Tag Archives: Nazi Party

Total War-Göbbels Sport Palast Speech

Like all delusional leaders, Hitler would not have been able to carry out his plans without having people around him that encouraged his delusional ideas.

Göbbels was without a shadow of a doubt Hitler’s most devoted henchman and enabler.

On February 18,1943 he gave his most famous speech in the Sport Palast in Berlin. The aim of the speech was to convince the German people of a Total war, statig that a total war would be a shorter war. At least that is what the banners over the podium said.

At this stage the tide of World War II was turning against Germany. Göbbels held his speech at the Berlin Sportpalast to a carefully selected audience of 14,000 party officials, war veterans, workers, and women. Millions of other Germans listened to the speech via radio.

Below is the English translation of the main part of the speech and also the recorded audio version of the speech.

2Let me, to establish what the truth is, ask a number of questions of you, my fellow Germans, which you must answer me to the best of your knowledge and convictions. When my listeners indicated their spontaneous approval of my demands of January 30, the British press the next day claimed that it had been a propaganda spectacle, and was not representative of the true mood of the German people.
Well, to this meeting today I invited a cross section, in the best sense of that word, of the German people. In front of me there sit, row on row, wounded soldiers from the eastern front, men with scarred bodies, with amputated legs or arms, men blinded in action who have come here with their Red Cross nurses, men in the prime of life whose crutches are standing in front of them. In between, I count as many as 50 wearers of the Oak Leaf Cluster and of the Knight’s Cross, a splendid delegation from our fighting front. Behind them, there is a block of armaments workers, from Berlin’s armored car factory. Behind them, there sit men from the various party organizations, soldiers from our fighting forces, physicians, scientists, artists, engineers, architects, teachers, officials, civil servants from their offices and studies, proud representatives of our intellectual life on all its levels, to whom the country at this time of war owes miracles of inventiveness and human genius. Distributed over the entire auditorium of the Sports Palace I see thousands of German women. Youth is represented, and so is venerable age. No estate, no profession, no age group was overlooked when our invitations went out. Thus I can properly say that facing me is a cross section of the entire German people, at the front and at home. Is that correct?

Then you, my listeners, are representing the nation at this moment. And it is you whom I would like to ask ten questions. Give me your answers, along with the German people, before the whole world, but particularly before our enemies.

The British claim that the German nation has lost its faith in victory. I ask you: Do you believe, with the Führer and with us, in the final, total victory of the German people? I ask you: Are you resolved to follow the Führer through thick and thin in the pursuit of victory, even if this should mean the heaviest of contributions on your part?

Second. The British claim that the German nation is tired of the struggle. I ask you: Are you prepared to continue this struggle with grim determination, and undeterred by any circumstance decreed by fate, to continue it with the Führer, as the phalanx of the home front behind our fighting armies, until victory is ours?

Third. The British claim that the Germans are no longer in a mood to accept the ever increasing amount of war work demanded of them by the government. I ask you: Are you, and the German nation, resolved to work ten, twelve, and if need be fourteen or sixteen hours a day, if the Führer should command it, and to give your all for victory?

Fourth. The British claim that the German nation is resisting the government’s measures of total war, that what the Germans want is not total war but surrender. I ask you: Do you want total war? Do you want it, if need be, even more total and radical than we are capable of imagining it today?

Fifth. The British claim that the German nation has lost its confidence in the Führer. I ask you: Is your confidence in the Führer more passionate, more unshakable than ever? Is your readiness to follow him on all his paths, and to do whatever is necessary to bring the war to a successful conclusion, absolute and unlimited?

I ask you my sixth question. Are you prepared henceforth to devote your entire strength to providing the Eastern front with the men and materials it needs to give Bolshevism its mortal blow?

I ask you my seventh question. Do you swear a solemn oath to the fighting front that the country stands behind it, its morale high, and will give it everything necessary to achieve victory?

I ask you my eighth question. Do you, especially you, the women yourselves, want the government to see to it that German women, too, give all their energies to the pursuit of the war, filling jobs wherever possible to free men for action and thus to help their men at the front?

I ask you my ninth question. Do you approve, if necessary, the most radical of measures against a small group of draft-dodgers and blackmarketeers, who play peace in the midst of war, and mean to exploit people’s sufferings for their own selfish purposes? Do you agree that a person who interferes with the war effort shall lose his head?

As my tenth and last question I ask you: Is it your wish that even in wartime, as the party program commands, equal rights and equal duties shall prevail, that the home front shall give evidence of its solidarity and take the same heavy burdens of war upon its shoulders, and that the burdens be distributed equitably, whether a person be great or small, poor or rich?

