In their own words

“Our present condition, achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations, illustrates the American idea that governments rest upon the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish governments whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established.”

Jefferson Davis · February 18, 1861 · Speech · Montgomery, Alabama, Alabama Capitol, inaugural address as provisional president

Inaugural address of the Confederate provisional president, delivered about seven weeks before the firing on Fort Sumter. Davis uses the language of the Declaration of Independence to describe the secession of the Confederate states.

Jefferson Davis, first inaugural address, 18 February 1861, The Papers of Jefferson Davis, vol. 7, pp. 45-51 (Rice University), transcribed from the Congressional Journal, vol. 1, pp. 64-66 Source

Content note: Refers to slavery and to the deaths of the war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."”

Abraham Lincoln · March 4, 1865 · Speech · Washington, D.C., United States Capitol, second inaugural address

Delivered at the Capitol as the Civil War was nearing its end. The sentence follows the hope that the war might pass away quickly and precedes the passage beginning 'With malice toward none, with charity for all'.

Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural address, 4 March 1865, Avalon Project, Yale Law School Source

Content note: Order to shoot own relatives, including parents. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Recruits! You have now sworn loyalty to me before this consecrated servant of God and in front of this altar. You are still too young to understand the true meaning of what has just been spoken, but for now strive to always follow the rules and teachings you have been given. You have sworn loyalty to me, which – children of my Guards – means you are now my soldiers, you have committed yourselves to me body and soul; there is for you only one enemy, and that is my enemy. Given the current subversive activities of the socialists, it could happen that I order you to shoot down your own kin, brothers, indeed, parents – God forbid it should come to pass – but even then you must follow my orders without grumbling.”

Wilhelm II · 1891 · Speech · Potsdam

Wilhelm addressed recruits of the Guards regiments at their swearing-in at Potsdam. Two newspaper versions of the speech survive (the Breslauer Lokalanzeiger of 8 December 1891 and the Neisser Zeitung); this is the Neisser Zeitung wording.

Wilhelm II, address to recruits of the Guards, Potsdam, 1891 (Neisser Zeitung version), in Ernst Johann, Reden des Kaisers. Ansprachen, Predigten und Trinksprüche Wilhelms II (Munich, 1966), pp. 55-56 Source

“I express my sincere congratulations that you and your people, without appealing to friendly powers for help, by dint of your own vigor, have been able to restore the peace against the armed hordes that invaded your country as disturbers of the peace, and to preserve the independence of the country against outside attacks.”

Wilhelm II · January 3, 1896 · Statement · Berlin

Sent after the failure of the Jameson Raid into the Transvaal. The telegram was published in the British press and caused a strong reaction in Britain.

Telegram from Wilhelm II to President Paul Kruger of the South African Republic, 3 January 1896, in Johannes Lepsius et al., eds., Die Große Politik der europäischen Kabinette 1871-1914, vol. 11 (Berlin, 1922-27), pp. 31-32 Source

“In short, we do not want to put anyone in our shadow, but we also demand our place in the sun.”

Bernhard von Bülow · December 6, 1897 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Bülow, then State Secretary of the Foreign Office, defended the German occupation of Kiaochow Bay in China, which followed the killing of German missionaries. The sentence is from the close of the passage on East Asia.

Speech of State Secretary Bernhard von Bülow in the Reichstag, December 1897, in Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstags, IX. Legislaturperiode, 5. Session, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1898), p. 60, reprinted in Rüdiger vom Bruch and Björn Hofmeister, eds., Kaiserreich und Erster Weltkrieg 1871-1918 (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2000), pp. 268-70 Source

“But we will only be able to maintain a leading position if we recognize that there is no welfare for us without power, without a strong army, without a strong fleet ( “That’s right!” from right; protest from the left ). Gentlemen, for a nation that will soon number sixty million, a nation that inhabits the center of Europe and is sending its economic feelers out in all directions, the means have not yet been devised to win the struggle for survival in this world without a strong navy and army ( “Very true!” from the right ). In the coming century the German people will be either a hammer or an anvil.”

Bernhard von Bülow · December 11, 1899 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Bülow, then Foreign Secretary, introduced the second naval bill in the Reichstag. The sentences about power and the hammer and anvil come at the end of the speech.

Speech of Bernhard von Bülow in the Reichstag, 11 December 1899 (second naval bill), in Buchners Kolleg Geschichte: Das Kaiserreich 1871 bis 1918 (Bamberg: C. C. Buchners Verlag, 1987), pp. 137ff Source

Content note: Order to give no quarter and take no prisoners; ethnic contempt. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“When you encounter him, know this: no quarter will be given. Prisoners will not be taken. Exercise your arms such that for a thousand years no Chinese will dare to look cross-eyed at a German.”

Wilhelm II · July 27, 1900 · Speech · Bremerhaven

Wilhelm spoke without a manuscript to troops departing to suppress the Boxer uprising in China, after the killing of the German envoy Clemens von Ketteler. The Foreign Office issued an edited version that omitted the passage quoted in the next entry.

Wilhelm II, address to troops of the East Asian Expeditionary Corps, Bremerhaven, 27 July 1900 (version issued by the Foreign Office), in Johannes Penzler, ed., Die Reden Kaiser Wilhelms II, vol. 2 (Leipzig, n.d.), pp. 209-12 Source

Content note: Order to give no quarter and take no prisoners; ethnic contempt. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated! No quarter will be given! Prisoners will not be taken! Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one that even today makes them seem mighty in history and legend, may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German.”

Wilhelm II · July 27, 1900 · Speech · Bremerhaven

The unofficial wording, from press reports of 29 July 1900, is the one that gave the speech its name. It was not in the Foreign Office text. Wilhelm spoke without notes and the wording varies between reports.

Wilhelm II, address at Bremerhaven, 27 July 1900 (unofficial but, per GHDI, correct wording of the key passage), reprinted in Manfred Görtemaker, Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert (Opladen, 1996; Schriftenreihe der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, vol. 274), p. 357 Source

Content note: Concerns the internment of civilians. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The women and children brought in should be divided in two categories, viz.: 1st. Refugees, and the families of Neutrals, non-combatants, and surrendered Burghers. 2nd. Those whose husbands, fathers and sons are on Commando. The preference in accommodation, etc. should of course be given to the first class.”

Herbert Kitchener · December 21, 1900 · Statement · Pretoria Verified (secondary source)

Kitchener, then commander-in-chief in South Africa, set out the policy of bringing Boer women and children into camps during the guerrilla phase of the war. The source also quotes the memorandum as calling this "the most effective method of limiting the endurance of the guerrillas".

Memorandum by Lord Kitchener to general officers, South Africa, 21 December 1900, as quoted in South African History Online, "Women and children in white concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War, 1900-1902" Source

Content note: Describes Southern and Eastern European immigrants as "the lowest class". The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Throughout the century men of the sturdy stocks of the north of Europe had made up the main strain of foreign blood which was every year added to the vital working force of the country, or else men of the Latin-Gallic stocks of France and northern Italy; but now there came multitudes of men of the lowest class from the south of Italy and men of the meaner sort out of Hungary and Poland, men out of the ranks where there was neither skill nor energy nor any initiative of quick intelligence; and they came in numbers which increased from year to year, as if the countries of the south of Europe were disburdening themselves of the more sordid and hapless elements of their population, the men whose standards of life and of work were such as American workmen had never dreamed of hitherto.”

Woodrow Wilson · 1902 · Book

Passage in Wilson's multi-volume history, written when he was a Princeton professor, on the change in the origin of immigrants to the United States in the 1880s and 1890s.

Woodrow Wilson, A History of the American People, vol. 5, "Reunion and Nationalization" (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1902), ch. 3, "The End of a Century," pp. 211-212 Source

Content note: Describes Reconstruction governments as sustained by "ignorant negroes". The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The white men of the South were aroused by the mere instinct of self-preservation to rid themselves, by fair means or foul, of the intolerable burden of governments sustained by the votes of ignorant negroes and conducted in the interest of adventurers: governments whose incredible debts were incurred that thieves might be enriched, whose increasing loans and taxes went to no public use but into the pockets of party managers and corrupt contractors.”

Woodrow Wilson · 1902 · Book

Passage in Wilson's history of the post-Civil War South describing the Reconstruction state governments and the white response to them.

Woodrow Wilson, A History of the American People, vol. 5, "Reunion and Nationalization" (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1902), ch. 1, "Reconstruction," p. 57 Source

Content note: Describes the Ku Klux Klan as protecting the South from the "ugliest hazards of a time of revolution". The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Here was a very tempting and dangerous instrument of power for days of disorder and social upheaval, when law seemed set aside by the very government itself, and outsiders, adventurers, were in the seats of authority, the poor negroes, and white men without honor, their only partisans. Year by year the organization spread, from county to county, from State to State. Every country-side wished to have its own Ku Klux, founded in secrecy and mystery like the mother "Den" at Pulaski, until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, an "Invisible Empire of the South," bound together in loose organization to protect the southern country from some of the ugliest hazards of a time of revolution.”

Woodrow Wilson · 1902 · Book

Passage describing the origin and spread of the first Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction South.

Woodrow Wilson, A History of the American People, vol. 5, "Reunion and Nationalization" (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1902), ch. 1, "Reconstruction," p. 59 Source

Content note: Refers to a colonial war later classed as genocide. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Their great sacrifices have not been made in vain. The latest dispatches reporting the defeat of the Witboi give us reason to hope that peace and order will be quickly restored in the sorely tried protectorates. Now our goal must be to make the re-conquered land profitable again.”

Wilhelm II · November 28, 1905 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

The speech opened the Reichstag session during the Herero and Nama war in German South West Africa and unrest in German East Africa. In it Wilhelm thanked the colonial troops.

Speech from the throne opening the Reichstag, Berlin, 28 November 1905, in Johannes Penzler, ed., Die Reden Kaiser Wilhelms II, vol. 3: 1901-Ende 1905 (Leipzig, n.d.), p. 289 Source

“We will endeavour as far as we can to advance the principle of equal rights of civilised men irrespective of colour. We will encourage as far as may be in our power a careful, patient discrimination between different classes of coloured men. We will not—at least I will pledge myself—hesitate to speak out when necessary if any plain case of cruelty or exploitation of the native for the sordid profit of the white man can be proved.”

