʊ̯l ˈjoːzɛf ˈɡœbl̩s] (listen); 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the Gauleiter (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted followers, known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent antisemitism, which was evident in his publicly voiced views. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust. Goebbels, who aspired to be an author, obtained a doctorate in philology from the University of Heidelberg in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924 and worked with Gregor Strasser in its northern branch. He was appointed Gauleiter of Berlin in 1926, where he began to take an interest in the use of propaganda to promote the party and its program. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted control over the news media, arts, and information in Nazi Germany. He was particularly adept at using the relatively new media of radio and film for propaganda purposes. Topics for party propaganda included antisemitism, attacks on the Christian churches, and (after the start of the Second World War) attempting to shape morale. In 1943, Goebbels began to pressure Hitler to introduce measures that would produce "total war", including closing businesses not essential to the war effort, conscripting women into the labor force, and enlisting men in previously exempt occupations into the Wehrmacht. Hitler finally appointed him as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War on 23 July 1944, whereby Goebbels undertook largely unsuccessful measures to increase the number of people available for armaments manufacture and the Wehrmacht. As the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced defeat, Magda Goebbels and the Goebbels children joined Hitler in Berlin. They moved into the underground Vorbunker, part of Hitler's underground bunker complex, on 22 April 1945. Hitler committed suicide on 30 April. In accordance with Hitler's will, Goebbels succeeded him as Chancellor of Germany; he served one day in this post. The following day, Goebbels and his wife committed suicide, after having poisoned their six children with a cyanide compound.
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Among the numerous organizations of the home front, there remain to be mentioned the organization of the Kriegswinterhilfswerk, and of the NS Volkswohlfahrt under the leadership of Party comrade Hilgenfeldt
Georg Paul Erich Hilgenfeldt (born 2 July 1897 in Heinitz/Ottweiler; likely died in April/May 1945 in Berlin) was a high Nazi Party government official.
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I cannot conclude this tribute without thanking the one man who, for years, has engaged himself in loyal, untiring, self -devouring work to realize my foreign policy directives.
The name of Party comrade von Ribbentrop as Reich Foreign Minister shall remain tied for all eternity to the political rise of the German nation.
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (German: [joˈʔaxɪm fɔn ˈʁɪbəntʁɔp]; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's notice as a well-travelled businessman with more knowledge of the outside world than most senior Nazis and as a perceived authority on foreign affairs. He offered his house Schloss Fuschl for the secret meetings in January 1933 that resulted in Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany. He became a close confidant of Hitler, to the disgust of some party members, who thought him superficial and lacking in talent. He was appointed ambassador to the Court of St James's, the royal court of the United Kingdom, in 1936 and then Foreign Minister of Germany in February 1938. Before World War II, he played a key role in brokering the Pact of Steel (an alliance with Fascist Italy) and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (the Nazi–Soviet non-aggression pact). He favored retaining good relations with the Soviets and opposed the invasion of the Soviet Union. In late 1941, due to American aid to Britain and the increasingly frequent "incidents" in the North Atlantic between U-boats and American warships guarding convoys to Britain, Ribbentrop worked for the failure of the Japanese American talks in Washington and for Japan to attack the United States. He did his utmost to support a declaration of war on the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor. From 1941 onwards, Ribbentrop's influence declined. Arrested in June 1945, Ribbentrop was convicted and sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials for his role in starting World War II in Europe and enabling the Holocaust. On 16 October 1946, he became the first of the Nuremberg defendants to be executed by hanging.
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My Deputies!
I have determined, as Fuhrer and Supreme Commander of the German Wehrmacht, to honor the most meritorious generals before the one forum which in truth represents the entire German Volk.
I must place at their forefront a man to whom I have difficulty in expressing sufficient gratitude for the services which tie his name to the Movement, to the State, and, above all, to the German Luftwaffe.
Since the days of the foundation of the SA, Party Comrade Goring has been bound up in the development and rise of the Movement.
