Background: The Nazi Party depended heavily on speakers to get its message across. Those speakers needed to be informed. The following is a translation of instructions to speakers issued in late June 1943. The war was in a critical state. The Germans had recovered in part from the defeat at Stalingrad and there were great hopes for the summer offensives. On the other hand, Stalingrad had been a sign to any reasonable German that the war could be lost. These guidelines intended to help speakers conduct evening meetings for party members, who were in turn expected to influence their friends, neighbors, and work mates.
The source: Redner-Schnellinformation, Lieferung 63, 28 June 1943.
Evening Discussion Meeting for Party Members
A. The general situation
The end of the battle in Africa
What is happening on the Eastern Front?
The Bolshevist threat
B. Questions regarding German labor during the war
Labor problems in the United States
German labor capacity
C. Food supplies and war-related restrictions.
Material on this will appear in the future.
D. General questions regarding daily life.
Constant rumors
E. Miscellaneous
Wearing the party badge in public
The German greeting
Two factors are decisive at present.
a) Since the war began it has almost become a rule that our people is in a particularly depressed mood early each year. During the early part of 1939/40, it could be seen that wide circles of the people. After the elevated mood that followed the Polish campaign with its rapid and decisive victories, there was anxiety as things developed further. Over the winter the general question was how the battle would develop, since at that time there were two significant bulwarks facing each other, the West Wall on our side and the Maginot Line on the other. It was generally assumed that both were unassailable. This sometimes nerve-wracking question led to a general stagnation of hope and confidence.
When the Führer's surprise attack to the North that ruined Britain's dangerous plan to block Germany from Scandinavia became known, general tension vanished. Immediately thereafter the second enemy plan was defeated, an attack through Holland and Belgium into the center of German armaments production, followed by overcoming the Maginot Line and France's defeat.
The proud victories in the campaigns in the North and West resulted in an enthusiasm and confidence that made people forget all the nervous doubts of the previous winter and spring.
We experienced another decline in confidence during the winter of 1940/41 that was relieved first by the new German offensive in the Balkans and then in the East, turning things entirely around. The decisive battles of annihilation against the Soviets eliminated with one blow all faintheartedness.
The elemental fury of the winter of 1941/42 led to grave danger for some sections of the front in the East, causing dangerous situations that unleashed a new flood of depressing thoughts and opinions. When in summer 1942 the old German striking force again proved itself, these signs of concern open worry vanished, given the strong awareness of the irresistible victorious force of our Wehrmacht.
The past winter brought with it a crisis of particularly great extent, and that crisis was followed by the now approaching end of the African front. It is entirely understandable that less confident men and women of our people again sink into nervous doubts and serious fears, since they are not able to see the larger situation, and given the present lack of encouraging events lack sufficient strength and force to make a calm evaluation of the situation and find renewed confidence. Doubtless the current mood will be overcome in a few weeks, because there will be new proof of the familiar German superiority that will strengthen the awareness of our irresistible strength and the inevitability of our victory.
Each party comrade, therefore, must present unshakable confidence, a strong faith in the victory of our Wehrmacht and in the superiority of German leadership, to combat all open faintheartedness. The attitude and willingness of the homeland depends on strong faith in victory. That destroys all enemy hopes of a domestic German collapse.
b) The second fact is that since the war is in its fourth year, it naturally puts stronger demands on the nerves and inner calm of our people's comrades than was the case in its first or second year. We can calmly admit that the continuing burdens of sacrifice, shortages, worries, and the many stresses of the day obviously have their effects. There is hardly a German man or woman today, even among the youth of our people, who is not affected by the war to a great degree. That naturally has an impact. One sees it in the nervousness of daily life, in how easily people are upset, and in other ways.
If as a result of such an understandable mood someone has hard words, crude curses, or loud complaints, that is hardly a matter of hostility to the government. The soldier at the front also uses powerful curses to respond to his difficulties. The attitude is always decisive. Just as the soldier who may have just cursed vigorously still stands with iron determination and readiness at his post, so it is true a million-fold here in the homeland. People complain, but they do their duty. That is what is important. What is decisive is not what we call the "general mood� (allgemeine Stimmung), but rather what we call "attitude� (Haltung).
In this regard, it is important to clearly show our people's comrades that our enemy has not survived the last four years untouched. To the contrary. We can assume that the burdens of all those peoples fighting against us are a thousand-times worse. After four years of war we can look back on proud victories by our Wehrmacht, at vast gains of territory in the North, West, South, and East. Today we have the whole economic strength of the European continent at our disposal, whereas in 1939 we were restricted to the interior lines of our constricted fatherland. Today nearly all the European peoples are at our side in battle and labor. Our enemy, on the other hand, has lost everything that we have gained. The results are already strongly felt in England today. The extraordinarily large shipping losses make supplying the British Isles ever more difficult. Added to that is the growing policy of the USA to take over the possessions even of its British ally.
America, which did not need to go to war, was driven into it only under the pressure of the Jews that rule it. It is robbed of its old supplies of raw materials and is increasingly and senselessly sacrificing its sons in all possible corners of the world.
Above all, the Soviet Union faces the fateful question of its very existence. None of the ruling Jewish and Bolshevist bigwigs can deceive himself today about the fact that this war for the forceful Bolshevization of Europe can end only with the destruction of the whole insane Bolshevist idea along with its Jewish originators and proponents.