Winston Churchill · February 28, 1906 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Churchill, then Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, replied for the new Liberal government in a Commons debate on the treatment of Africans in South Africa after the Boer War.

Speech on South African Native Races, House of Commons, 28 February 1906, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 152, cc. 1243-1244 Source

Content note: Defends a colonial war later classed as genocide. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Gentlemen, think of the colonial wars other nations have fought without batting an eyelash, the English, the French, the Dutch. Should the German people not stand as tall as the others? Should they be more humble? It is this question to which the allied governments demand an answer, a clear and unequivocal answer (“So true!” from the right). We may feel regret, Gentlemen, that a revolt has broken out that has cost us so many lives and such large amounts of money. We may feel regret about this, but we cannot go back. We must see this matter through!”

Bernhard von Bülow · December 13, 1906 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Bülow spoke in the debate on funding for the war in German South West Africa; the Reichstag majority rejected the supplementary estimate and he dissolved it the same day, which led to the "Hottentot elections" of January 1907.

Speech of Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow in the Reichstag, 13 December 1906, in Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstages, 12. Legislaturperiode, 1. Session, vol. 218, p. 4379, reprinted in Hans Fenske, ed., Quellen zur deutschen Innenpolitik 1890-1914 (Darmstadt, 1991), pp. 203-04 Source

Content note: Names the Social Democrats, Poles and the Centre as the national enemy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“No matter how different the situations in the various electoral districts may be, the parties that stood by the side of the government on December 13 kept in mind from the outset what united them back then: the battle for the honor and good of the nation against Social Democrats, Poles, Guelphs, and the Center Party.”

Bernhard von Bülow · December 31, 1906 · Letter · Berlin

Written two weeks after the dissolution of the Reichstag over colonial funding and before the January 1907 elections, the letter set out Bülow's plan for a bloc of conservatives and liberals against the Social Democrats, the Polish party, the Guelphs (Hanoverian particularists) and the Centre.

Letter of Chancellor Bülow to General Eduard von Liebert, 31 December 1906, in Eduard von Liebert, Aus einem bewegten Leben: Erinnerungen (Munich, 1925), pp. 180-81, reprinted in Ernst Rudolf Huber, Dokumente zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte, vol. 2 (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1961), pp. 436-38 Source

“As I stood in Prince Bismarck's death chamber, that simple and unadorned room in the Sachsenwald, my gaze fell on a picture hanging on the wall. It was a woodcut, a picture of Ludwig Uhland. The singer of the good old law, the man who had said in Frankfurt's Paulskirche: ‘No head shall shine over Germany that has not been anointed with a generous drop of democratic oil’ – looked over to the bed where the great man of action had passed away, the man who had fulfilled the dream of centuries for the German people. The whole of German history spoke from this juxtaposition, for only the combination of old Prussian conservative energy and discipline with the German spirit of broad-mindedness and liberalism can shape a happy future for the nation.”

Bernhard von Bülow · November 30, 1907 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

The passage closes a speech on domestic politics given while Bülow's conservative-liberal bloc held the Reichstag majority. The text on GHDI is the extract that Bülow read onto a recording in 1918.

Speech of Chancellor Bülow in the Reichstag, 30 November 1907, as read by Bülow for a sound recording of 4 February 1918, Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (DRA); full speech in the Reichstag stenographic report Source

Content note: Racial terminology and colonial policy toward Africans. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I hope that my remarks will convince the commission that the government can prosper only if it adopts a cautious, slow, what some call “Negro-friendly” and I call Negro-preserving policy, and that it does not permit itself to be diverted from this path by any interests or opinions.”

Bernhard Dernburg · February 18, 1908 · Statement · Berlin, Reichstag budget committee

Account given to the Reichstag budget committee by the head of the Imperial Colonial Office after a 30-day journey through German East Africa.

Bernhard Dernburg, statement to the Reichstag budget committee, 18 February 1908, Deutsches Kolonialblatt 19, no. 5 (1 March 1908), pp. 217-22, reproduced in Gerhard A. Ritter, Das Deutsche Kaiserreich 1871-1914: Ein historisches Lesebuch, 5th ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992), pp. 348-51 Source

Content note: Racial claim; defends racially separate justice and corporal punishment. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It is in the nature of the Negroes that the existing racial justice cannot be changed in the near future and that certain means of punishment that evoke horror in our homeland cannot be abolished.”

Bernhard Dernburg · February 18, 1908 · Statement · Berlin, Reichstag budget committee

Account given to the Reichstag budget committee by the head of the Imperial Colonial Office after a 30-day journey through German East Africa.

Bernhard Dernburg, statement to the Reichstag budget committee, 18 February 1908, Deutsches Kolonialblatt 19, no. 5 (1 March 1908), pp. 217-22, reproduced in Gerhard A. Ritter, Das Deutsche Kaiserreich 1871-1914: Ein historisches Lesebuch, 5th ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992), pp. 348-51 Source

Content note: Describes a colonists' right to beat African workers. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“On the coast, the many White men walking around with whips make an unpleasant impression. I found one lying on the table of the main cash office in Dar es Salaam (movement). It is still common even today, and those gentlemen who have been there will confirm this. Any White man has a certain right to beat his servants, workers etc. (shouting). They do not exercise it everywhere, as I can gladly confirm, but send their matters to court.”

Bernhard Dernburg · February 18, 1908 · Statement · Berlin, Reichstag budget committee

Account given to the Reichstag budget committee by the head of the Imperial Colonial Office after a 30-day journey through German East Africa.

Bernhard Dernburg, statement to the Reichstag budget committee, 18 February 1908, Deutsches Kolonialblatt 19, no. 5 (1 March 1908), pp. 217-22, reproduced in Gerhard A. Ritter, Das Deutsche Kaiserreich 1871-1914: Ein historisches Lesebuch, 5th ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992), pp. 348-51 Source

““You English,” he said, “are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come over you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation? What more can I do than I have done? I declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall, that my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England. Have I ever been false to my word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but you listen not to them but to those who misinterpret and distort them. That is a personal insult which I feel and resent. To be forever misjudged, to have my repeated offers of friendship weighed and scrutinized with jealous, mistrustful eyes, taxes my patience severely. I have said time after time that I am a friend of England, and your press – or, at least, a considerable section of it – bids the people of England refuse my proffered hand and insinuates that the other holds a dagger. How can I convince a nation against its will?””

Wilhelm II · October 28, 1908 · Interview · London (published)

The Daily Telegraph printed the text as a communication from a source of "unimpeachable authority", reporting a long conversation with the Emperor. His remarks on British policy angered the British public and discredited him with many Germans.

Interview with Wilhelm II, The Daily Telegraph (London), 28 October 1908, reprinted in Louis L. Snyder, ed., Documents of German History (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1958), pp. 296-300 Source

““But, you will say, what of the German navy? Surely, that is a menace to England ! Against whom but England are my squadrons being prepared? If England is not in the minds of those Germans who are bent on creating a powerful fleet, why is Germany asked to consent to such new and heavy burdens of taxation? My answer is clear. Germany is a young and growing empire. She has a worldwide commerce which is rapidly expanding, and to which the legitimate ambition of patriotic Germans refuses to assign any bounds. Germany must have a powerful fleet to protect that commerce and her manifold interests in even the most distant seas. She expects those interests to go on growing, and she must be able to champion them manfully in any quarter of the globe. Her horizons stretch far away. She must be prepared for any eventualities in the Far East. Who can foresee what may take place in the Pacific in the days to come, days not so distant as some believe, but days, at any rate, for which all European Powers with Far Eastern interests ought steadily to prepare? Look at the accomplished rise of Japan; think of the possible national awakening of China; and then judge of the vast problems of the Pacific. Only those Powers which have great navies will be listened to with respect, when the future of the Pacific comes to be solved; and, if for that reason only, Germany must have a powerful fleet. It may even be that England herself will be glad that Germany has a fleet when they speak together on the same side in the great debates of the future.””

Wilhelm II · October 28, 1908 · Interview · London (published)

In the same interview the Emperor addressed British concern over the German battle fleet and linked its size to German trade and to the Pacific.

Interview with Wilhelm II, The Daily Telegraph (London), 28 October 1908, reprinted in Louis L. Snyder, ed., Documents of German History (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1958), pp. 296-300 Source

“Imagine, for example, the twentieth century interpreted to the twenty-fifth by its popular newspapers: to-day, more certainly than its popular drama, the abstract and chronicle of the time.”

Charles Masterman · 1909 · Book

In the opening chapter of his survey of English society, written while he was a junior minister in Asquith's Government, Masterman considers how future readers would judge the age from its press.

C. F. G. Masterman, The Condition of England (London: Methuen, 1909), p. 3 (chapter 'The Spirit of the People') Source

Content note: Contempt for a social class; wishes death on a hypothetical person. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Having attained so dolorous a consummation, perhaps the best that can be hoped for him is the advent of that friendly bullet which will terminate his inglorious life. Were this accomplished, the next day his own newspapers, the high priests of his religion, will rejoice over his death, and shamelessly gird at him for being what he is — the faithfullest of worshippers at their shrine.”

Charles Masterman · 1909 · Book

In the chapter on the lower-middle-class suburbs of London, Masterman describes a clerk who reads only sporting and competition newspapers and, in this passage, comments on his fate.

C. F. G. Masterman, The Condition of England (London: Methuen, 1909), p. 94 (chapter 'The Suburbans') Source

“This, Mr. Emmott, is a War Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness. I cannot help hoping and believing that before this generation has passed away we shall have advanced a great step towards that good time when poverty and wretchedness and human degradation which always follow in its camp will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests.”

David Lloyd George · April 29, 1909 · Speech · London, House of Commons

The closing passage of Lloyd George's Budget speech introducing the 1909 Budget, which raised taxation to fund naval building and new social spending.

Budget statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, House of Commons, 29 April 1909, HC Deb vol. 4, c. 548 Source

“Because a fully-equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two "Dreadnoughts," and they are just as great a terror, and they last longer.”

David Lloyd George · October 9, 1909 · Speech · Newcastle upon Tyne

Speaking during the controversy over the 1909 Budget and its land taxes, Lloyd George referred to recent speeches by dukes and to the cost of the naval programme.