Since we came to power, his capacity for work and willingness to take responsibility have accomplished deeds in numerous fields for the German Volk and the German Reich which cannot be excluded from the history of our Volk and Reich.
Since the rebuilding of the German Wehrmacht, he has become the creator of the German Luftwaffe.
It is granted to only a few mortals to create in the course of their lives a military instrument practically from nothing and to transform it into the mightiest weapon of its kind in the world.
Field Marshal Goring as creator of the German Luftwaffe, and as an individual man, has made the greatest contribution to the rebuilding of the German Wehrmacht.
As the leader of the German Luftwaffe he has, in the course of the war up to date, created the prerequisites for victory.
His merits are unequaled!
I name him Reichsmarschall of the Greater German Reich and award him the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross.
For services rendered to the victory of German weaponry in the struggle for the freedom and future of our Greater German Reich, I hereby promote:
The Commander in Chief of the Army, Colonel General von Brauchitsch, to the rank of Field Marshal.
Colonel General von Rundstedt, Commander in Chief of Army Group A, to the rank of Field Marshal.
Colonel General Ritter von Leeb, Commander in Chief of Army Group C, to the rank of Field Marshal.
Colonel General von Bock, Commander in Chief of Army Group B, to the rank of Field Marshal.
Colonel General List, Commander in Chief of the Twelfth Army, to the rank of Field Marshal.
Colonel General von Kluge, Commander in Chief of the Fourth Army, to the rank of Field Marshal.
Colonel General von Witzleben, Commander in Chief of the First Army, to the rank of Field Marshal.
Colonel General von Reichenau, Commander in Chief of the Sixth Army, to the rank of Field Marshal.
I promote:
General Haider, Chief of the General Staff of the Army, to the rank of Colonel General.
General Dollmann, Commander in Chief of the Seventh Army, to the rank of Colonel General.
General Freiherr von Weichs, Commander in Chief of the Second Army, to the rank of Colonel General.
General von Kuchler, Commander in Chief of the Eighteenth Army, to the rank of Colonel General.
General Busch, Commander in Chief of the Sixteenth Army, to the rank of Colonel General.
General Strauss, Commander in Chief of the Ninth Army, to the rank of Colonel General.
General von Falkenhorst, Military Commander in Norway, to the rank of Colonel General.
General von Kleist, Commanding General of the Twenty-Second Army Corps, to the rank of Colonel General.
Eugen Siegfried Erich Ritter von Schobert (13 March 1883 – 12 September 1941) was a German general during World War II. He commanded the 11th Army during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Schobert died when his observation plane crashed in a Soviet minefield.
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General Guderian, Commanding General of the Nineteenth Army Corps, to the rank of Colonel General.
General Hoth, Commanding General of the Fifteenth Army Corps, to the rank of Colonel General.
General Haase, Commanding General of the Third Army Corps, to the rank of Colonel General.
Curt Haase (15 December 1881 – 9 February 1943) was a German general (Generaloberst) in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He commanded the III Corps during the Invasion of Poland and France. He later commanded the 15th Army in German-occupied France from January 1941 to November 1942.
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General Hoeppner, Commanding General of the Sixteenth Army Corps, to the rank of Colonel General.
General Fromm, Chief of Military Armament and Commander in Chief of the Replacement Army, to the rank of Colonel General.
In consideration of unequaled services rendered I promote:
Lieutenant General Dietl, Commanding General of the Mountain Corps in Norway, to the rank of Infantry General.
As the first officer with the German Wehrmacht, I award him the Oak Leaves of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Pending a later recognition of all the leaders and officers of the Reich Navy, I promote:
Admiral Carls, the Commanding Admiral of the Naval Station Baltic Sea and Commander in Chief of the Naval Troops East, to the rank of Admiral General.