Given these incontrovertible facts, the current situation is a thousand times worse for the mood and attitude of our opponents than it is for us. It would be, therefore, not merely foolish, but almost a crime to think only of our own difficulties and worries. We must instead realize that Germany's military quality and Adolf Hitler's incomparable leadership are our greatest chance in this fateful battle. We need to coolly and accurately evaluate the enemy's strengths and keep our feelings in check with iron discipline. We must want only one thing and strive only for it, German victory!
2. The end of the battle in Africa
Now we turn to the various conditions on our fronts.
What most moved our people's comrades in recent weeks was the end of the battle in Africa. It is understandable that those who are not able to see the larger situation view the end of the African campaign in blacker terms than are justified.
This is what is most important to emphasize. For us, Africa was at the edge of the European battlefield. That forced us to ship all reinforcements in troops, weapons, and supplies by sea. We have never made a secret of the fact that our strategic sea power is limited. As a result, we were able to meet an important requirement for the African battle only to a limited degree, namely assuring supply routes. Each front depends on supplies for its striking force and mobility.
Things are entirely different on the European continent. Here we have everything necessary because we control ground transportation routes, above all the railways. The factor that worked to our disadvantage against the enemy in Africa is our greatest strength on the continental battlefields.
Nonetheless, the African campaign was necessary. The goal was to tie down as many enemy forces of the Jewish-plutocratic front for as long as possible. That happened to a degree that we could ourselves hardly expect, given the conditions. We held the British back for two years and the British and Americans together for another six months, inflicting severe defeats and heavy losses on them, with our extraordinarily limited military strength. We also strained their shipping capacity and our U-boat warfare and Luftwaffe inflicted heavy damage, which may even in the future prove decisive in the war.
During the campaign in Africa we also succeeded in building strong defenses in Europe. Even if the enemy succeeds in temporary landings somewhere along the coasts in the North, West, or South, we can assume that the forces the enemy lands will be speedily destroyed given our fortifications.
Our soldiers in Africa were entirely aware of their task. That is why they held firm and attacked. In the future it will never be necessary to speak of a "glorious retreat� here, as the British did after their defeat at Dunkirk. The soldiers of the Afrika Korps fought to their last bullet, although they faced significantly stronger enemy forces for the entire duration of the African campaign. In the last phases the enemy often had a 20:1 advantage. Despite that fact, the enemy reached his goal only after heavy losses in blood and material. It destroyed his whole plan. Only a few months before they had boasted that that they would move directly from Africa to Italy and then into Europe.
That is entirely clear to the British and Americans today. The English military correspondent Cyril Falls, for example, wrote in the London weekly Illustrated London News on 1 May that one should not underestimate the fortifications that the Germans and their allies had built along the European coast.
"Anglo-American troops will get their heads bloodied if they attempt to attack the Axis fortifications. One may not ignore the fact that these are not ordinary fortifications, but rather coastal defense installations that face only the open sea. We will have to cross this field to attempt an invasion. Anyone can imagine what that will mean. Europe will not easily be conquered. And there is not only the new Fortress Europe, but within that fortress are also strong natural and artificial rings of fortifications. Any invasion attempt for us is a major and dangerous undertaking, and one may not forget that the Germans are fighting not only behind their fortress walls, but also with great success on the high seas where U-boats are seriously threatening Anglo-American commercial shipping. In the event of an invasion they will naturally attack the supplies.�
These observations clearly prove that those on the plutocratic side are beginning to see how much the long endurance of our soldiers in Africa and the resulting heavy loses ruined their whole plan.
From the political standpoint, it is thus of critical importance that the conversations and opinions of our German people's comrades in the homeland do not take forms that could lead the enemy to believe that there is a general feeling of defeat in Germany.
Our heroic fighters in Africa deserve that we have as strong and confident an attitude as they proved in battle so that we do not destroy the meaning and purpose of their brave struggle after it has concluded. It must be one of the primary tasks of each party comrade to present events in Africa as a triumph of careful German strategic planning and also as an expression of the unbreakable will of all solders to fight to final victory.
3. What is happening on the Eastern Front?
Whenever it is spring, thousands of German men and women in the homeland think about summer campaigns at the front. Everywhere one hears comments that our soldiers from the East who are home on leave display great confidence and are firmly convinced that the coming battles in the East will be of decisive significance.
Just as in the past, and also as was the case during our political battle before 1933, we are not in a position to say anything about the Führer's plans. That is not because we are sworn to silence, bur rather simply because none of us knows anything. We do know that our future is in the hands of the Führer, the best place for it to be. We are all convinced of that, and must represent this conviction to each people's comrade.
One thing is important for us in this regard: We must clearly and unwaveringly want the destruction of Bolshevism. Enemy propaganda has been trying for a while to spread the idea in the world, and also by us, that there might be a compromise between National Socialist Germany and the Bolshevist Soviet Union. It is understandable that the Jews, the real cause of this war, see in such a compromise a favorable opportunity to refresh the defeated Bolshevist forces in the coming decades and then fall on Europe once again with irresistible armaments. The goal of International Jewry is to take over the world through the means of a Bolshevist revolution, then to exploit, to terrorize, and make it serve their greedy lust for profit. That is unchangeable and will continue until the Jewish Question is solved by the extinction of the Jews throughout the world.
