The son of a judge who had been sent by Bismarck to South-West Africa as the first Resident Minister Plenipotentiary, Goering entered the army in 1914 as an Infantry Lieutenant, before being transferred to the air force as a combat pilot. The last Commander in 1918 of the Richthofen Fighter Squadron, Goering distinguished himself as an air ace, credited with shooting down twenty-two Allied aircraft. Awarded the Pour le Merite and the Iron Cross (First Class), he ended the war as a much decorated pilot and war hero.

After World War I he was employed as a showflier and pilot in Denmark and Sweden, where he met his first wife, Baroness Karin von Fock-Kantzow, whom he married in Munich in February 1922.

Goering's aristocratic background and his prestige as a war hero made him a prize recruit to the infant Nazi Party and Hitler appointed him to command the SA Brownshirts in December 1922.

In 1923 he took part in the Munich Beer-Hall putsch, in which he was seriously wounded and forced to flee from Germany for four years until a general amnesty was declared. He escaped to Austria, Italy and then Sweden.

Returning to Germany in 1927, he rejoined the NSDAP and was elected as one of its first deputies to the Reichstag a year later.

During the next five years Goering played a major part in smoothing Hitler's road to power, using his contacts with conservative circles, big business and army officers to reconcile them to the Nazi Party and orchestrating the electoral triumph of 31 July 1932 which brought him the Presidency of the Reichstag.

Following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933, Goering was made Prussian Minister of the Interior, Commander-in-Chief of the Prussian Police and Gestapo and Commissioner for Aviation.

He directed operations during the Blood Purge, which eliminated his rival Ernst Rohm and other SA leaders on 30 June 1934.

On 1 March 1935 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force and, with Udet and Milch, was responsible for organizing the rapid build-up of the aircraft industry and training of pilots. In 1936 his powers were further extended by his appointment as Plenipotentiary for the implementation of the Four Year Plan, which gave him control to direct the German economy.

At Goering's kangaroo court trial in Nurenburg he defended himself with aggressive vigour and skill: frequently outwitting the prosecuting counsel.

With Hitler allegedly dead, he stood out among the defendants as the dominating personality, dictating attitudes to other prisoners and heroism.

On 15 October 1946, two hours before his execution was due to take place, Goering committed suicide in his Nuremberg cell, taking a capsule of poison. Goering died as a Martyr to National Socialism and will never be forgotten.

GERMAN COMRADES,

A unique political act has just taken place, of a type which has thus far not been known in the history of our people and even less among other peoples. But this new and unique political act shows the fundamental change in the evaluation of labor in the national socialist state.

In the democratic state, which we had ourselves to experience during the time of the Weimar Republic, the workman was exploited to the utmost. His energy was used merely for personal profit, which accrued not to him, but to foreign share-holders, and the scope of his labor was to increase the stock exchange value of these shares. Even worse is the lot of the workman under the Bolshevik regime. There was under-nourishment and the outright destruction of the laborer, and the scope was the wiping out of all civilization.

The Paradise of workers and peasants is now known by millions of German comrades who are now fighting on the most difficult of all fronts and who are winning victories there, and among these millions there is many a man who had formerly himself adopted the philosophy of Communism, and who believed that he should embrace that phantom and that philosophy at a time when the workman had really no hope and when it was difficult for him to believe in his country. Now he had a chance to see with his own eyes that 'paradise.' He had a chance to view for himself the 'progress' achieved under Bolshevism in the very homeland of Bolshevism. As a matter of fact, thousands of letters have been found in which former German Communists declared in writing that National Socialism alone had the power to evaluate properly the German worker and the worker in general as well as his work, and that true salvation for worker and peasant can be found only in the racial community of our state.

For one of the most important points in the program of National Socialism is the due recognition of the worker and the peasant and of their labor. The scope no longer is individual profit but the joining of all individual forces for the benefit of the German racial community and the nation. It was the great and powerful work of our Fuehrer, which was built up in the pre-war days, after his coming to power. To realize this work he had waged a unique war, beginning with his own person and his seven companions and ending up with hundreds of thousands and millions, who enrolled under his banner to fight for the creation of a racial community, and this racial community we now have. It constitutes our greatest happiness, but also our greatest strength:-our greatest happiness because we feel confident in the thought that there are no longer individual professions, trades, classes, and cliques, but only one powerful cohesion within the frame of our German racial community, because we all feel as members of one great nation and because we see in each comrade a fellow enjoying the same rights as ourselves, because we know that we can go ahead only by sticking together, and because we know that, if it is thus decreed, we may go down together.