Rolf Hans Wilhelm Karl Carls (29 May 1885 – 24 April 1945) was a high-ranking German admiral during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Carls served as Flottenchef (Fleet Commander), the highest-ranking administrative officer of the Kriegsmarine and member of the Oberkommando der Marine (High Command of the Navy). Carls was instrumental in planning German naval operations during Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and Norway. When Grand Admiral Erich Raeder resigned as commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine in early 1943, he suggested Carls as a potential candidate to succeed him. After Admiral Karl Donitz succeeded Raeder instead, Carls was discharged from the navy. Carls was killed in a British air raid on the town of Bad Oldesloe on 24 April 1945.
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In appreciation of the unequaled accomplishments of the German Luftwaffe, I promote:
Colonel General Milch to the rank of Field Marshal; General der Flieger Sperrle to the rank of Field Marshal; General der Flieger Kesselring to the rank of Field Marshal.
I promote:
General der Flieger Stumpff to the rank of Colonel General; General der Flieger Grauert to the rank of Colonel General; General der Flieger Koller to the rank of Colonel General; General of the Flak Artillery Weise to the rank of Colonel General; General der Flieger Udet to the rank of Colonel General.
Furthermore, I promote to the rank of General der Flieger:
Lieutenant General Geissler.
Major General Jeschonnek.
Lieutenant General Loerzer.
Lieutenant General Ritter von Greim.
and Major General Freiherr von Richthofen.
In my High Command of the Wehrmacht, I promote:
Colonel General Keitel to the rank of Field Marshal; Major General Jodl to the rank of Artillery General.
In announcing these promotions on the occasion of the most successful campaign in our history, before this forum and so before the entire nation, I thereby honor the entire Wehrmacht of the National Socialist Greater German Reich.
I cannot conclude my reflections on this battle without thinking of our ally here.
Ever since there has been a National Socialist regime, its foreign policy has embraced two goals:
Bringing about a true understanding and friendship with Italy.
Bringing about the same relationship with England.
My Party Comrades, you know that I was as driven by these conceptions twenty years ago as I was later.
I have dealt with and defended these ideas as a journalist and in my speeches countless times, as long as I myself was a mere opposition leader in the democratic republic.
I immediately undertook, as soon as the German Volk entrusted me with its leadership, to realize these oldest goals of National Socialist foreign policy in practical terms.
It still saddens me today that, in spite of all my endeavors, I have not succeeded in obtaining this friendship with England which, I believe, should have been a blessing for both peoples; and especially because I was not able to do so despite my persistent, sincere efforts.
However, I am all the happier that at least the first point in this program of my foreign policy was in fact realized.
This I owe, above all, to the genius who today stands at the head of the Italian people.
For it was possible only owing to his epoch-making activities for the two intellectually related revolutions to find each other, to finally seal in jointly shed blood the alliance which is destined to procure a new life for Europe.
That I myself have the honor to be a friend of this man gladdens me all the more in view of the unique story of his life, which bears evidence of as many similarities to my own as our two revolutions do to each other, and, beyond this, as does the history of the unification and rise of our two nations.
Ever since the resurrection of the German Volk, we have heard many voices of understanding from Italy.
On the foundation of this mutual understanding grew a living community of interests.
And finally, this was set down in treaties.
And when, last year, contrary to my expressed will and desire, this war was forced on the German Reich, a consultation on the further conduct of our two states involved Mussolini and me.
The benefit derived for the Reich from the behavior of Italy was extraordinary.
Not only economically did we profit from the situation and the stance of Italy, but also militarily.
From the beginning, Italy tied down strong forces of our enemies and curtailed above all their freedom of strategic disposition.
And when the Duce determined that the time had come to take a stand with the weapon in his fist against the unbearable and persistent violation of Italy, damage done in particular by French and British transgression, and the King issued the declaration of war, then this was done with complete freedom of decision.
All the greater must our gratitude be.
The intercession of Italy has sped up and assisted in opening France's eyes to the utter hopelessness of continued resistance.