We have the obligation in discussing such questions to represent clearly and unmistakably the will to win victory in the East so that in the future any Bolshevist danger is impossible. Only the extermination of Bolshevism as a governmental system and as a life idea can guarantee our German people, the European nations, and also the entire world a future with freedom, security, and social and cultural order. The stronger we represent this position, the greater will be our strength of will and our ability to reach this goal. It is also true that the Führer creates the strength necessary to achieve his great goals that serve us all from the will of the homeland. There are always only a few people in a people whose glowing inner strength determine the opinions and attitudes of all. We party members have an obligation to the Führer and to our German people to be the strength of the nation. The effects of our actions, our thinking, and our expressions of will is much greater than we realize. He who in these critical times of the great German battle with fate loves his people with all his heart and is from early to late filled with the desire to benefit it must make himself strong enough to overcome all of his own personal concerns. We must meet the demands of our day with brave and courageous hearts. Thousands will follow our attitude and our statements of will and reflect the same image of strong confidence and unbroken strength. This picture is a weapon against the enemy. The more he gains the conviction that the German people is following unwaveringly its path of battle until final victory, the sooner he will see the impossibility of defeating us.
Such high morale based on strong will and courageous strength will give all the ability to achieve that which we must to give the front what it needs for its battle. It will also give us the brave hearts that will enable us to accept whatever fate the war sends our way.
We see that in the attitude of our soldiers at the front. All of our husbands and sons coming from the East truly have a winter of heavy testing behind them. Their confidence in victory seems almost miraculous to us. Although none of us is able to say when victory in the East will come, we take from their faithful courage strength for new and strong faith. We all know that the strength of our front has not weakened. Wherever the Führer sends them into new battles, they will gain victory just as in past years, fighting unwaveringly until it is ours. The enemy in the East understands that strength. The ambitious goals of its past winter were not achieved. The German front stands. It has been made strong through the comprehensive actions of the army's leadership and fully armed for its new tasks. The Führer will decide. In saying that we have said everything that can be said. The next months will reveal what is to happen, and at its end without doubt is German victory.
If we hear chatter about possible coming events in the East, we respond very quickly to those geniuses in the way we learned earlier during the period of struggle and after the takeover of power. They are those contemporaries who approach everything from a "real political� standpoint. They attempt to reduce our confidence by asking what we think will happen in the coming campaigns. They talk about the "breadth of the land,� of the "inexhaustible resources of the Soviet Union in men and weapons,� of new Siberian armaments centers and new Bolshevist agricultural regions, presenting such thinking as proof of their claim that German victory is impossible. Of course, not one of them can provide any positive proof of his assertions. It is as nonsensical to claim that the Soviets have inexhaustible reserves of men and material as it is to claim the opposite, that the Soviets are at the end of their resources.
There is no proof of either statement, and there is no way of getting that proof.
To such discouraging contemporaries, we reply that in the past we have always had such "real� proofs raised against our plans ad absurdum, but despite all such statements we have realized our plans.
During the period of struggle the "real politicians� told us that a battle against Jewry was impossible, since the Jews had proved themselves the "incarnation of intelligence� by brutally dominating all aspects of the lives of peoples.
We replied to such stupid talk with action, and the result was that the Jew was unmasked as cowardly, malicious, and dangerous creature lacking all real spirit. Other "realists� claimed that Germany's national renewal and the reestablishment of a strong military were impossible, because the fathers of the Treaty of Versailles would never permit it, but rather would forcibly strangle it. These critics, too, were wrong.
After the takeover of power, we were told that it would never be possible to eliminate unemployment, since that would first require overcoming the "world economic crisis.� We did not worry about the presumed economic crisis, but rather with determined will and firm action attacked and mastered the problem.
And we were told that it would be impossible to build the Autobahn. All sorts of "realities� were raised. Our Autobahn were built anyway and before the war began served Germany's economy in ways previously not thought possible.
Others raised objections to building new industries to produce synthetic materials. We were told that they were "economically infeasible� and that they were dangerous and impossible. Today even the last German people's comrade knows that we would never be able to carry on the battle of fate for our very existence that was forced upon us if the Führer's decisiveness had not provided us with synthetic materials, above all gasoline and rubber, so that we today are not dependent on the market and price dictatorship of Jews and plutocrats.
These are all reasons why the doubts of the "real politicians� do not worry us in the least. The Führer has always proven that the word "impossible� is not in his dictionary. The strengths that are at his disposal to reach his goals for our people and the front are born not from realism, but rather idealism. As the Führer once said: "Idealism is the strongest reality.�
Given this assurance, we look with confidence to coming events in the East. We do not want to be ashamed of our faith and confidence in front of the front soldiers. In the end, only Adolf Hitler will be the victor!
4.The Bolshevist threat
Because of the party's educational work, the entire German people today is filled with the certainty that fate will grant us a life of freedom and social order only if we win this battle. There is no possibility of compromise. Were we to lose the battle, Bolshevism would break into our land and bring the most terrible fate that one can imagine.
This knowledge must be reinforced constantly by our party comrades, for this lasting threat is an essential prerequisite for the constant readiness for sacrifice, achievement, and battle.
