Changes

The storm raging against our venerable continent from the steppes this winter overshadows all previous human and historical experience. The German army and its allies are the only possible defense. In his proclamation on 30 January, the [[Führer]] asked in a grave and compelling way what would have become of Germany and Europe if, on 30 January 1933, a [[bourgeois]] or [[democratic]] government had taken power instead of the National Socialists! What dangers would have followed, faster than we could then have suspected, and what powers of defense would we have had to meet them? Ten years of [[National Socialism]] have been enough to make plain to the German people the seriousness of the danger from the East....

The storm raging against our venerable continent from the steppes this winter overshadows all previous human and historical experience. The German army and its allies are the only possible defense. In his proclamation on 30 January, the [[Führer]] asked in a grave and compelling way what would have become of Germany and Europe if, on 30 January 1933, a [[bourgeois]] or [[democratic]] government had taken power instead of the National Socialists! What dangers would have followed, faster than we could then have suspected, and what powers of defense would we have had to meet them? Ten years of [[National Socialism]] have been enough to make plain to the German people the seriousness of the danger from the East....

It is understandable that, as a result of broad concealment and misleading actions by the Bolshevist government, we did not properly evaluate the [[Soviet Union]]’s war potential. Only now do we see its true scale. That is why the battle our soldiers face in the East exceeds in its hardness, dangers and difficulties all human imagining. It demands our full national strength. This is a threat to the Reich and to the European continent that casts all previous dangers into the shadows. If we fail, we will have failed our historic mission. Everything we have built and done in the past pales in the face of this gigantic task that the German army directly and the German people less directly face.

It is understandable that, as a result of broad concealment and misleading actions by the Bolshevist government, we did not properly evaluate the [[Soviet Union]]’s war potential. Only now do we see its true scale. That is why the battle our soldiers face in the East exceeds in its hardness, dangers and difficulties all human imagining. It demands our full national strength. This is a threat to the Reich and to the European continent that casts all previous dangers into the shadows. If we fail, we will have failed our historic mission. Everything we have built and done in the past pales in the face of this gigantic task that the German army directly and the German people less directly face....

 

It bothers us not in the least that our enemies abroad claim that our total war measures resemble those of Bolshevism....The question is not whether the methods are good or bad, but whether they are successful. The National Socialist government is ready to use every means. We do not care if anyone objects....We do not need to imitate Bolshevist methods, because we have better people and leaders, which gives us a great advantage. But things have shown that we must do much more than we have done so far to turn the war in the East decisively in our favor....

I speak first to the world, and proclaim three theses regarding our fight against the Bolshevist danger in the East.

I speak first to the world, and proclaim three theses regarding our fight against the Bolshevist danger in the East.