And ever since, our ally has fought on the peaks and ridges of the Alps and now on the vast plains encompassed in his sphere of interest.
Especially his present air attacks and battles at sea are being led with the spirit peculiar to the Fascist Revolution.
Here they elicit the spirit which binds National Socialism to Fascist Italy.
Italy's pain is Germany's pain, as we have experienced in recent days in view of the death of Balbo.
Italo Balbo (6 June 1896 – 28 June 1940) was an Italian fascist politician and Blackshirts' leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa. Due to his young age, he was sometimes seen as a possible successor of dictator Benito Mussolini. After serving in World War I, Balbo became the leading Fascist party organizer in his home region of Ferrara. He was one of the four principal architects (Quadrumviri del Fascismo) of the March on Rome that brought Mussolini and the Fascists to power in 1922, along with Michele Bianchi, Emilio De Bono and Cesare Maria De Vecchi. In 1926, he began the task of building the Italian Royal Air Force and took a leading role in popularizing aviation in Italy and promoting Italian aviation to the world. In 1933, perhaps to relieve tensions surrounding him in Italy, he was given the government of Italian Libya, where he resided for the remainder of his life. Balbo, hostile to antisemitism, was among a minority of leading Fascists to oppose Mussolini's alliance with Nazi Germany. Early in World War II, he was accidentally killed by friendly fire when his plane was shot down over Tobruk by Italian anti-aircraft guns who misidentified it.
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Its joy is our joy.
And our cooperation in the political and military fields is a complete one.
It will erase the injustice done the German and Italian peoples throughout the centuries.
For, at the end of everything, stands the shared victory!
And when I now turn to speak of the future, my Deputies, I do so not to boast or brag.
This I can well leave up to others who are in greater need of it, as for example Mr. Churchill.
What I want to do is to paint a picture of the present situation, bare of exaggeration, as it is and as I see it.
1. The course of events in the ten months of war now lying behind us has proved my assessments correct and those of our adversaries incorrect.
When the British so-called statesmen assure us that their country emerges strengthened from every defeat and failure, then it surely is no arrogance when I inform them that we emerge at least equally strengthened from our successes.
On September 1 of the year now past, I already explained to you that, come what may, neither the force of weapons nor time shall force Germany to the ground.
The Reich today stands stronger militarily than ever before.
You have seen the losses, individually surely heavy, though as a total relatively low, which the German Wehrmacht has suffered in battle within the past three months.
When you consider that, within this time, we erected a front which reaches from the North Cape to the Spanish border, then our losses are extraordinarily low, especially when compared with those of the World War.
The cause lies-besides with the, on an average, excellent leadership-with the outstanding tactical training of the individual soldier and of the units, as well as with the cooperation among the branches of the service.
Another cause is to be found with the quality and efficiency of the new weaponry.
A third cause lies with the conscious refusal to pursue what is called prestige.
I myself have, on principle, labored to avoid any attack or operation which was not necessary in the context of the actual annihilation of the adversary, but was instead to be carried out for the sake of what was regarded as prestige.
In spite of all of this, naturally, we had anticipated far higher losses in many instances.
The manpower saved will benefit us in the further pursuit of the struggle for freedom forced upon us.
At present, many of our divisions in France are being withdrawn and reassigned to their bases at home.
Many men are able to take leaves of absence.
Weaponry and equipment are being either repaired or replaced by new material.
All in all, the Wehrmacht today is stronger than ever before.
2. Weaponry.
The loss of weaponry in Norway, especially in the campaigns against:
Holland
Belgium
France
is void of any significance. It stands in no relation to production.
Army and Luftwaffe possess at this moment-as I am speaking to you-equipment more complete and stronger than before we intervened in the West.
3. Ammunition.
Provisions for ammunition were so well executed, the stocks are so vast, that in many areas production must now be curtailed or rerouted since the existing depots and warehouses, even given the greatest of efforts, in part are no longer capable of absorbing further deliveries.