As in the past, the Jewish world conspiracy has attempted to conceal this from threatened nations by clever attempts at concealment. The apparent dissolution of the Comintern is such an attempt at concealment by the Jews and Bolshevists. It is a great mistake to think that Bolshevism has given up on its goal. This goal is world revolution and the dictatorship of the Jews over all the countries in Europe and the rest of the world. This coal is clearly expressed in the constitution of the Soviet Union:
"The federation of the socialist Soviet republics is a decisive step toward the union of the proletariat of all countries in a socialist world soviet republic.�
This agrees entirely with Lenin's battle cry. In his book The Next Task of the Soviets, he wrote:
"Bolshevist victory through the complete destruction of the former leading states will face just as few obstacles as it did in Russia. The rule of the Soviets knows no freedom or justice. It rests on the suppression and destruction of each individual will. Our duty is to be ruthless to the extreme. In fulfilling this duty unlimited cruelty is of the greatest service. Total tyranny will eliminate humanity's last freedoms, which alone will make it possible for people to be easily controlled tools of our power.� [Not surprisingly, this quotation is a fabrication.]
Even in May 1940 Stalin gave expression to this demand for total rule by saying:
"In contrast to other armies, our Bolshevist army is a weapon for building the dictatorship of the proletarian in the entire world.�
If the Soviet government today announces the dissolution of the Comintern, it is the result of the advice of the Jewish lackey Roosevelt and is merely an attempt to conceal the eternal Bolshevist goal from the world in order better to achieve it. Besides, the announcement of dissolution is nothing but an empty gesture, for declarations from the leaders of communist parties in nearly every country prove that these parties have received clear orders from Moscow to further develop their revolutionary struggle. Numerous statements from leading politicians in every country, even enemy nations, show that the hypocritical deceptive maneuver has been recognized as such. For example, a Swedish newspaper wrote:
"Only simple-minded people will fall prey to the decision to dissolve the Comintern and believe that the danger of Bolshevist world revolution is over. Moscow has in no way given up on its plans for world revolution. At the moment, the Bolshevist army is a better instrument for this than the Comintern.�
Another Swedish newspaper has this commentary:
"Moscow is not leaving communist cells and parties in other countries to their fate. The plan is for them to take on the role of a 'fifth column' at the appropriate time.�
A third Swedish newspaper headlines its article:
"The Comintern is dead —,
Long live communism�,
and goes on to say:
"The international aim of communism, a world revolution, can be stopped only by a military defeat of the Soviet Union. Communist doctrine is the most dangerous form of Russian imperialism. It will not die until the Soviets are destroyed.�
A Swiss newspaper also wrote about the Soviet attempt at concealment and wrote:
"The dissolution of the Comintern means nothing. It does not have to be final, since the communist parties obedient to Moscow in countries still exist and have an impact, and can at any time be brought together again in the larger community of the Comintern.�
Other neutral newspapers are clear that the decision to dissolve the Comintern is merely a Soviet response to current strategic and political necessities and has, therefore, no credibility. This point was supported in a surprising way by the main organ of the Swedish communist party, the Ny Dag. It wrote:
"The reason for the dissolution is the current new and complicated international situation and the changing nature of the relations between the Soviet Union and allied countries. Internationalism, however, is not dead as a result of the dissolution of the Communist International, but rather lives on in the individual communist parties. The work will continue, even if the Communist International has ceased to exist as a leading and organized center. Each party will now independently do what the time and requirements of individual countries demands.�
In South America, we find commentaries from Argentine newspapers to the same point. The newspaper Momento Argentino, for example, writes:
"The decision is based on current pressing interests of the Soviet Union, but the interests of the party that Stalin represents stand against this decision.. Therefore, it will not be long before the new course is reversed if the war takes the course that Stalin hopes. He can risk the current decision because he is certain that his supporters in all countries will continue to follow their ideological guidelines without wavering. The dissolution is intended to relieve the worries of other peoples. The working masses that he has whipped up throughout the world prove anew the optimism of the Bolshevist regime.�
Even in North America leading circles realize that this is a perfidious twisting of the facts. USA Senator Robert Reynolds said the following:
"I do not see the dissolution of the Third International as having any significance at all. The goals of the communists, whether in the Soviet Union or the United States are always the same, and nothing has been said to suggest that they have changed. Communists in the USA and the Soviet Union feel like brothers, regardless of what they say and do to present themselves as citizens of their own nation.�
To add to this statement, the American Communist Party officially separated from Moscow in 1940, otherwise it would have had to register with the State Department as an organization controlled from abroad. America's communists three years ago, then, did what Stalin has now ordered for all of world communism. They concealed themselves as a national party so that they could continue to serve the International's goal under Stalin's orders.
One can also stress that the Bolshevist swindle is revealed by the fact that Stalin merely dissolved the Moscow headquarters of the Comintern, but not the parties in the individual countries. Furthermore, he did not dissolve the various federations and organizations directed from and led by Moscow, which in the past immediately took on the tasks of the communist parties in countries that were threatened by political measures. The MOPR, which we knew in Germany as "Red Aid,� continues to exist. Under the cover of "Red Aid� the Bolshevists tried to maintain communist cells in the Reich. The "Red Aid� took over the membership dues account after the Communist Party was banned. When the Communist Party was unable to carry out communism's terror efforts because of domestic reasons, the "Red Aid� took over. This was true not only in Germany, but in all countries that tried in the past to resist Moscow's subversive activity.
Not only the "Red Aid,� but also other organizations serve Moscow's goal of world revolution. The "Society of Friends of the Soviet Union,� whose members come primarily from intellectual circles, artists, academics, writers, etc., is a center of Jewish Bolshevist promotion in nearly every country. Then there are the "Red Workers' Unions,� which the Soviets use to keep their followers in line and see to it that in the case of a danger for the communist parties, the voters and storm guards of the proletarian revolution do not disappear.