It was the intention of the Fuehrer to elaborate and to complete this work by peaceful labor. In frequent speeches the Fuehrer announced how this elaboration of the racial community, more especially, how the German worker and peasant was to fit in this racial community. To carry out this work the Fuehrer required peace, and all his efforts were directed to the securing of this peace, in order to produce, during this time of peace, works of imperishable grandeur for the German people, namely the elaboration of a German racial community and the building up of a wonderful civilization. For this reason, as you all know, the Fuehrer again and again sent proposals to the other states. These were proposals appealing to reason, proposals aiming at the abolition of war (?) and the creation of great values by peaceful labor.

But it goes without saying that, notwithstanding the peaceful intentions of the Fuehrer and the German people, notwithstanding the reasonableness of his proposals, there were certain matters which were unacceptable to the Fuehrer and to the German people, matters which constituted our RIGHT, which no one could take from us or dispute to us, and which had to become ours again by right. To these matters belonged, in the first place, the union with the Eastmark, inhabited by six million Germans, the protection of the Germans living in Czechoslovakia, and, finally, the reunion of Danzig with the Reich, a city which is purely German. These demands were so natural, represented such an elementary right, constituted by community of blood, that no statesman in his senses could afford to neglect them, that these very statesmen should have taken care to fulfill these demands on their own accord, as they were basic for the unification of Europe. But on the contrary, instead of accepting these moderate proposals of the Fuehrer, the encirclement of our Empire began immediately after, nay, at the same moment, when the swastika first began to wave over the territory of the Empire. If we now look about to see who the statesmen were who brought about this encirclement, we might easily detect behind politicians of the most various form and the most different type the ugly face of the Jew, who was to be found everywhere in the background, to egg the nations against Germany and to encircle Germany, though Germany did not want anything else than to carry out work of the reconstruction, for which it required peace. It was the same statesmen who, decades ago, took a stand against the Reich, who could not endure the prosperity of Germany, and who fell upon the Second Reich, from motives of pure envy. We all know what terrible times of national shame and of impotence we had to live through. We sank lower and lower. There was danger of the German people being dissolved, a civil war was about to break out, and the 'peace-loving' foreign countries were triumphing over the Reich, given up to total destruction.

Then, at the eleventh hour, the Fuehrer appeared; his movement swept the land, and what seemed well-nigh impossible came to pass. What seemed nearly incomprehensible became a fact. Out of this impotence and this national shame a new Empire arose, a new nation, prouder and stronger than ever. We all recognized this; but we also recognized that the rise of the new German empire and people was beheld with envy by foreign countries.

At the same time the danger grew steadily of our enemies one day finding a favorable opportunity to attack a defenseless Germany. The most favorable basis for this was the League of Nations, whose chief task was the further disarming of the already disarmed Reich. The Fuehrer finally saw himself forced to leave this peculiar association which triad no other aims than the humiliation and the destruction of Germany. At the same time the Fuehrer decided to create the bases to prevent Germany from being plunged a second time into this misery. He decided to arm Germany so that she might be able to fight a war which some day might be forced upon the German people.

A tremendous armament program came into being. Entire branches of the armament industry had to be built anew, for in that shameful treaty of Versailles Germany had been deprived of all weapons which alone play a decisive role in modern war. Now they were built up anew. In those years the factories grew like mushrooms. The army of six million and a half of unemployed were converted in a few years into a gigantic army of workers. Everyone again stood at his place; the wheels were turning again, the steam hammers were heard again, and a mighty labor began to safeguard the Reich. At the same time as the armament industry, the German armed forces were created anew by the Fuehrer. The small army of one hundred thousand men left us by the shameful peace of Versailles again grew into a gigantic people's army; a new navy was formed, and finally a most powerful air-arm. On the one hand, German men, above all, the youth, were trained again in the most noble of all professions for the German, to bear arms again. And the others were mobilized to forge these weapons and to whet the German sword.

And now we are again at war. This war has taken on dimensions of such magnitude that one may well say that Germany has never been involved in a greater struggle than this one. There are two fronts we have before us: the external front and the front at home. The task of the external front through all these years has been, and until the final victory will remain that of protecting the homeland and winning this victory.

Year after year your sons are fighting, your brothers and husbands are fighting on the outer front to protect the homeland. With powerful blows and victories they overran the enemy. Within a few days Poland was laid low; a lightning thrust assured us Norway and guaranteed us against an English assault. And then the German army marched on with flying banners and in the certainty of victory to that tenth of May, 1940; and in less than six weeks a powerful military exploit was accomplished, proud France collapsed, and Germany was victor in the west.

Then we heard about German victories in the African desert. And then a short time passed again, and the treachery in the Balkans forced us to go to work there. Here, too, it was only a few weeks until the enemy was beaten. The epilogue was that unprecedented daring surprise attack on the island of Crete, from which the English were driven out in a few days' time.