As in Poland, the consumption of ammunition was unexpectedly low. It stands in no relation to the stockpiles.
The total reserves of the Army and the Luftwaffe are higher at present, for all categories of weapons, than before the attack in the West.
4. Raw materials essential to the war effort.
Thanks to the Four- Year Plan, Germany was prepared for the greatest of strains in an exemplary fashion.
No armed forces in the world, other than Germany's Wehrmacht, have so benefited from a shift away from imported raw materials essential to the war effort to such as can be found within the country.
Thanks to the work of the Reichsmarschall, this transformation of the German economy into a war economy characterized by self-sufficiency was already achieved in peacetime. [!]
We possess reserves of the two most important raw materials, coal and iron, in what I may well term an unlimited quantity.
Fuel supplies are more than enough for consumption.
The capacities of our production are increasing, and, within a short time, they will suffice- even should imports cease-to satisfy demand completely.
Our advance metal collections have so increased our metal reserves that we can face a war of no matter what duration.
We shall reign supreme no matter what happens.
Added to this are the enormous possibilities that come from a yet immeasurable loot and including the development of the territories we have occupied.
Germany and Italy possess, within the confines of the area they regulate and control, an economic potential of about 200 million men, of whom only 130 million are soldiers, with seventy million free to be employed exclusively in different economic activities.
I informed you on September 1, my Deputies, that for the further conduct of the war I had ordered the initial implementation of a new Five-Year Plan.
I can now assure you that all measures to this end have been taken.
Come what may, I now no longer regard time as a threatening factor, not even in a general sense.
This time, the measures taken in a timely fashion have also secured foodstuffs for a war of no matter how long a duration.
5. The attitude of the German Volk.
Thanks to National Socialist education, the German Volk has not approached this war with the superficiality of a "hurrah" patriotism, but with the zealous determination of a race which knows the fate awaiting it should it suffer defeat.
The endeavors to subvert this unity, launched by the propaganda of our enemies, are as stupid as they are ineffective.
Ten months of war have rendered this zealousness all the more profound.
And, in general, it is a great misfortune that the world's opinion is not formed by men who see things as they are, but by men who see them as they want them to be.
In the last days, I have seen through and studied countless documents from the Allied Headquarters' "Ark of the Covenant."
Among other things, these contain reports on the atmosphere in Germany, or memoranda on the disposition and inner attitude of the German Volk.
The authors of these reports were, in part, also diplomats.
Reading through these reports, one cannot help wondering whether their authors were blind, stupid, or simply vile scoundrels.
I will admit without further ado that, naturally, here in Germany also there have been, and perhaps still are today, certain individuals who have watched the Third Reich's conquests with a feeling akin to regret.
Incorrigible reactionaries or blind nihilists may well be saddened in their hearts that things came out not as they had willed them.
But their numbers are ridiculously small, and their significance is smaller yet.
Regrettably, this scum of the nation appears to have been chosen by the outside world as a measuring stick by which to assess the German Volk.
And from this, the sick minds of failed statesmen derive the last points of orientation to cling to for new hope.
As needed, the British warlords designate a "General Hunger" or an "imminent revolution" as their new allies.
There is no nonsense that these people would not dish up for their own nation in order to cling to their positions for yet a few more weeks.
The German Volk has proved, above all, its inner attitude through its sons who are fighting on the battlefield.
Within weeks they have beaten Germany's strongest military adversary and have destroyed him.
Their spirit was and remains the spirit of the German homeland.
6. The surrounding world.
In the eyes of English politicians, their last hopes, besides those resting with the loyal and allied nations, lie with a series of propped-up heads of state without thrones; statesmen without subjects; and generals without armies; as well as on renewed complications they believe they can conjure up thanks to their well-proven deftness in such matters.
A true Ahasuerus amongst these hopes is the belief in a possible new estrangement to separate Germany and Russia.
German-Russian relations have been established for good.