The fates of Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania have clearly showed how Stalin extends his power. The communist parties in these countries are subordinate to him and follow him blindly, providing when ordered a declaration that it is "the unanimous will of the people that the country be incorporated as a new republic into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Stalin thus achieves his goal. That is how Eastern Finland and the other Baltic states were taken over, and he expects the same loyal service from the serfs and vassals in all the other communist parties in individual countries.
Given this continuing danger, the consequences of which we can not even imagine, there is only one response: the total destruction of Judah and its Bolshevist system. Therefore, nothing can and may make us weak. Our whole thought, our will, and each action must be guided by the principle: We are winning!!
Given the increasing discussions about ensuring German victory in this battle with fate, there are broad questions about our economic abilities in view of the war's length. Observers almost always say that American economic help to our enemies is becoming more and more evident in recent months.
Many of these thoughts are based on the false assumption that Germany's economic strength is opposed to America's continental resources. In fact, not only Germany's economy supports our victory, but also the entire economic strength of Europe that has been gained by German military initiative is available for the battle.
The economic resources of two continents are standing against each other. Millions of Europeans are working for victory in the Reich in armaments factories and agriculture, and the economic potential of all the other European countries is in large part serving our war effort.
In considering this area today, we must above all remember the great successes of German military operations in the past four years, the systematic planning of which removed any enemy influence in Europe's economy. The original war plan of the Jewish-plutocratic-Bolshevist world aimed at mobilizing all the national economies surrounding Germany and Italy, thereby creating the conditions for a total blockade of our military and agricultural life. The Führer was able to break these chains through diplomatic and military means and secure all available European resources for us. What we won the enemy lost. This situation works doubly to our benefit.
Someone may say that the areas in Europe that we have conquered or influence have millions of people who have nothing in common with us, bur rather whose whole thinking and aspirations oppose what is new. We can reply that, despite their internal attitude toward us, they have no choice in life but to work for our goals. That is what is important. Furthermore, millions of people in all the European countries are coming more and more to realize the necessity of a positive attitude toward us with regards to the war and labor, so enemy influence in Europe is gradually losing significance.
For us what is important is that the attitude, labor, and outlook of the German people as well as those foreigners working here displays a unanimous will to fight until victory.
It is of decisive important that German men and women form a sworn community of labor and achievement in every factory, displaying high-spiritedness and an unshakable confidence and faith in the Führer and his brave Wehrmacht. Such an attitude will give foreigners a compelling impression of our unshakable German strength. The unanimity and camaraderie of German workers along with their obvious common will and striving to work for the front and for the war's requirements in the homeland is the strongest way to lead foreigners in the Reich.
Any close relationship provides a thousand ways and means for them to act on their hostility against us and to disrupt or even damage the calm and steady process of German war production. For this reason alone, the highest law for all German men and women is to keep their distance from foreigners. What has to be said about work should be said briefly, clearly, and directly. What they need to keep productive, which is in our interest, be it clothing, food, or other needs of life, should be provided to the extent possible for us given war conditions. Beyond that, there may be no 'personal assistance' from German men and women. Pity, good nature, and above all praising foreigners to the heavens, which we see all too often, is the worst way to lead foreigners who are working for our war effort.
In this regard, review Sonderlieferung Nr. 22/43 of 15 May [another publication for party speakers that usually provided reprints of essays by Goebbels or other leading Nazis]. The directives it contains regarding behavior toward foreign workers in the Reich are to be thoroughly discussed in the party's evening discussion meetings. It is particularly important that each party member argues for these guidelines and principles to ensure that the many errors and regrettable events involving incorrect relations with foreigners are everywhere discouraged. It is critical that existing problems be eliminated and that better views and education about national and ethnic dignity are promoted.
Additionally, make clear to all the fainthearted contemporaries who thoughtlessly admire the highly praised American economy, promoted by Jewish advertising, that Europe's economic strength is entirely equal to any enemy economic efforts, particularly because it is led by the superior abilities of German scientists, researchers, chemists, engineers, toolmakers, and workers.
2. Labor problems in the United States
Until 1939 the United States had no real armaments program. There was no armaments industry as we have in Europe. There were no armaments firms like Krupp, Skoda, Schneider-Creusot, etc. The needs of the small military were covered from a few governmental arsenals with relatively limited production facilities. Private industry was not involved in armaments production. A major weakness was the lack of experience with modern and very complicated armaments manufacture. The industries critical to armament production were declining when Roosevelt began to rearm. Its number of employees sunk by 11.8% between 1937 and 1939, in contrast to an 8% decline in USA industry as a whole.
From a statistical and numerical point of view, the United States did have largest labor reserves at the beginning of the war. In 1918 there were 68 male and 21 female armaments workers per thousand people in the population. The figures for December 1941 were 37 and 4. And these numbers are not entirely comparable. The requirements for trained and specialized technical workers has increased greatly in the modern armaments industry. The need for trained workers and worker training has increased. An industrial reserve army of several million workers must be evaluated differently today than in 1917, depending heavily on their degree of training. The armaments industry faces extraordinarily great challenges when faced with an army of uneducated, untrained, and unemployed workers. Yet those comprise most of the USA's labor reserve.
Unemployment in the United States reached its highest level in 1933 at around 13 million. By 1937 that had declined to between 7 and 8 million. Increasing armaments production reduced the number of unemployed to around 1.5 million up to 1942. According to American estimates, the 1.5 million people unemployed because their civilian jobs had been lost were very quickly absorbed. One can assume that although there were 1.5 million still unemployed at the end of 1942, most will not provide a lot of usable labor.