Speech at Newcastle, 9 October 1909, "The Landlords' Tariff on Industry", in David Lloyd George, Better Times: Speeches (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910), p. 159 Source

“The question will be asked whether five hundred men, ordinary men chosen accidentally from among the unemployed, should override the judgment — the deliberate judgment — of millions of people who are engaged in the industry which makes the wealth of the country.”

David Lloyd George · October 9, 1909 · Speech · Newcastle upon Tyne

Lloyd George was speaking about the House of Lords, which had not yet rejected the 1909 Budget, and about the questions he expected the country to ask if it did.

Speech at Newcastle, 9 October 1909, "The Landlords' Tariff on Industry", in David Lloyd George, Better Times: Speeches (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910), p. 174 Source

“The hon. Member must wait and see.”

H. H. Asquith · April 4, 1910 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Asked by members what procedure would be used to introduce the Government's resolutions on the Lords' veto in the House of Lords, the Prime Minister replied briefly. This exchange is commonly cited as the source of the nickname "Wait and See" later attached to him.

Reply to a supplementary question, House of Commons, 4 April 1910, HC Deb (House of Lords Constitution), as recorded in Historic Hansard Source

Content note: Eugenic argument about people with mental disabilities. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the Feeble-Minded and Insane classes, coupled as it is with a steady restriction among all the thrifty, energetic and superior stocks, constitutes a national and race danger which it is impossible to exaggerate. I am convinced that the multiplication of the Feeble-Minded, which is proceeding now at an artificial rate, unchecked by any of the old restraints of nature, and actually fostered by civilised conditions, is a terrible danger to the race.”

Winston Churchill · December 1910 · Letter · London Verified (secondary source)

Written by Churchill as Home Secretary in Asquith's Liberal government, in the period when a Royal Commission's 1908 report on the feeble-minded was awaiting legislation (the Mental Deficiency Act followed in 1913). The letter argued for confinement, and in time sterilisation, of people then classed as feeble-minded.

Letter from Winston S. Churchill, Home Secretary, to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, December 1910 (Asquith papers, MS 12, folios 224-8), quoted in Martin Gilbert, 'Churchill and Eugenics', International Churchill Society, 31 May 2009 Source

“I would make great sacrifices to preserve peace. I conceive that nothing would justify a disturbance of international good will except questions of the greatest national moment. But if a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only be preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were vitally affected as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation in tolerable for a great country like ours to endure.”

David Lloyd George · July 21, 1911 · Speech · London, Mansion House Verified (secondary source)

Delivered during the Agadir crisis between France and Germany over Morocco, at an annual dinner of bankers, after consultation with Asquith and Grey. It was understood at the time as a warning to Germany.

Speech at the Bankers' Dinner, Mansion House, London, 21 July 1911, as reproduced in the World War I Document Archive (Brigham Young University Library) from the press report Source

Content note: Fictional dictator threatens death for sedition. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Failure to acquiesce in this, or any attempt to foster the policies of the late government, would be considered seditious, and would be punished by death.”

Edward M. House · 1912 · Book

Passage from House's anonymous political novel, in which the title character, after leading a successful armed revolt, issues an address to his soldiers before taking control of the government. It is fiction, but House wrote it, he said, to express his own political and economic ideas.

[Edward M. House], Philip Dru: Administrator: A Story of Tomorrow, 1920-1935 (New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1912), p. 150 (published anonymously; House's authorship is stated in Seymour, Intimate Papers of Colonel House, vol. 1, p. 153) Source

“The British Navy is to us a necessity and, from some points of view, the German Navy is to them more in the nature of a luxury. Our naval power involves British existence. It is existence to us; it is expansion to them.”

Winston Churchill · February 9, 1912 · Speech · Glasgow Verified (secondary source)

Delivered by Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty in Asquith's Liberal government, during the Anglo-German naval arms race. The ICS account notes that the 'luxury' description was badly received in Germany.

Speech at Glasgow, 9 February 1912, as quoted in the International Churchill Society's Finest Hour (Action This Day, winter 1911-12); the speech is also reproduced in Churchill, The World Crisis, vol. 1 (1923), p. 100 Source

Content note: Argues against votes for women on grounds of sex. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I oppose this, as I should oppose more logical and more courageous measures which started from the same point, on the broad and simple grounds that in my opinion, as a student of history and of our own public life, experience shows that the natural distinction of sex, which admittedly differentiates the functions of men and women in many departments of human activity, ought to continue to be recognised, as it always has been recognised, in the sphere of Parliamentary representation.”

H. H. Asquith · March 28, 1912 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Asquith, who led a Liberal Cabinet divided on the question, said he spoke as an individual and would vote against the Conciliation Bill. The bill was defeated that evening.

Speech on the second reading of the Parliamentary Franchise (Women) Bill, House of Commons, 28 March 1912, HC Deb vol. 36, c. 654 Source

“This Bill will leave behind it the memory of unforgetable wrong. It will revive antagonisms happily declining. It will give satisfaction to none except those who say: "How these Christians love one another." The Government will be well advised, even at the eleventh hour, to withdraw a Bill which has shocked the conscience of every Christian community in Europe.”

F. E. Smith · May 13, 1912 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Smith, then an opposition front-bencher, moved an amendment against the second reading of the Liberal Government's Bill to disestablish and disendow the Church of England in Wales. The closing sentence was widely quoted and mocked at the time.

F. E. Smith, speech moving the rejection of the Established Church (Wales) Bill, House of Commons, 13 May 1912, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 38, col. 820 Source

“If the attempt be made under present conditions to force Home Rule on Ulster I can imagine no length of resistance to which Ulster will go in which I shall not be ready to support them.”

Andrew Bonar Law · July 27, 1912 · Speech · Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire Verified (secondary source)

Bonar Law, then Leader of the Opposition, addressed a large Unionist rally in the grounds of Blenheim Palace against the Liberal Government's Home Rule Bill. The remark about Ulster was widely reported and debated at the time.

Andrew Bonar Law, speech at the Unionist demonstration at Blenheim Palace, 27 July 1912, as quoted in "Ulster Still Fighting Home Rule," The Literary Digest 45, no. 8 (24 August 1912), p. 291 Source

“I agree that, if either Government had grave reason to expect an unprovoked attack by a third Power, or something that threatened the general peace, it should immediately discuss with the other whether both Governments should act together to prevent aggression and to preserve peace, and, if so, what measures they would be prepared to take in common.”

Edward Grey · November 22, 1912 · Letter · London, Foreign Office

A reply to a letter from the French Ambassador about Anglo-French naval and military staff consultations. Grey read the exchange to the House on 3 August 1914 as the starting point of the Government's position on the crisis.

Grey to Paul Cambon, French Ambassador, letter of 22 November 1912, read by Grey to the House of Commons on 3 August 1914, HC Deb vol. 65, c. 1813 Source

Content note: Denies Poles capacity for self-government; defends Germanisation policy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“When the Poles proved themselves unfit to maintain government, and the strong Prussian State with its law and order assumed control of parts which had formerly belonged to the domain of Poland, the work of German civilisation had been going on in these parts for centuries already.”

English: Marie A. Lewenz (Cassell and Company, London, 1914). Original-language text not found.

Bernhard von Bülow · 1913 · Book

In his book on German foreign and domestic policy, written after he left office, Bülow defended Prussian settlement and Germanisation policy in the provinces of Posen and West Prussia, where Poles formed a large part of the population.

Bernhard von Bülow, Imperial Germany, translated by Marie A. Lewenz (London: Cassell, 1914; seventh impression), chapter "The Eastern Marches", pp. 242-243 (German edition: Deutsche Politik, Berlin, 1913) Source

“As has been repeatedly stated, this country is not under any obligation not public and known to Parliament which compels it to take part in any war. In other words, if war arises between European Powers there are no unpublished agreements which will restrict or hamper the freedom of the Government or of Parliament to decide whether or not Great Britain should participate in a war.”

H. H. Asquith · March 24, 1913 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Answering questions from backbench members about commitments to France, Asquith said that no unpublished agreement bound Britain to join a European war. Britain's naval and military staff conversations with France had not been disclosed to Parliament.

Reply to questions, House of Commons, 24 March 1913, HC Deb vol. 50, cc. 1316-1317 ("Treaty Obligations (Great Britain)") Source

Content note: Dismisses accounts of forcible feeding of imprisoned women. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I mention this perhaps only by the way in order to warn hon. Members against attaching too much credence to the accounts which are being given as to the terrible tortures which are endured in prison under the system of forcible feeding. Those prisoners have declared war on society, and part of their campaign is to carry on war against the Government, be they Liberal or Conservative, not this or that Government, but against all Governments which are responsible to a House of Commons elected by men. It is part of their propaganda to enrage public opinion against the officers of the law, and in executing their purpose they seem to be as neglectful of accuracy of statement as they are disregardful of civil order in their acts.”

Reginald McKenna · April 2, 1913 · Speech · London, House of Commons

The Home Secretary introduced the bill, later known as the "Cat and Mouse" Act, which allowed hunger-striking suffragette prisoners to be released and re-arrested. He was describing the hunger strikes and the accounts of forcible feeding then circulating.

Second reading of the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Bill, House of Commons, 2 April 1913, HC Deb vol. 51, cc. 405-406 Source

Content note: Concerns forcible feeding of imprisoned women. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“But it is undeniably true that forcible feeding, whether for those who suffer it or those who administer it, is a most objectionable practice, and means ought to be sought to enable those who are responsible for the administration of the law to take up some alternative methods which would not and could not have the same objections raised against them.”

Reginald McKenna · April 2, 1913 · Speech · London, House of Commons

The same speech, a few sentences later, as the Home Secretary explained why the bill proposed an alternative to forcible feeding.

Second reading of the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Bill, House of Commons, 2 April 1913, HC Deb vol. 51, c. 406 Source

“The right hon. Gentleman has made a statement which, in view of the gravity of the situation as we all know, and as he best of all knows, seems to me one of the most amazing instances of paltering with the House of Commons and the country which we have ever had. The position is far more serious than the statement would lead us to suppose. A new danger has arisen, a danger which, I think, anyone might have foreseen, but which has apparently come upon the Government as a bolt from the blue, the danger, that is—and I shall show that I am not exaggerating—that our Army should be destroyed before our eyes.”

Andrew Bonar Law · March 23, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Bonar Law spoke after the Secretary of State for War's statement on the resignations of army officers at the Curragh camp, who had been told they might be ordered to act against Ulster resistance to Home Rule.