I have asked you. You have given me your answers. You are a part of the nation; your response has thus shown the attitude of the German people. You have told our enemies what they must know lest they abandon themselves to illusions and misinformation. “

{Source of English translation: Joachim Remak, ed., The Nazi Years: A Documentary History. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969, pp. 91-92.}

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Sources

http://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/docpage.cfm?docpage_id=2428

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-sportpalast/

https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/goeb36.htm

25-Punkte-Programm-25-Point Program

25 point

Throughout history warning signs have been ignored over and over again. It is very important to keep history alive but it is even more important to learn from it, alas that is the one thing that is often forgotten.

People often think that the warning signs of the Nazi regime were only there since 1933,others think  that the signs were there after Hitler published “Mein Kampf”

The fact Hitler had already been thinking about his plans years before that, even before the NSDAP was formed and even before he joined the DAP(German Workers Party) the predecessor for the NSDAP.

dap

On the day the DAP dissolved and the NSDAP was formed,February 24 1920, Hitler and the then leader of the NSDAP ,Anton Drexler, published the blue print of what they saw as the future for Germany and the great German reich.

They called it “The aims of the National Socialists” aka “the 25 points program”

         25-Point Program

  1. The unity of all German-speaking peoples into one greater Germany.
  2. The destruction of the Treaty of Versailles.
  3. Colonies and land to feed Germany’s population.
  4. Only Germans can be citizens. No Jew can be a German.
  5. People in Germany who are not citizens must obey special laws for foreigners.
  6. Only German citizens can vote, be employed or hold public office.
  7. Citizens are entitled to a job and a decent standard of living.
  8. No immigration of non-German must be allowed. Anyone who has come to Germany since 1914 must be removed.
  9. All citizens have equal rights
  10. The duty of a citizen is find employment
  11. All unemployment benefits should end.
  12. All profits made during the war must be shared.
  13. Nationalisation of public industries including electricity and gas.
  14. Large companies must share their profits with the workers
  15. Pensions must be improved
  16. Help for small shops and businesses; large department stores must be closed down to support this.
  17. Property reform to give small farmers land
  18. Criminals and profiteers must be punished by death.
  19. Reform of the law to make it more German.
  20. Improve education so that all Germans can find employment
  21. Improve people’s health by forcing people to do sport.
  22. Abolition of the Army, and a new People’s Army in its place.
  23. German newspapers must be free of foreign influence.
  24. Freedom of religion.
  25. Strong government with unrestricted authority over Germany.

Extended text

1. We demand the union of all Germans in a Great Germany on the basis of the principle of self-determination of all peoples.

2. We demand that the German people have rights equal to those of other nations; and that the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain shall be abrogated.

3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the maintenance of our people and the settlement of our surplus population.

4. Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of creed, can be our countrymen. Hence no Jew can be a countryman.

5. Those who are not citizens must live in Germany as foreigners and must be subject to the law of aliens.

6. The right to choose the government and determine the laws of the State shall belong only to citizens. We therefore demand that no public office, of whatever nature, whether in the central government, the province, or the municipality, shall be held by anyone who is not a citizen.

We wage war against the corrupt parliamentary administration whereby men are appointed to posts by favor of the party without regard to character and fitness.

7. We demand that the State shall above all undertake to ensure that every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood. If it should not be possible to feed the whole population, then aliens (non-citizens) must be expelled from the Reich.

8. Any further immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately.

9. All citizens must possess equal rights and duties.

10. The first duty of every citizen must be to work mentally or physically. No individual shall do any work that offends against the interest of the community to the benefit of all.

Therefore we demand:

11. That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished.

12. Since every war imposes on the people fearful sacrifices in blood and treasure, all personal profit arising from the war must be regarded as treason to the people. We therefore demand the total confiscation of all war profits.

13. We demand the nationalization of all trusts.

14. We demand profit-sharing in large industries.

15. We demand a generous increase in old-age pensions.

16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a sound middle-class, the immediate communalization of large stores which will be rented cheaply to small tradespeople, and the strongest consideration must be given to ensure that small traders shall deliver the supplies needed by the State, the provinces and municipalities.

17. We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.

18. We demand that ruthless war be waged against those who work to the injury of the common welfare. Traitors, usurers, profiteers, etc., are to be punished with death, regardless of creed or race.

19. We demand that Roman law, which serves a materialist ordering of the world, be replaced by German common law.

20. In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State.

21. The State has the duty to help raise the standard of national health by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor, by increasing physical fitness through the introduction of compulsory games and gymnastics, and by the greatest possible encouragement of associations concerned with the physical education of the young.

22. We demand the abolition of the regular army and the creation of a national (folk) army.

23. We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press. In order to make possible the creation of a German press, we demand:

(a) All editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens.

(b) Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State. They must not be published in the German language.

(c) All financial interests in or in any way affecting German newspapers shall be forbidden to non-Germans by law, and we demand that the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper and the expulsion of the non-Germans from the Reich.

Newspapers transgressing against the common welfare shall be suppressed. We demand legal action against those tendencies in art and literature that have a disruptive influence upon the life of our folk, and that any organizations that offend against the foregoing demands shall be dissolved.

24. We demand freedom for all religious faiths in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or offend the moral and ethical sense of the Germanic race.