The huge needs of the war industry can be met only be retraining millions in the civilian sector and by increased use of women workers.
We have obviously already made this transition and had to overcome many obstacles. We began the process earlier than the Americans and with human material that was mostly used to work.
The real difficulty the USA faces is on the qualitative side, above all using skilled workers and training new ones. In the decades before the First World War an in the first years thereafter, the United States met its need for trained skilled workers in industry by immigration from the inexhaustible reservoir of Europe. Because of this easy and cheap possibility, they did not need to develop their own training programs and apprenticeships, using general education, craft and professional training, etc. The decline in immigration after the First World War led to a natural decline in the stream of these skilled workers, who were not replaced by other means. Most of the workers from America itself lack real training. Things are entirely different in Germany, where most workers are well trained and educated skilled workers. A simple numerical comparison between the German and the Anglo-American labor force is, therefore, always wrong.
Especially in those branches of industry that are particularly important today for armaments production, the situation with regards to skilled workers was behind that of Germany, even in peacetime. It is hard today to make up for that, both in terms of people and institutions. This disadvantage cannot be made up for by the assembly line and similar labor saving methods, which we also use. The amount of production today is not decisive. Today the military leadership necessary changes in the production of weapons and equipment as rapidly as possible. In practice, that depends entirely on the number of available skilled and precision workers.
These categories are bottlenecks in the USA. Dr. Hotschkiss, President of "Rersselaer [sic] Polytechnical Institute,� estimated the number of engineers in the USA at 300,000,with an annual growth of 14,000 at most. The "Man Power Administration� estimates that reserves of valuable labor will be exhausted in 1943, although as is known production is supposed to reach its peak only in 1944. To meet production targets for 1943, American industry will need, according to official American estimates, at least 7 million skilled workers, a number that is in no way available.
Indicative of the lack of skilled workers, American publications a few months ago reported the difference between the available and needed workers in a variety of fields:
Tool designers
Ship machinists
Ship carpenters
Aircraft riveters
But all workers are not the same, particularly when it comes to skilled workers. The differences between Germany and the USA in their skilled work forces are not only in training and ancient ethnic craft traditions. Far more important is individual will, achievement, and self-discipline. That is where we find the true superiority of the German worker. That cannot be equalled very quickly, especially not with large numbers. It rests on a tradition of labor that does not exist over there.
3. German labor capacity
In contrast to the First World War, there is hardly an area that has changed more in Germany's favor that its labor potential.
The German lead in the labor force rests on three factors:
The organization of German labor.
The fact that all of Europe is a reservoir for Germany's labor needs.
The quality of its workers.
1). The organization of German labor
Thousands of labor offices with their branches and offices make a wide-spread apparatus that is at the disposal of the Generalbevolllmächtigen fur den Arbeitseinsatz [Fritz Sauckel].
Long before the war the workbook was instituted, along with a filing system that allows an exact review of the available workers and their knowledge and abilities.
German officials thus know exactly how many lathe operators or mechanics are available in Stuttgart or Berlin, and how many of them can be sent, for example, to Essen or Cologne. This ability to shift large labor forces allows for establishing very quickly key facilities. It means that large industrial facilities can be built in an unimaginably short time. New production can start rapidly, since some production programs can be strengthened, others reduced, immediately responding to the demands of war production.
The ability to use labor efficiently significantly increases the value of workers.
2). All Europe is a reservoir for Germany's labor needs
Statistics from spring 1943, the fourth year of the war, show that more workers engaged in German agriculture than before the war. This shows the wealth of people available to Germany after three years of war, since it is able to meet the needs of areas of German production critical for the war effort.
During the First World War, in contrast, Germany lacked enough human labor, as was most evident in the armaments industry and agriculture.
By incorporating foreign workers, POWs, as well as men and women from Germany itself, our labor potential today is much greater than during the First World War. And there are the many millions of hands in the Protektorat, the Generalgouvernement, and in the occupied territories in the West and East that are working for Germany.
The foreign workers come from countries that Germany occupies. They also come through treaties with Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Denmark. The occupied Eastern territories are a particularly large reservoir.
There were some POWs during the First World War who increased Germany's labor supply, but that is much more true in this war. Respecting the military virtues of its former enemies, by the way, Germany has released a large number of POWs. This generous action has benefitted the economy in the occupied regions. The rapid recovery of industry in the occupied West can be traced back to this.
Major German contracts have been given out in these areas. That is also true for the Protektorat, the Generalgouvernement, and the occupied Eastern territories. These areas are organized according to the military situation and German needs. As in the Reich, nonessential production has been cut back so that a very large number of workers are under German influence and the occupied territories are working for the German war effort.
In Germany alone, 6 to 7 million foreign workers and POWS are active.
The decisive labor reservoir, however, is Germany itself. Through the registration of men and woman and by shutting down factories, over 3.5 million were made available. 2.8 million of them have already been processed.
These factors are a proud achievement for Germany.
Not counting the millions in the occupied Western territories, in the Protektorat, the Generalgouvernement, and the occupied Eastern territories that are working for Germany's war economy, and also not counting the millions of POWs, the number of workers in Germany has not only held steady during the war, but rather has significantly increased. There were 24.6 million worker and employees on 1 June 1939. Despite the many called to military service, the number of German workers within the Reich was 28.1 million as of 1 June 1943, this in the war's fourth year.