Andrew Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposition, speech on the motion for the adjournment (the Curragh incident), House of Commons, 23 March 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 60, cols. 72-73 Source

“In these circumstances, in view of the facts which I have pointed out, in view of the fact that the First Lord has said that this was a treasonable conspiracy, and that the troops were only moved immediately after he had made that statement, in view of the belief which was held by the officer commanding the forces that they were at once to put down Ulster, I think it will be very difficult for the Prime Minister to convince the House—I accept his own good faith completely—his own good faith—I think it will be very difficult for the Prime Minister to convince the House or the country that, with or without his knowledge—in my belief without his knowledge—some of his colleagues, acting for the Government, did not make this movement of troops as part of a concerted plan either to provoke or to intimidate the people of Ulster.”

Andrew Bonar Law · March 23, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

In the same speech Bonar Law gave his view of the Government's movement of troops towards Ulster in March 1914 and of what the Prime Minister's statement would have to answer.

Andrew Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposition, speech on the motion for the adjournment (the Curragh incident), House of Commons, 23 March 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 60, col. 75 Source

“Nationalism loudly proclaims its incompatibility with economic individualism and the complete error of all the principles upon which it is based. The fundamental attitude of Nationalist economy must be that of a violent, absolute, irreconcilable opposition to individualist, Liberal and Socialist economy which rests on principles antagonistic to those of the Nationalist movement, on individualism, utilitarianism, materialism, internationalism.”

English: Herman Finer, in Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935). Original-language text not found.

Alfredo Rocco · May 1914 · Statement · Milan, Nationalist Congress Verified (secondary source)

Rocco and the economist Filippo Carli presented the report on economic policy to the congress of the Nationalist Association, which merged into the Fascist Party in 1923. Finer cites it as an early statement of ideas later developed in the Fascist corporate system.

Report by Alfredo Rocco and Filippo Carli to the Congress of the Italian Nationalist Association, Milan, 16-18 May 1914, as quoted and translated in Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), p. 494, citing Rosenstock-Franck, L'économie corporative fasciste (1934), p. 16 Source

“The situation is extraordinary. It is militarism run stark mad. Unless some one acting for you can bring about a different understanding, there is some day to be an awful cataclysm.”

Edward M. House · May 29, 1914 · Letter · Berlin

Letter written on House's trip to Europe as Wilson's unofficial emissary, six weeks before the outbreak of the First World War, after meetings with German officials including Admiral von Tirpitz.

Colonel House to President Wilson, Berlin, 29 May 1914, in Charles Seymour, ed., The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, vol. 1, "Behind the Political Curtain, 1912-1915" (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1926), p. 249 Source

“The use or introduction for drinking purposes of alcoholic liquors on board any naval vessel, or within any navy yard or station, is strictly prohibited, and commanding officers will be held responsible for the enforcement of this order.”

Josephus Daniels · June 1, 1914 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Daniels issued the order in his second year in office. It replaced the existing article of the Naval Instructions, ended the officers' wine mess and was recommended, he says, by the Surgeon General of the Navy.

General Order No. 99, Navy Department, 1 June 1914, effective 1 July 1914, as printed in Josephus Daniels, Our Navy at War (Washington, D.C.: Pictorial Bureau, 1922), p. 344 Source

Content note: Call for military action against Serbia. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The Serbs must be disposed of, and that right soon!”

Wilhelm II · July 1914 · Private-remark

Written in the margin of the diplomatic report about talks with Austro-Hungarian officials after the Sarajevo assassination. In the same report the ambassador said he had advised against hasty steps against Serbia.

Marginal note by Wilhelm II on Ambassador Tschirschky's report from Vienna of 30 June 1914, in Outbreak of the World War: German Documents Collected by Karl Kautsky, ed. Max Montgelas and Walther Schücking (New York: Oxford University Press, 1924), no. 7; German text in Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch 1914, ed. Max Montgelas and Walter Schücking (Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft für Politik und Geschichte, 1919/1927), no. 7 Source

Content note: Contempt for the British. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“England reveals herself in her true colors at a moment when she thinks that we are caught in the toils and, so to speak, disposed of! That common crew of shopkeepers has tried to trick us with dinners and speeches.”

Wilhelm II · July 1914 · Private-remark

Lichnowsky reported a warning from the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, that Britain might intervene if France were drawn into a war. Wilhelm's comment was written on the telegram in the following days; the edition prints it as an annotation.

Marginal note by Wilhelm II on Ambassador Lichnowsky's telegram no. 178 from London of 29 July 1914, in Outbreak of the World War: German Documents Collected by Karl Kautsky, ed. Max Montgelas and Walther Schücking (New York: Oxford University Press, 1924), no. 368; German text in Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch 1914, ed. Max Montgelas and Walter Schücking (Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft für Politik und Geschichte, 1919/1927), no. 368 Source

“If we can not attain localization (of the conflict) and Russia attacks Austria, a casus foederis will then arise; we could not throw Austria over then. We stand in the midst of an isolation that can scarcely be called “proud.” I desire no preventive war, but if war should come, we cannot hide behind the fence.”

Gottlieb von Jagow · July 18, 1914 · Letter · Berlin

Private letter to Prince Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador in London, written a few weeks after the Sarajevo assassination and before the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia, replying to Lichnowsky's criticism of German support for Austria-Hungary.

Private letter from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Ambassador in London, Berlin, 18 July 1914, Kautsky Documents No. 72 (German: Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch 1914, vol. 1, No. 72), English p. 132 Source

“According to all competent observation, Russia will be prepared to fight in a few years. Then she will crush us by the number of her soldiers; then she will have built her Baltic Sea fleet and her strategic railroads. Our group, in the meantime, will have become weaker right along.”

Gottlieb von Jagow · July 18, 1914 · Letter · Berlin

Private letter to Prince Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador in London, written a few weeks after the Sarajevo assassination and before the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia, replying to Lichnowsky's criticism of German support for Austria-Hungary.

Private letter from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Ambassador in London, Berlin, 18 July 1914, Kautsky Documents No. 72 (German: Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch 1914, vol. 1, No. 72), English p. 132 Source

“This is more than one could have expected! A great moral victory for Vienna; but with it every reason for war drops away”

Wilhelm II · July 28, 1914 · Private-remark

Wilhelm read the Serbian reply to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum on 28 July 1914. His note was added to the document; the edition refers to a letter from the Emperor of 28 July, 10 a.m. (no. 293).

Marginal note by Wilhelm II on the Serbian reply to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum, 28 July 1914, in Outbreak of the World War: German Documents Collected by Karl Kautsky, ed. Max Montgelas and Walther Schücking (New York: Oxford University Press, 1924), no. 271; German text in Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch 1914, ed. Max Montgelas and Walter Schücking (Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft für Politik und Geschichte, 1919/1927), no. 271 Source

“The Imperial Government is in receipt of reliable information relating to the proposed advance of French armed forces along the Meuse, route Givet-Namur. They leave no doubt as to France’s intention to advance against Germany through Belgian territory. [...] It is for Germany a dictate of self-preservation that she anticipate the hostile attack.”

English: Translated by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law (Oxford University Press, 1924). Original-language text not found.

Gottlieb von Jagow · July 29, 1914 · Statement · Berlin, to the German Minister at Brussels

Text of the German demand to Belgium for passage of German troops, sent sealed on 29 July 1914 and presented to the Belgian government on 2 August 1914; German troops entered Belgium on 4 August 1914. The note states that Germany held reliable information of a planned French advance through Belgium.

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (v. Jagow) to the Minister at Brussels, Berlin, 29 July 1914, Kautsky Documents No. 376 (sealed instruction; to be opened on telegraphic order), in Outbreak of the World War: German Documents Collected by Karl Kautsky, ed. Max Montgelas and Walther Schucking (New York: Oxford University Press, 1924), p. 330 Source

“Edward VII is stronger after his death than am I who am still alive!”

Wilhelm II · July 30, 1914 · Private-remark

Wilhelm wrote a long marginal comment on a diplomatic report on the evening of 30 July 1914, blaming Britain, Russia and France for the crisis. The comment was read by the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary and Zimmermann on 1 August.

Marginal note by Wilhelm II on Ambassador Pourtalès's telegram from St Petersburg, evening of 30 July 1914, in Outbreak of the World War: German Documents Collected by Karl Kautsky, ed. Max Montgelas and Walther Schücking (New York: Oxford University Press, 1924), no. 401; German text in Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch 1914, ed. Max Montgelas and Walter Schücking (Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft für Politik und Geschichte, 1919/1927), no. 401 Source

“England, Russia and France have agreed among themselves—after laying the foundation of the casus foederis for us through Austria— to take the Austro-Serbian conflict for an excuse for waging a war of extermination against us.”

Wilhelm II · July 30, 1914 · Private-remark

Part of the same marginal comment as the Edward VII entry. The Emperor set out his view that the Triple Entente had planned war against Germany.

Marginal note by Wilhelm II on Ambassador Pourtalès's telegram from St Petersburg, evening of 30 July 1914, in Outbreak of the World War: German Documents Collected by Karl Kautsky, ed. Max Montgelas and Walther Schücking (New York: Oxford University Press, 1924), no. 401; German text in Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch 1914, ed. Max Montgelas and Walter Schücking (Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft für Politik und Geschichte, 1919/1927), no. 401 Source

“You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy. You have to perform a task which will need your courage, your energy, your patience. Remember that the honour of the British Army depends on your individual conduct. It will be your duty not only to set an example of discipline and perfect steadyness under fire but also to maintain the most friendly relations with those whom you are helping in this struggle. The operations in which you are engaged will, for the most part, take place in a friendly country, and you can do your own country no better service than in showing yourself in France and Belgium in the true character of a British soldier. Be invariably courteous, considerate and kind. Never do anything likely to injure or destroy property, and always look upon looting as a disgraceful act. You are sure to meet a welcome and to be trusted; your conduct must justify that welcome and that trust. Your duty cannot be done unless your health is sound. So keep constantly on your guard against any excesses. In this new experience you may find temptations both in wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and, while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy. Do your duty bravely. Fear God. Honour the King.”

Herbert Kitchener · August 1914 · Statement Verified (secondary source)

A confidential printed message issued to each soldier of the British Expeditionary Force on embarkation for France, by the Secretary of State for War.

