What Lesson from the past lies in the following Adolf Hitler speech report? 

Would our Australian media run such an item from the Iraq leader?   

Adolf Hitler’s Speech as reported by The Advertiser, Adelaide, 11 December 1940, taken from Australian Associate Press, London, 10 December 1940.

“If we lose this war, then it is the end of the German people,” said Hitler, in a characteristic speech to German armaments workers in Berlin today, in which he, as usual, bitterly attacked Britain and Mr Churchill in particular. A thousand workers assembled to hear him speak.

Dr Goebbels, standing on a steel rostrum, introduced Hitler, who was accompanied by General Keitel, Reich-Marshal Goering, Admiral Raeder, and the Labor Front leader (Dr Ley).

Hitler said:— “We are in the midst of a conflict in which more is at stake than the victory of one country or another. It is a struggle between two worlds. Neither fate nor God distributed the world; men did this. While the Germans were impotent and divided among themselves, Britain built up a vast Empire exclusively by force.”

He then gave the workers a number of stock Socialist phrases. Raising his voice to a shout, he ranted against the lack of lebensraum for Germany, saying, “I am fighting the world as a representative of the have-nots.”

Hoarsely, he continued on the well-known theme of blaming the Jews for the chaos in Germany, bitterly haranguing against England, its democracy, and its press. He reiterated the Nazi programme for unity in Germany. The world did not want a united Germany, he said: it wanted to maintain the Versailles Treaty — that was the primary cause of the present conflict. “Bloodshed is better than slow death for our people,” he said.

“British capitalists are afraid that the ideas now popular in Germany might influence their own people, and they would be obliged to renounce their 100 and 160 per cent. Dividends. The highest rate of dividend in Germany is six per cent., half of which is forfeited in taxes. The people are for business and business is for capital in a capitalist democracy. The people come first in Germany; everything else is a means to that end. We do not need gold. I rely on the ability of the German people. The pound sterling cannot be sold throughout the world now, but the German mark remains stable because the German worker stands behind it.

Nazi Principles in Army

“People said I was crazy eight or nine years ago when I predicted that the problem would not be how to find work for the unemployed, but how to find workers for jobs, but this has become reality. We introduced Nazi principles where it was most difficult, namely, in the army. Thousands of officers were promoted from the ranks. We have generals who were privates and n.c.o.’s in 1918.

“Eaton College and the Adolf Hitler school are two different worlds. One is for the sons of stupid aristocracy, one for the sons of the people. I want to see the white masses so organised that the whole German culture flourishes. (The speech was relayed by radio to South America and East Asia).

“People say I have a feeling of inferiority towards England; they are crazy. I never had an inferiority complex. I did everything possible to avoid war, but Churchill wanted war for a decade, Now he has got it. (Loud applause).

 “Our enemies aim to destroy Nazism and disperse the German nation; they will have a surprise this time. I think the surprise has already begun. No other soldier will ever set foot where the German soldier stands; no power in the world will be able to dislodge us from the occupied territories. We are prepared for any contingency. England can do what she likes; she will get heavier blows every week. She will meet us once again should she attempt to gain a foothold on the continent.

“If the millions of German families are assured of food for the future, it is thanks to you armament workers. Only a couple of armament factories were picked out in our attacks on Paris. The Luftwaffe aimed wonderfully. British bombing has failed to put a single German arms factory out of action, but they have made many families unhappy. Hospitals are their favourite targets.

  Did Not Want Air War

“I did not want aerial warfare and ordered that there should be no night attacks during the campaign in Poland. Even when we decided on a night attack on Paris I ordered bombs to be dropped on certain military targets. These orders were carried out with the utmost rigidity, but Churchill came upon the idea of waging night air war. I waited one, two, three months, then I had to ask myself, when the bombs have to fall, why should my people suffer instead of the enemy’s? I wanted to attack only military objectives to fight soldiers, not women and children.

“I shall fix a time for the final decision, but I am cautious. We do not want prestige successes, but will be guided only by military necessities. Germany cannot be defeated, either militarily, or economically. I shall continue the struggle until the last breath of the German workers and peasants enable me to carry on the fight. The production of guns will cease when the war is finished. We will then begin constructive works of peace for the millions.”