The significance of these statistics is shown by a comparison with the World War:
1 June 1914: 17.0 million
1 March 1918: 13.6 million
That is a proud balance: In 1943 more than twice as many people are working for victory within Germany's borders alone than in 1918!
3). Worker quality and the government's social policies
Transferring workers from the civilian sector, which is increasingly limited by the war's events, to the pressing demands of war production cannot be achieved by mechanically moving workers from one place to another. The prerequisite for making new workers effective is fast and effective retraining. Such retraining is more effective in Germany than in other countries because craftsmanship through many generations has become part of our flesh and blood. It cannot be disputed that the German learns his job more easily and quickly than, for example, a former cattle herder from Texas.
The state continues to care for workers in their new positions. The rest of the world is astonished that Germany has maintained its leading role in social matters despite all the strains of war. The same Germany whose social progress led European Reaction to unleash war is doing everything it can to maintain its social character even under the pressures of the war.
German social legislation has been completely maintained. A paid vacation remains part of all pay agreements. Significant improvements have even been made during the war in social insurance by increasing pensions. There have been improvements and bonuses for miners. Given increased work by women, social benefits have been expanded. Pregnant women and young mother are protected and adjustments made to working conditions that take account of women's physical constitutions. One can also mention factory food (warm lunches) as well as exemplarily health care under the DAF.
C. Food supplies and war-related restrictions
Later issues will consider this theme.
D. General questions regarding daily life
This topic has often been written about, but we always encounter rumors, be they from hostility, cowardice, or a false understanding of the situation. They are often extraordinarily dangerous.
For example, a rumor recently surfaced in various Gaue recently that savings accounts were to be confiscated. This rumor, like most other statements circulating, clearly is the result of enemy radio. It is not only nonsensical even to imagine such a measure, but even more any reasonable people's comrade who thinks about it will realize that the National Socialist state places the greatest value on promoting and developing saving, which is necessary to finance the war. There can be no talk of this kind of thing. Savings will be protected in every imaginable way.
Since enemy radio is always a source of rumors, each party comrade must be prepared to condemn in the sharpest possible way the crime against the fighting strength of our people that results from secretly listening to enemy news.
Any examination of the obvious goals of enemy news reporting quickly leads to the conclusion that the English do not serve the truth with their radio broadcasts. The English newspaper Daily Mail recently carried an article titled "Undermine Morale!� that discussed the ways in which London Radio supports the battle. Among other things the article said:
"German women are the target of our German-language news. The B.B.C. (London's radio station) is making what is perhaps a decisive contribution to the battle against the Axis. The new stronger transmissions are directed day after day at German women. They carry commentaries and reports that are intended to destroy women's faith in the victory of their men. If we succeed in weakening the domestic German front, effects on the fighting front will not be lacking.�
That says all that has to be said. Any commentary is superfluous.
The enemy uses many methods to achieve his goal in this area. Not only bombs that destroy the homes of our people's comrades, but also leaflets and above all radio reports serve this attempt to weaken morale. The enemy thinks that a German woman who has suffered deep personal sorrow will succumb to the whispers of psychologically subversive propaganda more easily than one without cares who can smile at life.
Therefore, radio news threatens bombing and raises feelings of terror that are intended to undermine the strength to work and the calm psychological balance of our German people's comrades. Stupid talk about threatened future bombing of German cities and certain housing areas come from such enemy actions.
The Soviets, too, are attempting to use similar means to shake the psychological powers of resistance of our people. For example, for months the story has circulated within the Reich that there are ways to receive news about the fate of German soldiers who are prisoners in the East. One time it is through Turkey, another time a Swedish office of the Red Cross is mentioned, and someone else thinks it is possible through the Vatican. In fact, thorough investigations have proved beyond doubt that there is no connection to the Soviet Union through which the fate of German soldiers missing in the East can be learned. The Soviets reject any contact that could lead to a clarification of the fate of our front soldiers who are in captivity. It is understandable that relatives and friends of the missing grasp at any hope of learning something about the fate of those who are missing. That makes it even more dangerous to listen to such rumors, which are spread by enemy propaganda to establish contact with parts of the German people, then to use the connection to undermine our spiritual and moral strength.
Our party comrades, therefore, should be sure that such vain hopes are not held on to, and that the enemy has no possibility of influencing our people's comrades.
The most dangerous form of enemy agitation comes from the stupidity and gullibility of a few contemporaries who spread fantasies that this war has to end, and reject hard work and sacrifice. For example, there is this rumor, which sometimes also appears in printed form: "it would be better not to win, since things afterwards would be worse than before,� or "the worst the Soviets can do is make us work, which is true of any government,� or "should Bolshevism spread into Western Europe, it could not in the long run stand against the more highly developed culture and civilization of our continent.� In such cases, our party comrades should respond to these irresponsible babblers by telling them that they are acting either from complete lack of judgment or criminal intent to rob the whole German people of all hope and certainty of a German future with freedom, German dignity, and German justice. We were deceived in 1918 when we were told that we only needed to lay down our arms in order to get enough to eat. We were lied to when we were told that the red flags had been raised on ships and in the trenches and that the great age of brotherhood had arrived. In fact, all these stories had the goal of throwing Germany to the ground and enslaving it. The result was the starvation of hundreds of thousands of women, children, and old people, the poverty of millions, and Judah's rule over our people. We may never forget that.