"An address by Field-Marshal Kitchener to the British Troops", leaflet for the Active Service Pay Book of the British Expeditionary Force, August 1914 Source

“I thank all of you for the love and loyalty that you have shown me these past days. These were serious days like none before them. Should there be battle, all political parties will cease to exist! I, too, have been attacked by one party or another. That was in times of peace. It is now forgiven with all my heart. I no longer think in terms of parties or confessions; today we are all German brothers and only German brothers. If our neighbors want it no other way, if our neighbors do not grant us peace, then I hope to God that our good German sword will emerge victorious from this hard battle.”

Wilhelm II · August 1, 1914 · Speech · Berlin, Royal Palace balcony

Wilhelm spoke to a crowd outside the palace on the day Germany ordered mobilization and declared war on Russia. The speech is the origin of the phrase about no longer recognising parties.

Address from the balcony of the Royal Palace, Berlin, 1 August 1914, in Kriegs-Rundschau I, p. 43, reprinted in Wolfdieter Bihl, ed., Deutsche Quellen zur Geschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges (Darmstadt, 1991), p. 49 Source

“We have great and vital interests in the independence—and integrity is the least part—of Belgium.”

Edward Grey · August 3, 1914 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Grey was setting out the Government's position to the Commons on the eve of the German ultimatum to Belgium, after reading the Belgian King's appeal for diplomatic intervention.

Statement by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, House of Commons, 3 August 1914, HC Deb vol. 65, c. 1822 Source

“If, in a crisis like this, we run away from those obligations of honour and interest as regards the Belgian Treaty, I doubt whether, whatever material force we might have at the end, it would be of very much value in face of the respect that we should have lost.”

Edward Grey · August 3, 1914 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Grey was answering the argument that Britain could stand aside from the war and intervene at its end.

Statement by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, House of Commons, 3 August 1914, HC Deb vol. 65, c. 1823 Source

“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.”

Edward Grey · August 3, 1914 · Private-remark · London, Foreign Office

Grey's memoir records a remark he made at a window of his Foreign Office room at dusk in the last week of July or the first days of August 1914. He gives the words as recalled by his friend, who thought the date was Monday 3 August.

Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Twenty-Five Years 1892-1916, vol. 2 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1925), p. 20, recalling a remark made on or about 3 August 1914 to a friend Source

“I say to the Government that they may to-morrow withdraw every one of their troops from Ireland. I say that the coast of Ireland will be defended from foreign invasion by her armed sons, and for this purpose armed Nationalist Catholics in the South will be only too glad to join arms with the armed Protestant Ulstermen in the North.”

John Redmond · August 3, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

The day before Britain's ultimatum to Germany, Redmond, leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, spoke after Grey and referred to the two rival bodies of Volunteers then armed in Ireland, one in the North and one in the South.

John Redmond, speech in the House of Commons following Sir Edward Grey's statement on the European crisis, 3 August 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 65, col. 1829 Source

“I have to add this on behalf of His Majesty's Government: We cannot regard this as in any sense a satisfactory communication. We have, in reply to it, repeated the request we made last week to the German Government, that they should give us the same assurance in regard to Belgian neutrality as was given to us and to Belgium by France last week. We have asked that a reply to that request, and a satisfactory answer to the telegram of this morning—which I have read to the House—should be given before midnight.”

H. H. Asquith · August 4, 1914 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Asquith told the Commons of German troops entering Belgium and of the British demand for assurances, with a time limit of midnight.

Prime Minister's announcement ("Violation of Belgian Neutrality"), House of Commons, 4 August 1914, HC Deb vol. 65, c. 1927 Source

“We are now acting in self-defense, and necessity knows no law. Our troops have occupied Luxemburg and perhaps have already been obliged to cross the Belgian frontier. This action violates international law. [...] Thus we have been forced to disregard the protests of the governments of Luxemburg and Belgium. The wrong which we thus commit we shall try to make good as soon as our military aim is attained. Whoever, like us, is fighting a supreme fight, must think only of forcing his way through.”

English: Alexander R. Hohlfeld, from the stenographic report in Der Tag, 5 August 1914 (Germanistic Society of Chicago, 1914). Original-language text not found.

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg · August 4, 1914 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag Verified (secondary source)

Bethmann Hollweg spoke on the day war credits were voted, as German troops entered Luxembourg and prepared to cross the Belgian frontier. The speech acknowledged that the action violated international law and promised to make good the wrong after the war.

Speech of Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg in the Reichstag, 4 August 1914, in The Session of the German Reichstag on August the Fourth, 1914, compiled and translated by Alexander R. Hohlfeld (Chicago: Germanistic Society of Chicago, 1914), Pamphlet no. 4 Source

“No lust of conquest drives us on; we are inspired by the unalterable will to protect the place in which God has set us for ourselves and all coming generations.”

English: English text from the Frankfurter Zeitung as printed in Christian Gauss, ed., The German Emperor as Shown in His Public Utterances (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1915). Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm II · August 4, 1914 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

The Kaiser opened the special wartime session of the Reichstag after Germany had declared war on Russia and France. The speech presented the war as defensive and was followed the same day by the war credits vote.

Address opening the Reichstag, Berlin, 4 August 1914, in Christian Gauss, ed., The German Emperor as Shown in His Public Utterances (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915), p. 326 (English text taken from the Frankfurter Zeitung; the volume notes there was no official edition) Source

“we are fighting to vindicate the principle which, in these days when force, material force, sometimes seems to be the dominant influence and factor in the development of mankind, we are fighting to vindicate the principle that small nationalities are not to be crushed, in defiance of international good faith, by the arbitrary will of a strong and overmastering Power.”

H. H. Asquith · August 6, 1914 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Moving a vote of credit of 100 million pounds two days after the declaration of war, Asquith set out what Britain was fighting for.

Speech in the House of Commons on the Vote of Credit, 6 August 1914, HC Deb vol. 65, c. 2079 Source

“because we believe, and I am certain the country will believe, that we are unsheathing our sword in a just cause.”

H. H. Asquith · August 6, 1914 · Speech · London, House of Commons

From the same speech, immediately before the passage on small nationalities.

Speech in the House of Commons on the Vote of Credit, 6 August 1914, HC Deb vol. 65, c. 2079 Source

“But now they want to humiliate us. They demand that we stand by with folded arms and watch our enemies prepare for a treacherous attack. They will not tolerate our standing in resolute loyalty to our ally, who is fighting for its status as a great power and whose humiliation would also mean the loss of our own authority and honor. The sword must now decide. In the midst of peace, the enemy attacks us. Therefore, to arms! Any wavering, any hesitation would be treason against the fatherland. The very existence of our empire, which our fathers re-established, is at stake. The very existence of German power and the German spirit is at stake. We will defend ourselves to the last breath of man and horse. And we will prevail in this struggle, even against a world of enemies.”

Wilhelm II · August 6, 1914 · Statement · Berlin

The proclamation was issued after the German declarations of war on Russia and France and the British entry into the war. GHDI reproduces the text from a recording that Wilhelm made on 10 January 1918.

Wilhelm II, Aufruf des Kaisers an das deutsche Volk (proclamation "To the German people"), 6 August 1914; recording made 10 January 1918, Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (DRA) Source

“We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.”

Woodrow Wilson · August 19, 1914 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Statement to the American people issued two and a half weeks after the First World War began in Europe, addressed to a country with large immigrant populations from several of the belligerent states.

"A Message to the American People" (appeal for neutrality), 19 August 1914, as reproduced by the Miller Center, University of Virginia Source

“Noble Lords on both sides of the House doubtless know that while associating myself in the fullest degree for the prosecution of the war with my colleagues in His Majesty's Government, my position on this Bench does not in any way imply that I belong to any political Party, for, as a soldier, I have no politics.”

Herbert Kitchener · August 25, 1914 · Speech · London, House of Lords

Kitchener's first speech to the Lords, three weeks after he joined the Cabinet as a serving field marshal without a party.

Statement by the Secretary of State for War, House of Lords, 25 August 1914, HL Deb vol. 17, c. 501 Source

“The terms of my service are the same as those under which some of the finest portions of our manhood, now so willingly stepping forward to join the Colours, are engaging—that is to say, for the war, or, if it lasts longer than three years, then for three years. It has been asked why the latter limit has been fixed. It is because should this disastrous war be prolonged—and no one can foretell with any certainty its duration—then after three years' war there will be others fresh and fully prepared to take our places and see this matter through.”

Herbert Kitchener · August 25, 1914 · Speech · London, House of Lords

Kitchener explained the enlistment terms for the new volunteers, "for the war, or, if it lasts longer than three years, then for three years", and why the three-year limit had been set.

Statement by the Secretary of State for War, House of Lords, 25 August 1914, HL Deb vol. 17, cc. 501-502 Source

“No one will suppose, for instance, that we are to manufacture incidents. It is suggested we should have the assistance of journalists, but it is no part of our functions to manufacture news. We are not in competition with the news agencies.”

F. E. Smith · August 31, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Smith answered Members' criticism, after the Times's publication of the previous day, that the Press Bureau supplied too little news to the press in the first weeks of the war.

F. E. Smith, Director of the Press Bureau, speech in the House of Commons, 31 August 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 66, col. 490 Source

“I can only add that the principle on which we have gone in asking the Press to be silent has been to ask them to exclude material which was excluded by the decisions of Lord Kitchener and the War Office upon lines of general policy.”

F. E. Smith · August 31, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

In the same debate Smith described how the Bureau decided what newspapers were asked not to print, saying the Bureau followed the War Office's and Lord Kitchener's decisions on general policy.

F. E. Smith, Director of the Press Bureau, speech in the House of Commons, 31 August 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 66, col. 493 Source

“But then, with renewed strength, we will press forward with God for the Emperor, the King, and the Fatherland until the last Russian has left our dear, sorely tried home province and we have carried our victorious flags into enemy territory. Long live His Majesty the Emperor and King, hurrah!”

English: English translation by German History in Documents and Images (GHDI). Original-language text not found.

Paul von Hindenburg · August 31, 1914 · Statement · East Prussia, Headquarters of the 8th Army

Order of thanks to the 8th Army the day after the battle of Tannenberg, printed in German newspapers at the time. The recording used by the source was made in 1917 for the Prussian State Library.