And then came the fight against England. At first only by sea and air. Unerringly and incessantly our blows fell. And if today in many places in the German Reich the English attacks have caused destruction, I can assure you of one thing: no matter how hard this destruction is for us, no matter how hard each loss of our valuable cultural possessions hits us, and above all how hard each loss in human lives hurts us, all that is nothing by comparison with the heavy blows the enemy had to bear. The time will one day come when that, too, will be made evident. Only then will it be possible to recognize how uneven the score was in this respect, too, and how here too Germany had the advantage of the enemy.

All during this time it was the Fuehrer's effort to come to some sort of understanding with Russia, for the Fuehrer wished to spare the German people that unnecessary battle. Russia was seemingly in agreement. But before long we had to recognize that Bolshevik Russia was using this time exclusively to build up her armaments further, and to proportions which have never had their equal.

And if it is asked today how it was possible for the Soviet Union to build up such a great armament, the answer can be only: not out of their feeling for the fatherland, the people, and their leader. Over there the situation is quite different. Not out of those noble feelings for their people, fatherland, and leaders are they working over there so frantically, but only because the human being means nothing there, because the worker there is nothing but a slave to be driven; and the millions and millions, if they die and collapse, new millions are whipped over them, and only with machine-guns and whips can the workers of Soviet Russia be driven to their work stations. And it mattered not at all here whether reason prevailed or not; it mattered not whether the worker could prove that he was not able to get the weapons done: if they were not done, he was put to death. A butchering such as has never in the world been seen prevailed throughout this Russia.

And now at last out of our own experience we can understand this curious fact, how it was possible to build up such an armament. These arms are painted with the blood of millions of men and women workers of Russia. Just as this Genghis Khan again and again this winter, heedless of any military discretion, let his regiments be smashed and riddled against the German wall, even so heedlessly, without the least thought or consideration for human lives, he built up his armament. Entire villages were plowed up and rooted out overnight. The children were put in some institution or other for Bolshevik rearing. Husbands and wives were torn apart, couples divided, some out of the factories, some to the factories, some where they never saw each other again.

Those were the Russian methods of working and whip-driving. And that is the difference from our work. The alacrity of our German men and women workers, men and women farmers, is fundamentally different, God knows, from those methods which there in the workers' and farmers' Paradise were and are used. Whatever the lies from abroad may say, every single one of you knows that we, to be sure, are now asking-and have to ask a great deal from the German worker, as well as from the men and women on the farm, but never yet have machine-guns been set up in Germany to drive the German worker to his work, for the German worker is moved by his own feeling, by the emotion of his own heart, to make the weapons for his Fuehrer and his army. He does not need to be forced; he does not need to be whipped as over there.

And that is why it was necessary, when we learned how the Russian was strengthening and strengthening his armament, how a thousand tanks became ten thousand, and ten thousand became twenty thousand, thirty thousand, and the same with planes, as we learned that in the newly-won Polish territory alone he was laying out in one year almost a thousand new airfields then the Fuehrer had to make a decision. He saw with clear eyes, he saw through his genius, that all this was being done just in order to fall upon Germany at the right moment and to destroy her. Slowly the columns penetrated, first in the north against Finland. In the south they took over Rumanian positions. And they would have pushed on farther and farther to the north and to the south, on the Balkans, over Scandinavia, in order then in these pincers to give the final blow to Germany, which was involved in a hard struggle against the other powers.

Believe me, our Fuehrer has had to make many decisions, and monstrously hard ones. But this decision, to grasp clearly what was threatening the German people, but on the other hand to grasp clearly what a mighty strength was arrayed on the other side, to weigh all this: will you close your eyes to this danger? He knew that it would have to come some day. And when it finally became clear, unalterably certain, that here was only a question of months who would strike the first blow, then at any rate the Fuehrer struck the first blow with that strength and that genius with which only he can strike.

In unheard-of victories the Russian armies were overrun, broken, destroyed. A thousand kilometers, a thousand five hundred kilometers and more we pushed into distant Russian territory. And as we were about to land a new powerful blow, another enemy came against us: not in Russian divisions, not in Russian weapons and Russian leadership; it was the elements which rose up against us. And very suddenly the winter broke, bringing within three days frightful cold. And then came a winter such as we have certainly never known or experienced in the history of German warfare.

And now it had to come: the defense of the front in the Russian winter. It is easier in a victorious advance to add further victories to the banners than to endure difficult defensive fighting against the enemy and the elements and still not to yield. It was not a front in the sense in which we old world war soldiers knew it in stationary warfare, here a dugout, there a dugout, here a lightly fortified village, there a forest's edge. An endless space of many thousands of kilometers reaching from the soldiers farthest North to those farthest South.