The reason for this was that England and France, with the support of certain smaller states, incessantly attributed to Germany ambitions to conquer terrain which lay completely outside the sphere of German interests.
At one time, Germany was eyeing the occupation of the Ukraine; then again it sought to invade Finland; at another time it was claimed that Romania was threatened; then finally even Turkey was endangered.
Given these circumstances, I held it to be proper to undertake, above all, with Russia, a sober delineation of interests, to once and for all clarify what Germany believes it must regard as its sphere of interest in securing its future, and what in turn Russia holds to be vital to its existence.
Based on this clear delineation of mutual spheres of interest, the Russo- German relationship was revised.
It is childish to hope that in the course of this revision tensions might arise anew between Germany and Russia.
Germany has not stepped outside its sphere of interest, and neither has Russia.
England is deceived in its hope of bringing about a new European crisis to reprieve its own situation, insofar as the relationship of Germany to Russia is concerned.
Though the British statesmen are chronically slow in their comprehension of almost everything, they will surely come to understand this in the course of time.
I fancy I correctly forecast the future development of this war in my speech of October 6.
I assure you, my Deputies, that not for a moment could I doubt victory.
And, unless one feels the need to see signs and guarantees for the final victory exclusively in defeats, then I believe that the course of events up to this point has proved me right.
As I was certain of this course of events, I offered my hand to France and England at the time for an understanding.
You still recall the answer I received.
My arguments against the nonsense of pursuing this war, on the certainty of gaining nothing, even under the most favorable of circumstances, and of losing much, were mocked and scoffed at, or passed over.
I promptly assured you then that I feared, because of my peace proposal, to be decried as a cockerel who no longer wants to fight because he is no longer able to fight.
And this is exactly what happened.
I now believe that France- less the guilty statesmen than the people- thinks differently about this October 6 today.
What nameless misery has befallen this great country and people since then.
I shall not even mention the toll of suffering the war has placed on the soldier.
For above this stands the suffering caused by the recklessness of those who drove millions of people from their homes without proper cause, who were compelled by the thought that this might somehow hamper the German war effort.
This premise defied comprehension: this evacuation was mostly to the detriment of the Allied war effort and, moreover, it was the cruelest experience for the unfortunate afflicted.
The injury the gentlemen Churchill and Reynaud have done millions of people, through their advice and commands-this they can neither justify in this world nor in the next.
Paul Reynaud (French: [pɔl ʁɛno]; 15 October 1878 – 21 September 1966) was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Nazi Germany. Reynaud opposed the Munich Agreement of September 1938, when France and the United Kingdom gave way before Hitler's proposals for the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. After the outbreak of World War II Reynaud became the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic in March 1940. He was also vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right party. Reynaud was Prime Minister during the German defeat of France in May and June 1940; he persistently refused to support an armistice with Germany, as premier in June 1940, he unsuccessfully attempted to save France from German occupation in World War II, and resigned on 16 June. After unsuccessfully attempting to flee France, he was arrested by Philippe Petain's administration. Surrendering to German custody in 1942, he was imprisoned in Germany and later Austria until liberation in 1945, where he was released after the Battle of Itter Castle in which one of the leaders, German Major Josef Gangl, declared a hero by the Austrian resistance, took a sniper's bullet to save Reynaud. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1946, he became a prominent figure again in French political life, serving in several cabinet positions. He favored a United States of Europe and participated in drafting the constitution for the Fifth Republic, but resigned from government in 1962 after disagreement with President de Gaulle over changes to the electoral system.
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All of this-as I said-need not have happened.
For peace was all I asked of France and England in October.
But the gentlemen war profiteers wanted a continuation of this war at all costs.
They have it now.
I myself am too much a soldier not to comprehend the tragedy of such a development.
Still, all I hear from London are cries-not the cries of the masses, but of the politicians-that this war must now, all the more, be pursued.
I do not know if these politicians have an inkling of just how this war is in fact to be pursued.