Paul von Hindenburg, "Aus dem Dankerlass an die Truppen der 8. Armee nach der Schlacht von Tannenberg", 31 August 1914 (recorded by Wilhelm Doegen, 17 October 1917; Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv), GHDI document ghdi:audio-5142 Source

“For my part, I say that sooner than be a silent witness, which means in effect a willing accomplice of this tragic triumph of force over law and of brutality over freedom, I would see this country of ours blotted out of the page of history.”

H. H. Asquith · September 4, 1914 · Speech · London, Guildhall

A recruiting meeting at which Asquith, Churchill, Balfour and Bonar Law spoke, held after the German advance through Belgium.

Speech at a patriotic meeting of the Citizens of London, Guildhall, 4 September 1914, in Great Speeches of the War (London: Hazell, Watson & Viney, 1915), p. 26 Source

Content note: Wartime atrocity rhetoric against the German army. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We should have been watching as detached spectators the siege of Liege, the steady and manful resistance of a small Army, the occupation of the capital, with its splendid traditions and memories, the gradual forcing back of the patriotic defenders of their native land to the ramparts of Antwerp, countless outrages suffered by, and buccaneering levies exacted from, the unoffending civil population, and finally the greatest crime committed against civilization and culture since the Thirty Years' War— the sack of Louvain. [Cries of " Shame."] With its buildings, its pictures, its unique library, its unrivalled associations, a shameless holocaust of irreparable treasures lit up by blind barbarian vengeance.”

H. H. Asquith · September 4, 1914 · Speech · London, Guildhall

In the same speech Asquith described the German invasion of Belgium and the destruction at Louvain in August 1914 as an argument for British intervention.

Speech at a patriotic meeting of the Citizens of London, Guildhall, 4 September 1914, in Great Speeches of the War (London: Hazell, Watson & Viney, 1915), p. 26 Source

Content note: Plan to reduce a neutral state to a vassal state. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Whatever the case, Belgium must in all events – even should it continue to exist as a state – sink to the status of a vassal state; it must cede occupation rights in militarily significant ports; place its coasts at our disposal; become economically a German province.”

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg · September 9, 1914 · Private-remark · Berlin

The memorandum outlined German war aims in the west and in Europe, and was written on 9 September 1914, during the Battle of the Marne. It is preserved in the Reich Chancellery files.

Bethmann Hollweg, memorandum ("September Programme"), Berlin, 9 September 1914, Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde, Reichskanzlei, Grosses Hauptquartier 21, no. 2476, reprinted in Wolfdieter Bihl, ed., Deutsche Quellen zur Geschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges (Darmstadt, 1991), pp. 61-62 Source

“4. A central European economic association is to be constructed through common customs agreements, to comprise France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Poland (!) and possibly Italy, Sweden, and Norway. This association will probably have no common constitutional head and will provide for ostensible equality among its members, although it will in fact be under German leadership; it must stabilize Germany’s economic predominance in central Europe.”

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg · September 9, 1914 · Private-remark · Berlin

Point 4 of the same memorandum proposed a customs association in central Europe under German leadership.

Bethmann Hollweg, memorandum ("September Programme"), Berlin, 9 September 1914, Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde, Reichskanzlei, Grosses Hauptquartier 21, no. 2476, reprinted in Wolfdieter Bihl, ed., Deutsche Quellen zur Geschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges (Darmstadt, 1991), pp. 61-62 Source

“the action of the Government in introducing this Bill is represented, and I have no doubt honestly believed in many quarters, to be a violation of assurances given by me on their behalf, if not of the letter, at any rate of the spirit of those assurances, and, what is perhaps equally, if not more, serious, an attempt on the part of the Government of the day—at a time of supreme national emergency—to take advantage of the spirit of patriotism which has been so universally and so splendidly manifested for the base purpose of party advantage.”

H. H. Asquith · September 15, 1914 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Asquith introduced a bill to hold the Home Rule and Welsh Church Acts in suspension for the duration of the war, and began by answering Unionist charges that the Government was breaking earlier assurances.

Speech introducing the Suspensory Bill (Government of Ireland and Welsh Church), House of Commons, 15 September 1914, HC Deb vol. 66, c. 882 Source

“I certainly do not regard this settlement of the difficulty as a party triumph for my Friends or myself, and I shall certainly not represent it as a party triumph either in this House or in Ireland. It is nothing of the kind. It inflicts a severe disadvantage upon us.”

John Redmond · September 15, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

The Government proposed to place the Home Rule Act on the statute book but suspend its operation until the end of the war. Redmond replied to the Leader of the Opposition, who had said the Nationalists gained from the war.

John Redmond, speech on the Government of Ireland (Suspensory) Bill, House of Commons, 15 September 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 66, col. 906 Source

“But ah ! the world owes much to the little five-foot-five nations. The greatest art in the world was the work of little nations ; the most enduring literature of the world came from little nations ; the greatest literature of England came when she was a nation of the size of Belgium fighting a great Empire. The heroic deeds that thrill humanity through generations were the deeds of little nations fighting for their freedom. Yes, and the salvation of mankind came through a little nation. God has chosen little nations as the vessels by which He carries His choicest wines to the lips of humanity, to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to stimulate and strengthen their faith ; and if we had stood by when two little nations were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarism, our shame would have rung down the everlasting ages.”

David Lloyd George · September 19, 1914 · Speech · London, Queen's Hall

A recruiting and war-aims speech to a London audience six weeks after Britain entered the war, arguing for support of Belgium and Serbia.

Speech on the War, Queen's Hall, London, 19 September 1914, in David Lloyd George, Through Terror to Triumph: Speeches and Pronouncements (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1915), p. 9 Source

Content note: Calls a head of state lunatic. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Lunacy is always distressing, but sometimes it is dangerous ; and when you get it manifested in the head of the State, and it has become the policy of a great Empire, it is about time that it should be ruthlessly put away.”

David Lloyd George · September 19, 1914 · Speech · London, Queen's Hall

Lloyd George had just read a speech attributed to the German Emperor, quoted from the British Weekly, to his audience.

Speech on the War, Queen's Hall, London, 19 September 1914, in David Lloyd George, Through Terror to Triumph (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1915), p. 11 Source

Content note: Insult aimed at a social class and a state. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The Prussian Junker is the road-hog of Europe. Small nationalities in his way are hurled to the roadside, bleeding and broken. Women and children are crushed under the wheels of his cruel car, and Britain is ordered out of his road. All I can say is this : if the old British spirit is alive in British hearts, that bully will be torn from his seat.”

David Lloyd George · September 19, 1914 · Speech · London, Queen's Hall

A passage in the same recruiting speech describing German policy toward Belgium and Britain through a motoring comparison.

Speech on the War, Queen's Hall, London, 19 September 1914, in David Lloyd George, Through Terror to Triumph (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1915), p. 12 Source

“Wicklow Volunteers, in spite of the peaceful happiness and beauty of the scene in which we stand, remember this country at this moment is in a state of war, and your duty is twofold. The duty of the manhood of Ireland is twofold. Its duty is at all costs to defend the shores of Ireland from foreign invasion. It is a duty more than that of taking care that Irish valour proves itself on the field of war as it has always proved itself in the past.”

John Redmond · September 20, 1914 · Speech · Woodenbridge, County Wicklow Verified (secondary source)

Redmond spoke at a parade of Volunteers in County Wicklow, urging them to serve in the war. His call for service outside Ireland was rejected by Volunteer leaders who opposed him, and the Volunteers split soon afterwards.

John Redmond, speech to Irish Volunteers at Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, 20 September 1914, text as reproduced by Cartlann (cartlann.org); the speech was reported in the Irish press on 21 September 1914 Source

“I have no complaint whatever to make about the response to my appeals for men — and I may mention that the progress in military training of those who have already enlisted is most remarkable ; the country may well be proud of them — but I shall want more men, and still more, until the enemy is crushed.”

Herbert Kitchener · November 9, 1914 · Speech · London, Guildhall

Kitchener was replying to the toast to the Imperial Forces of the Crown at the Lord Mayor's banquet, three months after the war began and while the volunteer armies were being raised.

Speech by the Secretary of State for War at the Lord Mayor's Guildhall Banquet, 9 November 1914, in Great Speeches of the War (London: Hazell, Watson & Viney, 1915), pp. 59-61 Source

“It has always been my view that the real rule by which this office which I now hold should be guided is the consideration as to whether the matter that it is proposed for publication should be allowed to see the light tested by whether its publication could afford any assistance to the enemy, whether it could unduly depress our people, whether it could disclose movements and operations of our troops, or of our Fleet, or by any other means whatever, directly or indirectly, imperil the national safety.”

Stanley Buckmaster · November 12, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, the Solicitor General, who had taken charge of the Press Bureau, replied to a debate in the House of Commons on the working of press censorship, raised on an amendment to the Address.

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, Solicitor General, speech on press censorship, House of Commons, 12 November 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 68, col. 129 Source

“Therefore criticism of the Government, or of Members of the Government, is not that which I have ever stopped, except where such criticism is of such a character as that it might destroy public confidence in the Government which at this moment is charged with the conduct of the War, or might in any way weaken the confidence of the people in the administration of affairs, or otherwise cause distress or disturbance amongst people in thinking their affairs were in a really serious state.”

Stanley Buckmaster · November 12, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, the Solicitor General, who had taken charge of the Press Bureau, replied to a debate in the House of Commons on the working of press censorship, raised on an amendment to the Address.

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, Solicitor General, speech on press censorship, House of Commons, 12 November 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 68, col. 129 Source

“May I point out that we have had news sent into us from every corner of the Kingdom, exact in detail, agreeing in particulars of time and place, recording the complete destruction of our Fleet and the annihilation of a number of our capital vessels. If we had acted on the suggestion of the hon. Member opposite, we should have published that news to the world, every word of which was a lie.”

Stanley Buckmaster · November 12, 1914 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, the Solicitor General, who had taken charge of the Press Bureau, replied to a debate in the House of Commons on the working of press censorship, raised on an amendment to the Address.

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, Solicitor General, speech on press censorship, House of Commons, 12 November 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 68, cols. 130-131 Source

Content note: Defends racial segregation of federal workers as "a benefit". The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It will take one hundred years to eradicate this prejudice, and we must deal with it as practical men. Segregation is not humiliating but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen. If your organization goes out and tells the colored people of the country that it is a humiliation, they will so regard it, but if you do not tell them so, and regard it rather as a benefit, they will regard it the same. The only harm that will come will be if you cause them to think it is a humiliation.”