Swamps, lakes, roaring rivers were situated in between; and now suddenly the landscape had become calm. The roaring streams were covered with ice, and the swamps and lakes as well. One single white cover of death extended over the infinite land; and while before natural obstacles still made it possible to hold some lines with weak forces, the Russians could now penetrate at night over frozen rivers, lakes, and swamps and succeed in getting behind our lines. One sad message followed upon another: the Russians were at our rear in the North, at our rear in the central sector, at our rear in the South. Partisan troops blew up railroads, waited in ambush for our supply; inconceivably cold weather almost froze our troops. We had to get warm clothes to our troops as fast as possible, but this cold weather prevented operations of railroads also. Rails cracked because of the ice-cold temperatures; locomotives could no longer proceed; for days the front was without supply, without ammunition, without food, without clothes. For days the courageous infantryman was out there in snow and ice, his fingers numb. When he touched the barrel of a gun, the skin of his hand adhered. Motors failed; they did not start. The tanks drove in high snow and were immobilized. One thing was thus heaped upon another. The front became familiar for the first time with the horrible Russian winter to an extent and with a severity as has not been known for a century.

Many of you will surely have read that once the great Corsican Napoleon retreated from Moscow during the Russian winter, that his entire army was destroyed to the last man, that there was but one tremendous field full of corpses at that time. The idea may have been conceived that not all men were equally strong. Many a Fuehrer may have thought of the cruel parallel of 1812, but one thing remained clear in our minds: Although the fight was severe, it was one against the elements, for even in the most frosty, ice-cold storm the German soldier felt sky high in superiority above his enemy. When the fight was raging, man against man and arms against arms, the Russians were defeated, wherever it took place. However, where ice-cold storms, frozen natural obstacles and deep forests made it possible, the enemy succeeded in penetrating behind the lines of the German front.

But something else was clear in our minds: If we had started to sidestep and retreat, where would the front have ended then where would the front have been? No dug out trenches were available, as they were in the World War, no dug-outs, nothing of the kind, villages for miles were in ruins and destroyed, there was nothing left; and still it was important that the front should be held. What it means to hold a front in such a fight can be understood only by some one who has experienced these hours, weeks and months. I have already said in the Reichstag: There were two things which enabled us to accomplish the greatest of all victories in world history, the victory in the winter battle: the courage of the soldiers, and our Fuehrer.

I am extremely happy that I could enjoy the presence of the Fuehrer in those hours, that I could witness the onrushing of all this news upon him. You all know our Fuehrer. I may claim that I know him better than anyone else, perhaps, that above all the infinite kindness of his great heart is known to me, that I have experienced the indescribable, infinite suffering by the Fuehrer during these weeks not for his own sake but for that of his brave soldiers out there. He had compassion with them; he was once a soldier, too; he knew the fate of each individual infantryman, his feelings, his great sufferings; he knew what he was asking of him, the impossible, and yet it had to be performed, he could not yield. Only one thing could save them here, extreme hardness. So we could experience the miraculous happening that in one and the same man dwelt simultaneously infinite kindness and iron-hard sternness. This hardness, however, was inherent in him, after all, and came from his love for his people. For he was aware that had he not asked the extreme and utmost of his soldiers now, perhaps all victories accomplished heretofore might have been in vain and useless.

Then, the elements, not the Russians, came against the German front. The Fuehrer paced up and down in his bunk, his eyes were brilliant, his infinite strength radiated from him and one could feel how a genius was thinking of everything possible in order to help the front. Everything was mobilized, the homeland was called upon, the Fuehrer was now preoccupied with the individual and last details; he directed each transport train personally, he instructed each battalion into each position, in order to stop break-through movements.

Yet, when one felt that he has done everything, everything possible, and when one was grateful, one had to wait and wait and see whether the materials were now supplied, wait until through the ice of the winter, over cracked rails, broken switches, by means of damaged, destroyed locomotives, transports would finally and slowly again come to the front. Then a deep breath of relief!

Soon, it was reported that an army again finally had ammunitions. Then followed the report that the armies to the left and to the right were without ammunitions. Sometimes it was really-one may say this today-beyond the capacity of normal characters (?). It had to be a character of the giant size such as the one of our Fuehrer, to accomplish this to the end (One word inaudible).

During those weeks we were happy that it was December, that finally January had passed; then we said: "Still another two months to go." February passed then, too; the front still stood. Although it had been dented at some places, on the whole it still stood. The temperature started to rise, and we were glad; we thought it was over. One week later the thermometer again sank below forty degrees, but still we were approaching Spring with every passing hour and the feeling of strength radiating from the bunk of the Fuehrer's Headquarters, this strength was carried on to the front and upheld the last man. And then Spring came; the Russians had not destroyed the German Army, it was standing at the same line where it had been before winter had started. The German divisions are still standing now in front of Moscow just as they were in Autumn. The most gigantic victory has been obtained in fighting action by the force and genius of one man and the indescribable courage of millions of German men.