We must today absolutely affirm our will and duty and put our whole life, our daily efforts, and our personal existence in the service of our people's great battle with fate. Anyone who unconscionably spreads rumors does not promote peace, but rather lengthens the war. The result would be vast suffering, the deaths of millions. We must, therefore, all energetically combat rumormongers. If spreading nonsensical and dangerous rumors is the result of stupidity and foolish chatter, party comrades should deal with such elements through education and correction.
If, however, such treasonous activities are the result of obvious hostility to the state and depravity, each party member should use everything in his power to put an end to the work of such rats.
Let us, therefore, use the term "war lengtheners� (Kriegsverlängerer) for all rumormongers.
1. Wearing the party badge in public
The party guarantees the national strength and social will of our era. The unchanging loyalty of each party comrade to the idea and to the life consequences of our National Socialist affirmation guarantees the unity of all Germans that will lead us to victory.
Each party comrade must live up to that. In all matters of daily struggles, daily sorrows, and daily duties we must be an example to people's comrades, helping and advising them, leading through our example. The Führer has often said that the alternating flow of power from the homeland to the front and from the front to the homeland is of decisive important for military success and for our people's inner attitude. The party membership is responsible to the Führer, the people, and our future for maintaining German will and achievement in this difficult age.
That must make each party comrade proud. We have a task that is particularly important, given the memory of the terrible fate that our collapse brought in 1918. We can see with satisfaction that we have so far fulfilled this task.
Our homeland sees the face of National Socialist leadership not only in strong words and obvious behavior. The small ways in which our party comrades show their loyalty is an essential factor in maintaining the National Socialist spirit of the homeland. The close cooperation of party comrades in the party's local groups, cells, and blocks, clear camaraderie between us, a free and open affirmation of the great sworn community of the Führer, these are essential prerequisites for maintaining the totality of will in the sense of the National Socialist ideal.
For this reason, it is an obvious duty of each party comrade to wear the party badge, outwardly affirming the community of a sworn band of fighters. If the men and women of the party are known through their attitude to be uncompromising defenders of the will and ideas of Adolf Hitler, their clear affirmation to the movement will prevent all destructively-minded elements from having damaging, subversive, or cowardly effects that would destroy the homeland's spiritual strength and will.
One occasionally hears party members say that they do not visibly wear the party badge, since that enables them to learn the true opinions and attitudes of the people. We must oppose such thinking. Party members who want to act as "policemen� have no authorization to do so. There is no known case in which such tricks uncovered the work of subversive elements. Instead, such "covert� party comrades have often joined in companying and spreading rumors. Whoever excuses his behavior by claiming a better opportunity "observe the public� must also be willing to fall under suspicion of lacking loyalty himself. A soldier, and thus a German, should instead openly affirm the Führer and his movement, representing with courage and consistency the party's standpoint in all the questions of the day. If we all adopt such behavior, we will soon see that cowardly souls who spread stupid rumors and subversive thinking that undermines morale will not dare to say anything. That is also a prerequisite to make it impossible for secret enemy observations to raise doubts about our people's determination and confidence in victory.
Therefore, we order that each party member immediately and at all times honestly and openly wears the party badge as a sign of his commitment to the Führer and the National Socialist battle.
2. The German greeting [the "Heil Hitler� salute]
Another sign of commitment to the Führer and his battle for our future is the use of the German greeting. In wide areas of the Reich, particularly in agricultural regions, it has long been the standing practice to use only the German greeting. There are, however, also some areas in which this open affirmation is noticeably rare. One often hears the excuse that it is an "ancient tradition,� and that the former greeting is so popular that it is difficult to introduce a new form of greeting, and that this has no political and emotional significance. There is no question that former greetings are still used today from tradition, but rather the question is whether our German greeting expresses conviction and a deep readiness to affirm the Führer.
Most of our soldiers on the fronts, a uniform is not their traditional dress. However, they wear the gray jacket with pride and cheerfully affirm the great fighting community of our soldiers.
He who affirms the Führer and his will and way should openly and freely give expression to that through his greeting. This also will give a clear affirmation to our enemies of our total loyalty to the Führer, to his teachings, and to his political path. During the former System Era we suffered great poverty, social misery, political defeat, economic destruction, and national dishonor. Our traditional customs did not provide the means and the strength to free ourselves and rise again. We have only the Führer, his battle, and his fanatic faith in the eternal values of our German people to thank for the salvation of our Reich and our people, for the liberation of each individual German people's comrade from the oppressive burden of our former miserable conditions. This fact must be enough for each German man and each German woman to honor his savior with his greeting and in his Heil express the love, loyalty, and willingness to follow that we all inwardly feel toward him.
Here, too, our party comrades must be a constant model for all other German men and women. Such an image of the unanimous attitude of all Germans will show the whole world that the German people and its Führer have an unbreakable will to victory, and out of a fanatic faith in Germany's future will gather all their strength for battle, sacrifice, and labor. That will make clear to the entire world what Reichsleiter and Reich Minister Alfred Rosenberg said in his speech in Munich on 2 April. He characterized the will of our people in this compelling way:
"We know that we stand at the decisive hour of German history, but we also know what we have never before carried forward the flags of the Reich so intentionally and with such a strong hand. Finally, we know that the victory of the Reich is based on the inner convictions of the hearts of 80 million people, and that no power in the world can hinder Germany's rebirth or the salvation it will bring to Europe.