Woodrow Wilson · November 12, 1914 · Private-remark · Washington, D.C., White House Verified (secondary source)

Second White House meeting between Wilson and Trotter's delegation on the racial segregation of federal employees in the Treasury, Post Office and other departments. Trotter published the account, and The Crisis printed it with the delegation's statement; Wilson ended the meeting after Trotter replied.

Wilson's reply to a delegation of the National Independent Equal Rights League led by William Monroe Trotter, White House, 12 November 1914, as printed in "Mr. Trotter and Mr. Wilson," The Crisis, vol. 9, no. 3 (January 1915), p. 119 Source

“After the effort failed to defeat France in the first stage of the war, and in view of the course of our military operations in the west during the present, second stage of the war, I, too, have to doubt whether it is still possible to defeat our opponents militarily, as long as the Triple Entente holds together.”

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg · November 19, 1914 · Letter · Berlin

After the failure of the offensive in the west and the first battle of Ypres, General von Falkenhayn urged a separate peace with Russia. The Chancellor wrote to the Foreign Office on the military outlook.

Letter of Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg to Under-Secretary Arthur Zimmermann, 19 November 1914, in André Scherer and Jacques Grunewald, eds., L'Allemagne et les problèmes de la paix pendant la Première Guerre Mondiale, vol. 1 (Paris, 1962), no. 13, p. 15ff, reprinted in Willibald Gutsche, Herrschaftsmethoden des deutschen Imperialismus 1897/8 bis 1917 (East Berlin, 1977), pp. 210-11 Source

“We are at this moment considering what immediate steps should be taken to secure the suppression of documents and statements of this character. Although I do not myself regard them as a danger I am sure they are an insult to the sentiment of the vast majority of the Irish people.”

Augustine Birrell · November 25, 1914 · Statement · House of Commons, London

Asked in the House about seditious publications in circulation, particularly in England, Birrell said that the Government was considering steps to suppress them.

Augustine Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, reply to a question in the House of Commons on the seditious press in Ireland, 25 November 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 68, col. 1120 Source

“I have no reason whatever to believe that these papers have poisoned anybody's mind except the minds of the people who have written the articles.”

Augustine Birrell · November 26, 1914 · Statement · House of Commons, London

The day after his statement on suppression, Birrell was pressed by Members who said that the Irish Volunteer and the Gaelic American had been poisoning Nationalists' minds for six weeks.

Augustine Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, answer to supplementary questions in the House of Commons on the seditious press in Ireland, 26 November 1914, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 68, col. 1290 Source

“The German Government has been taxed with considering treaties as "scraps of paper." That is certainly not the German record, nor the German position toward treaties. But this treaty was a scrap of paper; the English on their side did not put any faith in it, nor were they prepared to maintain it under all circumstances.”

Bernhard Dernburg · December 1914 · Article · The North American Review, reprinted in Search-Lights on the War

Passage on the 1839 Belgian neutrality treaty and the phrase 'scrap of paper' applied to Germany's treatment of treaties, written for an American readership.

Bernhard Dernburg, Search-Lights on the War (New York: The Fatherland Corporation, 1915), "Germany and the Powers" (from The North American Review, December 1914), pp. 43-44 Source

“Geographically, Belgium does certainly belong to the German Empire. She commands the mouth of the biggest German stream. Antwerp is most essentially a German port and the main outlet of the trade of western Germany. That Antwerp should not belong to Germany is as much an anomaly as if New Orleans and the Mississippi delta had been excluded from the Louisiana Purchase, or as if New York had remained English after the War of Independence.”

Bernhard Dernburg · 1915 · Article · The Independent (New York), reprinted in Search-Lights on the War

Article for an American readership, written during the war, setting out what Germany might do 'if she is entirely victorious', by a former Colonial Secretary who was then in the United States on what the magazine's editor called 'an important mission'.

Bernhard Dernburg, Search-Lights on the War (New York: The Fatherland Corporation, 1915), "When Germany Wins" (reprinted from The Independent), p. 60 Source

“But as a general rule, I would not consider it wise for my country to attempt any territorial aggrandizement in Europe.”

Bernhard Dernburg · 1915 · Article · The Independent (New York), reprinted in Search-Lights on the War

Same article: the writer's statement on territorial expansion in Europe, before his discussion of Belgium.

Bernhard Dernburg, Search-Lights on the War (New York: The Fatherland Corporation, 1915), "When Germany Wins" (reprinted from The Independent), p. 60 Source

“I think that attitude explains more than anything else the combination of truculence and contempt which runs through all the German communications, and caused those who received them in London from day to day and hour to hour, to think that God must have made them quite blind.”

Charles Masterman · 1915 · Article

The pamphlet names Masterman as formerly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a Member of the Cabinet. It reviews the first year of the war and is dated by its text to the anniversary of Britain's declaration of war.

C. F. G. Masterman, After Twelve Months of War (London: Darling & Son, 1915), pamphlet, p. 9 Source

“The proclamation of war was cheered by delirious crowds in Berlin and Vienna. I wonder what kind of a crowd, in either capital, could be gathered together to cheer that proclamation to-day !”

Charles Masterman · 1915 · Article

The pamphlet names Masterman as formerly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a Member of the Cabinet. It reviews the first year of the war and is dated by its text to the anniversary of Britain's declaration of war.

C. F. G. Masterman, After Twelve Months of War (London: Darling & Son, 1915), pamphlet, p. 8 Source

“We were sure of victory when we launched the ultimatum a year ago, telling Germany to clear out of Belgium or challenge the might of the British Empire. We are sure of victory to-day.”

Charles Masterman · 1915 · Article

The pamphlet names Masterman as formerly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a Member of the Cabinet. It reviews the first year of the war and is dated by its text to the anniversary of Britain's declaration of war.

C. F. G. Masterman, After Twelve Months of War (London: Darling & Son, 1915), pamphlet, p. 15 (closing lines) Source

“All I am trying to express is that where a power of that kind is given it grows. It is exercised by more and more people, and there is a danger that it may be used for purposes for which the Government would not willingly have it used.”

Andrew Bonar Law · February 8, 1915 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposition under the wartime party truce, spoke in the debate on a motion criticising the Press Bureau and its handling of war news.

Andrew Bonar Law, speech in the debate on the Press Bureau, House of Commons, 8 February 1915, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 69, col. 361 Source

“I have never withheld for five minutes any information that I had about the War. I have published instantly every item that it was within my power to publish, and I am quite satisfied that nothing has ever issued from my office that is not literally and absolutely true.”

Stanley Buckmaster · February 8, 1915 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, the Solicitor General, who headed the Press Bureau, replied to a motion in the House of Commons criticising the Bureau for withholding or delaying war news.

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, Solicitor General, speech on the Press Bureau, House of Commons, 8 February 1915, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 69, col. 349 Source

“I can conceive nothing more dangerous at the present moment, when our enemies are seeking by every means in their power to inspire the neutral Press with disbelief in our official statements—I can conceive nothing that would give them greater satisfaction than to hear that the English House of Commons had said that the action of the Press Bureau had been "calculated to cause suspicion."”

Stanley Buckmaster · February 8, 1915 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, the Solicitor General, who headed the Press Bureau, replied to a motion in the House of Commons criticising the Bureau for withholding or delaying war news.

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, Solicitor General, speech on the Press Bureau, House of Commons, 8 February 1915, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 69, col. 349 Source

“What I am responsible for is the fair, just and impartial administration of my duty in accordance with the directions which I receive from the different Departments.”

Stanley Buckmaster · February 8, 1915 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, the Solicitor General, who headed the Press Bureau, replied to a motion in the House of Commons criticising the Bureau for withholding or delaying war news.

Sir Stanley Buckmaster, Solicitor General, speech on the Press Bureau, House of Commons, 8 February 1915, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 69, col. 356 Source

Content note: Describes the German army as a beast. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“France ! The German army, like a wild beast, has fastened its claws deep into her soil, and every effort to drag them out rends and tears the living flesh of that beautiful land.”

David Lloyd George · February 28, 1915 · Speech · Bangor

Delivered on a Sunday at Bangor while Lloyd George was urging greater effort on munitions production and national seriousness about the war.

Speech at Bangor, 28 February 1915, in David Lloyd George, Through Terror to Triumph (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1915), p. 76 Source

“Drink is doing us more damage in the war than all the German submarines put together.”

David Lloyd George · February 28, 1915 · Speech · Bangor

Part of a passage about workmen who lost time from munitions work, which Lloyd George attributed mostly to drink. The speech preceded the Government's liquor-control measures of 1915.

Speech at Bangor, 28 February 1915, in David Lloyd George, Through Terror to Triumph (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1915), p. 84 Source

“It used to be considered, I believe, that to force the Dardanelles was not a possible operation of war. Thanks largely to the fact that we have ships like the "Queen Elizabeth," with guns which cannot be approached, it is now a possible operation, and we hope and believe that it is going to be successful. If it be successful I cannot doubt that it is going to have a great effect on the ultimate issue of this War.”

Andrew Bonar Law · March 1, 1915 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposition, replied to the First Lord of the Admiralty while the Allied fleet was bombarding the Dardanelles forts. The naval attack failed later in March, and the Gallipoli land campaign followed.

Andrew Bonar Law, speech in the debate on the Navy Estimates, House of Commons, 1 March 1915, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 70, col. 604 Source

“In dealing with an opponent who has openly repudiated all the restraints, both of law and of humanity, we are not going to allow our efforts to be strangled in a network of juridical niceties. We do not intend to put into operation any measures which we do not think to be effective, and I need not say we shall carefully avoid any measures which violate the rules either of humanity or of honesty.”

H. H. Asquith · March 1, 1915 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Asquith announced the British and French retaliatory measures against German trade, which extended the British blockade, after Germany declared the waters around Britain a war zone in February 1915.

Prime Minister's announcement on the Allied reply to the German blockade ("Success of Allies Assured"), House of Commons, 1 March 1915, HC Deb vol. 70, c. 600 Source

“It is a rough war, but the problem it sets is a comparatively simple one — munitions, more munitions, always more munitions; this is the essential question, the governing condition of all progress, of every leap forward.”