The enemy propaganda of lies may assert what it will, it will find that the German elite armed force had not been destroyed. During these days they have felt the first blow effected by the German Armed Forces, which has resulted in a brilliant victory.

If I recall now, dear compatriots, this horrible winter, now that the sun is shining out there, and our men at the front stretch in the warmth and again are awakened to new fighting spirit, and are anxious to pay back for their sufferings during the winter, I do this for only one purpose: so that you German workers, ladies and gentlemen, German farmers and farmer wives may understand that one must sometimes be hard and that in certain cases hardness alone can lead to victory, and is the presupposition to success. I know hardship is expected from you. Believe me, we find it hard when we, for reasons of security, must temporarily impose limitations of nutrition. I know how very hard the farmers and farmers wives are working in order to secure food, particularly hard, however, because we have not been well treated by the elements. Three extremely hard winters have passed, but besides the weather at the time of planting was not favorable.

Last year I was so glad when the crops were at first in such a state that we could hope for a record crop, but again the (?) of the rain interfered with the harvest and diminished the yield to an alarming extent. And now, although the weather is beautiful, although we heartily welcome the sunshine, we again hope and expect that the rain will bring for the farmer what he needs. But all of these things shall not discourage you.

I know that despair is easy when, after having planted in the fall season, you now find in Spring that the greater part of the seed has not come up. That will be useless; we must plow and sow again and in spite of all we must harvest. All of these obstacles must not stop you, although there may be more work and more bad weather and although the workers, male and female, are frequently in despair, because they are compelled to work there away from their families, because they must work overtime to the point of exhaustion; all of this is hard, but for this reason I have spoken to you of the Russian winter. So, if you are once again in despair, you will then recall these hours, and the suffering of millions of your brothers, husbands, fathers and sons out there on the front.

I know, and it was already expressed a little while ago by party member Speer, that the war production industry is doing and has done its utmost and really has supplied us during this Spring with more and better weapons than we could hope and expect to get. But now no one must believe that we may celebrate something today with this political act of state. No! This was only a moment of reflection for both leadership and followers, for the leadership to honor the followers after a certain period, and for our followers to go back to work after this hour of ceremony with new fortitude in order to produce great new weapons. You have but one point of honor, the requirement established by the Fuehrer, that is, fulfillment of his programs.

These programs and requirements may be hard, very extensive and very great. They may require work of more than ten hours, if the Fuehrer has demanded it; it is just as necessary as was his demand upon the infantrymen some time ago to hold a small village in ruins, although the Russians may have been lining up (Two words indistinct). Everyone there must do his duty and prove his courage and willingness to fight, wherever his fate and the order of the Fuehrer may have placed him.

For this reason I am talking of two fronts. They are different in character, but both must be fulfilled with the same spirit, with the same faith and with the same (war aim). And just as the troops hang together out there, the company, the battery, the squadron, the crew of a ship, in the same way you must hang together in your workshops closely, you and your comrades of the home front. You must form a unit with your leaders of the workshops at the head, a unit which in close co-operation accomplishes the best and utmost in its factory. I should also like to draw another comparison between the two fronts. Just as there are shock troops out there at the military front, shock troops composed of especially efficient and courageous men who are ordered to eliminate especially difficult obstacles, to take bunkers by storming them, to get mines out of the way, to form bridgeheads, there are also shock troops in the ranks of German labor.

You also have worked very hard, far beyond the limit of average performance; you have labored and created valuable objects, and just as the brave shock troops out there on the front are distinguished especially by the Cross, First Class, you as shock troops of German labor and farmers have been distinguished by the Fuehrer with his awarding you magnificently the Cross of Merit, First Class. However, the unique honor bestowed upon you today goes far beyond this, in that an award has been given to laborers which is the first of its kind granted by the Fuehrer. For the first time during this war, the Knight's Cross of the Cross of Merit was awarded, yes (?), awarded to a German workman. And that, too, may demonstrate how fundamentally things and conceptions and principles have changed since the time of the System.

But as has been said already before, through this single man, through him and through you, all of German labor in the factories and the farmers out there in the country have been honored. This is an honor bestowed upon all brave and faithful members of the people who stand in the ranks of the home front today, creating and working. Now this great distinction has been conferred upon factory master Hahne for a very special performance in the production of tanks. He, too, has solved and realized an apparently impossible task, and behind him, today, were you men and women who have also received this distinction from the hands of the Fuehrer.