The party as such represents the point of view of a positive Christianity without binding itself to any one particular confession. It fights against the Jewish materialist spirit within and without, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our folk can only come about from within on the pinciple:

COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD

25. In order to carry out this program we demand: the creation of a strong central authority in the State, the unconditional authority by the political central parliament of the whole State and all its organizations.

The formation of professional committees and of committees representing the several estates of the realm, to ensure that the laws promulgated by the central authority shall be carried out by the federal states.

The leaders of the party undertake to promote the execution of the foregoing points at all costs, if necessary at the sacrifice of their own lives.

On April 13 1928 Hitler wrote the following clarification in relation to point 17 of the program.

Regarding the false interpretations of Point 17 of the program of the NSDAP on the part of our opponents, the following definition is necessary:

“Since the NSDAP stands on the platform of private ownership it happens that the passage” gratuitous expropriation concerns only the creation of legal opportunities to expropriate if necessary, land which has been illegally acquired or is not administered from the view-point of the national welfare. This is directed primarily against the Jewish land-speculation companies.

Next time you see a political party publishing a program, read it very carefully and read it again.

 

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Sources

USHMM

Fordham University

 

Indifference becomes hate.

hate

They say that money of the root of all evil. It isn’t. Hate is the root of all evil and indifference is the root of all hate.

Indifference can turn ordinary but ill informed people into hateful individuals and mobs. Ill informed because they believe what their leaders tell them,without questioning them.

I could do this blog about any era in history because throughout history there have been many occasions where indifference became hate, but I will focus on the darkest era , WWII.

The picture above is of Jewish women in Linz, Austria who were exhibited in public with a cardboard sign stating “I have been excluded from the national community”

German students taking part in race education classes, 1943.The 3 groups displayed on the poster are, from top to bottom, “East Baltic race” Alpine race” and “Dinaric race”. All these three groups were considered part of the sub-races of the Caucasian race.

education

Sinti in the courtyard of Hohenasperg Prison prior to their deportation to camps in Poland. May 22, 1940.

sinti

A women accused of racial defilement for having a romantic affair with a Polish man, Altenburg, Thuringia, Germany. 7 February 1942. Again with a cardboard sign stating “I have been excluded from the national community”

mockery

The indifference was partially caused by self interest. Hitler made promises in relation to the prosperity and he created the perception that he kept his promises. Although the economic recovery had already started before he came to power, the dire situation in Germany prior to that was still fresh in the  memories of many citizens.

People at a crowded dormitory of a lodging house for the homeless in Berlin in 1920.

homeless

German World War I veteran and amputee begs for money on the street.1923.

wwi

For many who had suffered Hitler had become a champion for their cause and they were willing to look away from the things the Nazis did, because they had a roof of their heads and food on the table and they were indifferent to the price that was paid for that new found prosperity.

AH

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When 13,745,680 People Voted for the Nazis

31 july

It is easy to forget that the Nazis didn’t take power, they were democratically elected, although they did not shy away from using violence to secure the votes.

However, despite the bullying tactics by the SA, people still had a choice to vote for the NSDAP or any other party.

SA

The General election of July 31st 1932 resulted in the NSDAP becoming the largest party for the first time in its history in Germany. The total tally was 13,745,680 or 37.27% of the total vote, which was an increase of 19.02% compared to the previous election.

election

The election campaign did take place under  violent circumstances. The SA had been banned by Heinrich Brüning who had been Chancellor from March 1930 to May 30th 1932. President von Hindenburg had dismissed Brüning and replaced him with Franz von Papen of the German Centre Party.

Von Papen lifted the ban on the SA  (Paramilitary arm of the NSDAP), although it only had been a token ban to start with. The SA clashed with the communist paramilitary.

brown

Although the Nazis did become the largest party, they did not achieve the overall majority they had hoped for, and could not yet form a government.

In November 1932 new elections were held and although the NSDAP became the biggest party yet again, they still did not have an overall majority.

On 3 December 1932 von Papen was replaced by his Defence Minister Kurt von Schleicher who  had been in talks with the left wing of the Nazi Party led by Gregor Strasser  and tried to build up a Third Position strategy. However, these plans were unsuccessful after Hitler had taken the power away from  Strasser and approached von Papen for coalition talks.

Von Papen got Hindenburg’s approval to form the Hitler Cabinet on 30 January 1933. He reserved the office of the Vice-Chancellor for himself.

On March 5. 1933 yet another election was held this time the Nazi received 43.91% of the votes, but yet again short of an overall majority. To avoid forming yet another coalition Hitler drew up plans for the “enabling act” an amendment to the Weimar Constitution which gave the German Cabinet — in effect, Chancellor Adolf Hitler — the power to enact laws without the involvement of the parliament.

The law was passed on 23 March 1933.

act

The disturbing thing about this is that this was able to be put into motion without breaking any laws. They followed a democratic process.

electiom campaign

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