They declare that they will continue this war, and should England fall, then they will do so from Canada.
I do not believe this means that the English people will all emigrate to Canada, but rather that the gentlemen war profiteers will all retreat to Canada by themselves.
I fear the people will have to remain behind in England.
And, assuredly, they will see the war with different eyes in London than their so-called leaders in Canada.
Believe me, my Deputies, I feel an inner disgust at this type of unscrupulous parliamentarian annihilators of peoples and states.
It is almost painful to me to have been chosen by Providence to give a shove to what these men have brought to the point of falling.
It was not my ambition to wage wars, but to build up a new social state of the highest culture.
And the cause of this robbery is those ludicrous zeroes whom one could at best call nature's political run of the mill, insofar as their corrupted vileness does not brand them as something out of the ordinary.
Mr. Churchill has repeated the declaration that he wants war.
About six weeks ago now, he launched this war in an arena in which he apparently believes he is quite strong: namely, in the air war against the civilian population, albeit beneath the deceptive slogan of a so-called war against military objectives.
Ever since Freiburg, these objectives have turned out to be open:
cities
markets
villages
residential housing
hospitals
schools
kindergartens
and whatever else happens to be hit.
Up to now I have given little by way of response.
This is not intended to signal, however, that this is the only response possible or that it shall remain this way.
I am fully aware that with our response, which one day will come, will also come the nameless suffering and misfortune of many men.
Naturally, this does not apply to Mr. Churchill himself since by then he will surely be secure in Canada, where the money and the children of the most distinguished of war profiteers have already been brought.
But there will be great tragedy for millions of other men.
And Mr. Churchill should make an exception and place trust in me when as a prophet I now proclaim: A great world empire will be destroyed.
A world empire which I never had the ambition to destroy or as much as harm.
Alas, I am fully aware that the continuation of this war will end only in the complete shattering of one of the two warring parties.
Mr. Churchill may believe this to be Germany.
I know it to be England.
In this hour I feel compelled, standing before my conscience, to direct yet another appeal to reason in England.
I believe I can do this as I am not asking for something as the vanquished, but rather, as the victor, I am speaking in the name of reason.
I see no compelling reason which could force the continuation of this war.
I regret the sacrifices it will demand.
I would like to spare my Volk.
I know the hearts of millions of men and boys aglow at the thought of finally being allowed to wage battle against an enemy who has, without reasonable cause, declared war on us a second time.
But I also know of the women and mothers at home whose hearts, despite their willingness to sacrifice to the last, hang onto this last with all their might.
Mr. Churchill may well belittle my declaration again, crying that it was nothing other than a symptom of my fear, or my doubts of the final victory.
Still, I will have an easy conscience in view of things to come.
Deputies, Men of the German Reichstag!
In reflecting on the ten months lying behind us, all of us will surely feel overcome by the grace of Providence which allowed us to accomplish so great a task. It has blessed our resolves and stood by us on many a difficult path.
I myself am touched in recognition of the calling it imparted to me to restore freedom and honor to my Volk.
The disgrace we suffered for twenty-two years, and which had its beginnings in the Forest of Compiegne was erased forever at the very same site.
Today I have named the men who, before history, enabled me to accomplish this great task.
They have done their best, dedicating their talents and their industry to the German Volk.
I now wish to conclude in mentioning all those nameless men who have no less done their duty.
Millions of them have risked life and liberty and, as brave German officers and soldiers, have been ready at every hour to make the last sacrifice a man can make.
Today many of them rest in the same graves in which their fathers have rested since the Great War.
They stand as a symbol for all those hundreds of thousands of musketeers, anti-tank gunners and tank gunners, pioneers and artillerymen, soldiers of the Navy and the Luftwaffe, men of the Waffen-SS, and all those other fighters who stood for the German Wehrmacht in the struggle for the freedom and future of our Volk and for the eternal greatness of the National Socialist Greater German Reich.