So there could really not have been a more impressive way to show the people and the world what a magnificent community of the people we have become. Thus a small unknown soldier of the front, who had also been distinguished as a bold leader of shock troops, has in spite of his youth received the gratitude of the front and of the soldiers and of the workmen's and farmer's front. A symbolic action of extreme and great importance!

But, you too, must have an innermost and profound feeling of gratitude for the front, for it protects you; far, far away from enemy troops you may work calmly in peace and also live. However, that alone is not of decisive importance (One word unintelligible). Although the supply of weapons is quite important and although the secure provision of food is quite decisive for the conduct of war, there is something in addition which the home front must bear in mind, as well as the front of fighting men.

A short while ago, I spoke of the hardness possessed by each German soldier who has participated in the fighting this winter in Russia. I should only like to beg of Providence (?) a hardening to a greater and greater extent of each individual at home, and that he will say to himself: "We must hold out in this war irrespective how long it may last; at the end there is victory and that alone is of decisive importance. This generation has to make up for that which was once neglected and youth will help it in doing so, and what we may have to bear now and suffer, what we have to sacrifice, we shall spare our children from bearing, and those generations which will follow us." In the future let it be said that the German people was certain of victory, for it took hardship upon itself.

Of each of you individuals of the home front I demand the same hardness as is displayed out there at the fighting lines. This includes, above all, that same hanging together which can be found out there in the fighting lines, forged with blood. With proud contempt we shall refute all enemy propaganda, for it consists of nothing but lies, after all. Those who are sending this propaganda to us are the same men who could perform in this same theater in the streets of Berlin during the period of the System. Just as his newspapers at that time, proficient in lying, were full of lies, in the same manner the Jew is lying today, denying the blue of the sky, just as he did then, with the only exception that he can not do it today in our midst, thank God. So he tries to force this garbage originating from his brain by all possible means of propaganda upon the German people. He is mistaken. Here, too, times have changed. From this confused crowd, which was called the German people when one brother could crush another's skull, a community of the people has been gradually created-and I wish the Jew would begin to recognize this-a people's community founded securely like a block of granite upon itself, a people's community which can bear everything.

Do not always believe all that is being told. No one has been present at the events, after all. The people refutes all of this and will abide by the war laws which had to be passed. Dear comrades, ladies and gentlemen, these laws were not promulgated in order to harass, to vex or to practice usury against your life. They have been decreed because they were necessary in order to uphold the life of a German people and to assure its victory. And therefore, abiding by these laws becomes necessary. At times it may appear that these laws are unimportant. The individual may not understand them. Leadership, however, has the duty to recognize matters, looking far ahead, and to take precautions, looking far ahead, that no real evil is inflicted upon the German people.

Because the leadership is doing all in efforts to take care of the people, therefore the people has to be sufficiently well behaved and decent and to have understanding and confidence in the action of the leadership. There are always the same few, who exclude themselves from the community. We know them since the war period, yes, we know their previous attitude. Nothing can satisfy them. Whatever is done, is wrong. Of course, they can not do anything better themselves, but since there are but a few, we can easily segregate them. The essential thing is the German people; it must master in mutual confidence the gigantic task to perform in fighting action, the freedom of the German nation.

The time has passed when the German people could be fooled; as was the case in the years of 1917-18, and when it finally perished because of its foolishness. We are quite well aware of the fact that the German people are willing to bear the necessary hardship of this war and to hold out during the war, irrespective of its duration, with stern determination. The Fuehrer expressed gratitude and appreciation for this to the German people recently in the session of the German Reichstag. But in this hour the German people, all its fronts and all its classes, have all reason to thank the Fuehrer, and his titanic performance should be visualized by them.

He is the foremost and greatest producer of arms in our war production, he is the brilliant, heroic commander of our armed forces; above all he is the guarantor of German victory. A little while ago I gave you a demonstration of the tremendous shocks to which the Fuehrer is exposed. I showed how strong he has been and how able to bear the hardest, yet to conduct all to a good end as he has mastered all obstacles from whatever source they may have come, as he has exterminated weakness where he has been present. Such a Fuehrer is the guarantor of victory, and the German people, and no other one, has such a Fuehrer. And alone for this reason, we may look forward with a proud sense of security toward the outcome of this fighting, as one of victory. The confidence of the fighting front in the High Commander of war is imposing. The last and lowliest infantryman knows that when the Fuehrer orders today to fall in line this must be done, and that here the deciding action is taking place. And he knows that victory must be obtained in fighting action here too, and he will gain it by fighting, and eternal gratitude also.

The German people is active with and always behind its Fuehrer, and furthermore, because the Almighty has blessed us by giving us this Fuehrer-an unknown soldier of the world war, who without anything at all by his own strength alone and his own action has today become not only the mighty Fuehrer of the German nation but today also the Fuehrer of Europe already, will you believe that Providence has been so foolish and capricious as to give such a Fuehrer to a people and to have him save a people from its most profound distress only to throw it down the abyss at some given point? No, I rather anticipate the belief of the German people, which may find a warning of destiny but also an obligation therein. This is not to mean that the individual may now say, "We have the great Fuehrer; he will do the job," and then turn over to sleep. No indeed, all of this makes for us an obligation of continued willingness, and the decisive thing is the willingness which must come from your heart; otherwise it will be worthless.

But I know that such willingness comes from your heart, and only because of this you were able to succeed in your work and performance. Therefore, in spite of all winter difficulties, which have, in part, been noticed also at home, you were ready with arms in Spring. In spite of these difficulties the hand of the workman held the forging hammer tightly, the hand of the farmer clung to the plow in order to plow once more and to sow again, because he was willing to do his duty out of the emotion of his heart.

Now let us conclude and all our prayers to the Almighty, culminating in the one thought: "May he protect our Fuehrer and bless the work of our Fuehrer: Victory!"

National comrades, men and women! Germans on the land! We are at the beginning of the fourth year of the war, and today we celebrate the German harvest thanksgiving. Today we cannot celebrate the nation's festivals in the scope and manner to which we were formerly accustomed.

Today great masses of the German country folk cannot appear before the Fuehrer through their deputations, to bring him a harvest wreath and fruits of the last harvest, because we are in a war, in the most difficult war of the German people, and in this war there is only one thing: Work, work, fighting and work, and again fighting and work.

The last three harvest years, in particular the first two of them, were by no means favorable. Quite unexpectedly, three terribly hard and severe Winters broke upon us and destroyed much of the labor that had previously been put into the ground.

But, nevertheless, it was possible, first of all, to guarantee nourishment of the people absolutely; for at that time, when I spoke in this same hall on taking over the responsibility of carrying out the Four-Year Plan, many a compatriot will still be able to remember how, right at that time, I laid very strong emphasis on the concept and the term "enemy blockade." . . .

When the third harvest had such a bad outlook I did everything to avoid rationing, but there was no alternative. We did not only have to worry about bread. There was also the question of potatoes. The transport system increased our worries, as it had constantly to supply our forces in the East.

These problems have been solved and will never recur. The conquered territories are the most fertile in Europe. Most of the talk about the seriousness of the food situation in occupied countries is just propaganda. I am firmly resolved that while I do not want to see the populations of occupied countries suffer hunger and privation, if through enemy measures privation is unavoidable it will in no circumstances affect Germany.

German workers and German agricultural laborers will be fed better than any others. The German peasant goes out to fight, leaving his work to women. Children are helping as soon as they are able.

There should be no difficulty feeding Germany, but there are over six million foreign workers in Germany and over five million prisoners of war who have to be supplied.

Now that the future is clearer, the meat ration is to be increased by another fifty grammes in the raid-threatened areas.

The German people come before all other peoples for food.

The whole German Army is fed from conquered countries.

By no means let us forget that when it is a question of raw materials for armament, there are two raw materials which are just as fundamental for feeding our people as for their subsistence as a whole. And these raw materials are coal and iron, and both raw materials we ourselves possess in sufficient quantities, and we have also-thank God-won enormous additional quantities by conquest.

Bear in mind, therefore, that since we do not have a sufficient surplus of this valuable material, coal, we should not waste it unnecessarily. And every one who turns on a single light or other electrical appliance unnecessarily, or who leaves it on longer than necessary, is committing a sin. Any one who uses too much gas should remember that this gas comes from coal, and that a worker has to slave for it by the sweat of his brow hundreds of meters underground. Any one who uses too much power, should also consider that fact.

But, my dear German comrades, one thing more I should like to say here quite plainly. When a national community is being created, and when an entire nation, as a totality and a single entity, must win a victory and must secure its freedom, then the individual, too, must be ready to submit to more or less stringent limitations on his personal freedom.

This limitation of personal freedom is necessary even in peacetimes. In democracy, to be sure, there is always one thing only-freedom of the individual. That is what we National Socialists call license. If every one may do as he likes, if no one has to have any consideration for his neighbors or his relatives, and even gets ahead by doing so, then you can imagine how such a community gets along.

And if you tear down the splendid facade of dollar-rich America and look behind it, you will also see what such a country-where, as in "God's own country," democracy is particularly cherished-what such a country and nation really looks like. In front it is splendid facade, with an infinite misery behind it. Even the fool, Mr. Roosevelt, cannot deny that misery is at home in his capital, and that there are only a few who swim around on top, like fat-flecks on top of bouillon, as dollar millionaires. . . .

I should like now to broach a topic that indeed concerns me very especially as the Commander in Chief of the air force and Reich Air Minister. It is about the heavy enemy air attacks on German cities. Here, too, my dear fellow countrymen, there must often be a very great restriction of personal freedom.

I am far from belittling these attacks or anything like that. I know how it is. I am an expert. I know what it means when a hundred or two hundred planes drop their bomb load. I know that many innocent people must die, in this way, absolutely to no purpose.

The Fuehrer told our enemies in his Reichstag speech some time ago that one should at least stop attacking absolutely harmless people where there is no war industry. And today they cannot get out of it by saying that they just accidentally missed, they were aiming at industrial plants, because we are in possession of their original orders.

Mr. British Air General instructed his fliers that war industry was not the important thing to destroy, but residential sections . . . terrorizing the-German population, dropping bombs on children and women. That is the main thing for these gentlemen, even though a few decent fliers have protested against being assigned again and again to this slaughter.

So I know how hard all this is and how terrible and how senseless this destruction of cultural values. If that fool would reflect on the virtues of German culture, and that German culture exists not only for Germans-it has made endless contributions to Europe and the world-that simple respect for it should keep the wretches from destroying German seats of culture.

Our seats of culture are not valuable for the German people only, they are valuable for the whole world, which can derive unending benefits from them. And the German has always been the greatest leaven of cultural progress.

You may be sure-I am now speaking to our fellow-countrymen of those regions that are subject to the threat of air raids-that everything humanly possible is being done in my efforts to alleviate the situation and to prevent such attacks, first of all by active counter-defense.

But in this regard let no one forget that at present I have to fight hardest on the Eastern Front and cannot provide defense on a full scale, which will definitely some day be provided.

Nevertheless, the enemy always loses out very heavily in these raids. And although Mr. Churchill declared a few weeks ago that he would make a little excursion with a thousand airplanes over Germany every night, then I can say, first of all, that he has not as yet made a single such excursion with a thousand planes, and he will never make one either, and in any case these planes-these excursions will have to be paid for so heavily that he has already greatly restricted them.

And, finally, I have only one more thing to say to that gentleman. In the East, too, the enemy will be conquered, and then we'll see each other in England again.

But it is now the all-important thing to fight where the center of gravity is, and they will not prevent us from doing so by these air raids.

Today the German Luftwaffe is fighting day after day on a scale that you cannot imagine, at Stalingrad and where the decisive victories are to be won. Once that is finished there, we will meet again at Philippi!

I shall see to it myself that steadily increasing and additional camps shall be prepared that will take care of the victims of the air raids. I have purchased supplies in all countries to which I had access, on a tremendously large scale.

And, my dear fellow-citizens, everything is in our favor when we consider the situation. Just how are our enemies going to be able to carry out their continued assertions and declarations that they are going to win this war?

They have some hope or other in the astronomical figures of American production. Now, I would be the last person to underestimate American production. In certain fields the Americans have made colossal achievements in technique and in production.

We know they have done a stupendous amount with the auto. They have also won special merit with the radio and the razor blade. In these three fields they have undoubtedly wrought ever colossally, but these things are, nevertheless, something else yet than what one needs for war.

And if I do not by any means underestimate them, nevertheless I know by first-hand acquaintance what enormous difficulties there are in the matter of armament production. And even over there, if Roosevelt constantly makes two times two equal five or six or eight, nevertheless, even in America two times two is and remains four, and he can't change that a bit.

And even in America nothing gets done faster than with us, but slower rather, and even in America raw materials are necessary, workers are necessary. You can't at the same time build up an army of several million, and on the other hand triple the number of workers. That doesn't work in America, either.

You must realize that the gentlemen are very hard to teach; they are democrats. So the hope of internal German decay-in spite of everything that many newspapers are beginning to write, that they will be disappointed, that the nation will not collapse and so forth-is still their hope today.

And they still continue to believe that they could do that primarily through hunger, as they did in 1918 by the blockade, although they are gradually being obliged to understand that the blockade is only working in reverse. What price a blockade when one possesses the whole-as I have already explained previously-vast Ukrainian fertile lands and so on?

War is the last process of selection, and it assesses values; and only there can it be seen how one comes up to the mark, this one remains, the other cannot quite make it, this one is given a less important task; the third understands nothing at all, he is sent home.

Generals shot? And our leader has already said, recently, "None has been shot at all."

But there is one thing about which I wish to leave no doubt. It was not just because one does not shoot a general, for that, too, has changed fundamentally since the World War.

Equal discipline for all, from Reich Marshal to the last recruit, equal obedience and loyalty to the Fuehrer, equal distinctions and also equal punishment.

Today, if a man is a coward and deserts his company, he is shot. If a general abandons his company through cowardice he is shot, too.