John French · March 22, 1915 · Interview Verified (secondary source)

French, then Commander-in-Chief in France, gave interviews in March 1915 about the shortage of shells and guns, at a time when the Government was publicly saying supplies were adequate. He says he did this to put the need before the public.

Interview given by General Sir John French to the Press, 22 March 1915, as quoted by French in 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 355 Source

“You deal in the raw material of opinion and, if my convictions have any validity, opinion ultimately governs the world.”

Woodrow Wilson · April 20, 1915 · Speech · New York City, annual luncheon of the Associated Press

Speech to the news agency's members during the first year of the European war, about three weeks before the sinking of the Lusitania. Carried over from the regime page's "In their words" list.

Address to the Associated Press, New York, 20 April 1915, in The New Democracy: Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Other Papers (1913-1917), ed. Ray Stannard Baker and William E. Dodd, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1926), p. 301 Source

“Replying to your recent letter and enclosures, I beg to say that it is true that 'The Birth of a Nation' was produced before the President and his family at the White House, but the President was entirely unaware of the character of the play before it was presented and has at no time expressed his approbation of it. Its exhibition at the White House was a courtesy extended to an old acquaintance.”

Joseph Tumulty · April 30, 1915 · Letter · Washington, D.C., White House

Reply to protests against a White House screening of D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation in February 1915. The Crisis printed it in a chronology of the protests against the film.

Joseph P. Tumulty, Secretary to the President, to W. H. Lewis of Boston and Bishop Alexander Walters, 30 April 1915, as printed in The Crisis, vol. 10, no. 2 (June 1915), pp. 88-89 Source

“There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.”

Woodrow Wilson · May 10, 1915 · Speech · Philadelphia, Convention Hall

Spoken to an audience of newly naturalized citizens three days after a German submarine sank the Lusitania, with 128 Americans among the dead. The address did not mention the sinking.

Address to newly naturalized citizens, Convention Hall, Philadelphia, 10 May 1915, as printed by the American Presidency Project Source

“You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American, and the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and Stripes.”

Woodrow Wilson · May 10, 1915 · Speech · Philadelphia, Convention Hall

Same speech to new citizens, in the passage on divided loyalties among Americans of European birth during the war.

Address to newly naturalized citizens, Convention Hall, Philadelphia, 10 May 1915, as printed by the American Presidency Project Source

“There has been undoubtedly considerable delay in producing the material which we at an early stage in the war foresaw would be required. This delay is due mainly to the unprecedented and almost unlimited calls that have been made on the resources of the manufacturers of this country. Strenuous efforts have been taken by all concerned to reduce as far as possible this delay in production, and I am glad to say that already a very considerable improvement in the output has been the result of the energy and good work of all concerned.”

Herbert Kitchener · May 18, 1915 · Speech · London, House of Lords

Made during the shell shortage controversy, a week after The Times published Colonel Repington's criticism of ammunition supply. The coalition government and a Ministry of Munitions followed within weeks.

Statement by the Secretary of State for War, House of Lords, 18 May 1915, HL Deb vol. 18, c. 1019 Source

“The third and last point, one of great importance to my hon. Friends behind me, and I have no doubt also to hon. Gentlemen who sit behind the Leader of the Opposition, is this: Any reconstruction that may be made will be for the purposes of the War alone, and is not to be taken in any quarter as any reason for indicating anything in the nature of surrender or compromise on the part of any person or body of persons of their several political purposes and ideals.”

H. H. Asquith · May 19, 1915 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Asquith announced the reconstruction of the Government on a broader basis, after the shell shortage controversy and the resignation of Lord Fisher; the coalition included Conservative and Labour ministers.

Statement by the Prime Minister, House of Commons, 19 May 1915, HC Deb vol. 71, c. 2393 Source

“Soldiers of the army and navy: The solemn hour of national vindication has arrived. Following the example of my ancestors, I assume today the supreme command of the army and navy; with the assurance of faith and victory that your valor, your self-abnegation, and your discipline will know how to accomplish. The enemy you are preparing to combat is well equipped and a worthy adversary. Favored by location and by learned military tactics, he will oppose you with tenacious resistance, but your indomitable buoyancy will lead you to victory. Soldiers! To you will belong the glory of planting the flag of Italy upon the sacred confines which nature placed as the boundaries of our country. To you will belong the glory of finally finishing the work begun by our forefathers, with so much heroism.”

Victor Emmanuel III · May 26, 1915 · Statement · General Headquarters (Gran Quartiere Generale)

Italy had declared war on Austria-Hungary on 24 May 1915. The King issued the order to the armed forces as he assumed the supreme command.

Order of the day of King Victor Emmanuel III on taking the supreme command of the army and navy, General Headquarters, 26 May 1915, in Luigi Carnovale, Why Italy Entered Into the Great War / Perchè l'Italia è entrata nella guerra (Italian-American Publishing Company, Chicago, 1917), English p. 230, Italian p. 567 Source

“It has fallen to my lot to introduce a third Budget, in which I must ask the House to assent to additional and unprecedented burdens, which, heavy as they are, I feel confident, if the taxes are approved, will be accepted by the country.”

Reginald McKenna · September 21, 1915 · Speech · London, House of Commons

McKenna had become Chancellor in the coalition formed in May 1915. His budget raised income tax and super-tax and introduced an excess profits duty.

Budget statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, House of Commons, 21 September 1915, HC Deb vol. 74, c. 347 Source

“On each of these articles I propose an ad valorem duty of 33⅓ per cent., or its equivalent, in the form of a specific rate, that is to say, on weight instead of on price. I anticipate a total revenue from the duty on these articles in a full year of £1,950,000, of which motor-cars account for £1,150,000, and cinema films for £400,000. These estimates of Revenue, however, are given under great reserve, as we have no experience what the effect of so high a rate of duty will be upon importation.”

Reginald McKenna · September 21, 1915 · Speech · London, House of Commons

McKenna announced customs duties on motor cars, cinema films, clocks, watches, musical instruments, plate glass and hats to curb imports and protect the exchanges. They became known as the McKenna duties.

Budget statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, House of Commons, 21 September 1915, HC Deb vol. 74, c. 361 Source

“If we succeeded in opening the eyes of her people to the fact that in a military sense they have nothing more to hope for, that breaking-point would be reached and England's best sword knocked out of her hand.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich von Falkenhayn · December 1915 · Letter Disputed

Passage from the memorandum on the conduct of the war in 1916 that Falkenhayn says he submitted to the Emperor at Christmas 1915, as printed in his memoirs.

Erich von Falkenhayn, General Headquarters 1914-1916 and its Critical Decisions (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 217 (the memorandum he says he sent to the Emperor at Christmas 1915, reproduced in the chapter 'The Position at the End of 1915') Source

Historians dispute whether the memoir text reflects the memorandum as written in December 1915 (see Holger Afflerbach, Falkenhayn: Politisches Denken und Handeln im Kaiserreich, 1994; Robert T. Foley, German Strategy and the Path to Verdun, 2005); the original document was not checked here. The text is as printed in the memoir.

Content note: Attrition strategy aimed at heavy enemy casualties. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Within our reach behind the French sector of the Western front there are objectives for the retention of which the French General Staff would be compelled to throw in every man they have. If they do so the forces of France will bleed to death — as there can be no question of a voluntary withdrawal — whether we reach our goal or not”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich von Falkenhayn · December 1915 · Letter Disputed

Passage from the memorandum on the conduct of the war in 1916 that Falkenhayn says he submitted to the Emperor at Christmas 1915, as printed in his memoirs.

Erich von Falkenhayn, General Headquarters 1914-1916 and its Critical Decisions (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 217 (the memorandum he says he sent to the Emperor at Christmas 1915, reproduced in the chapter 'The Position at the End of 1915') Source

Historians dispute whether the memoir text reflects the memorandum as written in December 1915 (see Holger Afflerbach, Falkenhayn: Politisches Denken und Handeln im Kaiserreich, 1994; Robert T. Foley, German Strategy and the Path to Verdun, 2005); the original document was not checked here. The text is as printed in the memoir. The scan prints a bracket before 'Within' (a large printed brace); the closing bracket after 'not' is omitted.

“It is all the more necessary that we should ruthlessly employ every weapon that is suitable for striking at England on her own ground. Such weapons are the submarine war and the conclusion of a political and economic union between Germany and not her allies only, but all States which are not yet entirely under England's spell. This review is not concerned with the formation of such a union. The solution of that problem is the exclusive sphere of the political leaders.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich von Falkenhayn · December 1915 · Letter Disputed

Passage from the memorandum on the conduct of the war in 1916 that Falkenhayn says he submitted to the Emperor at Christmas 1915, as printed in his memoirs.

Erich von Falkenhayn, General Headquarters 1914-1916 and its Critical Decisions (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 214 (the memorandum he says he sent to the Emperor at Christmas 1915, reproduced in the chapter 'The Position at the End of 1915') Source

Historians dispute whether the memoir text reflects the memorandum as written in December 1915 (see Holger Afflerbach, Falkenhayn: Politisches Denken und Handeln im Kaiserreich, 1994; Robert T. Foley, German Strategy and the Path to Verdun, 2005); the original document was not checked here. The text is as printed in the memoir.

Content note: Describes some foreign-born citizens as poisoning the nation with disloyalty. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit, born under other flags but welcomed under our generous naturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life; who have sought to bring the authority and good name of our Government into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they thought it effective for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to debase our politics to the uses of foreign intrigue.”

Woodrow Wilson · December 7, 1915 · Speech · Washington, D.C., United States Capitol

Passage in the annual message on alleged sabotage and propaganda by some naturalized citizens during the European war. Wilson goes on in the same passage to say that their number is not great and urges Congress to pass new laws.

Third Annual Message to Congress, 7 December 1915, as printed by the American Presidency Project (published in the Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States and the Congressional Record) Source

Content note: Calls for disloyal persons to be "crushed out". The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I urge you to enact such laws at the earliest possible moment and feel that in doing so I am urging you to do nothing less than save the honor and self-respect of the nation. Such creatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out. They are not many, but they are infinitely malignant, and the hand of our power should close over them at once.”

Woodrow Wilson · December 7, 1915 · Speech · Washington, D.C., United States Capitol

Same passage of the annual message, calling on Congress to legislate against disloyal acts. Federal sedition and espionage legislation followed in 1917 and 1918.

Third Annual Message to Congress, 7 December 1915, as printed by the American Presidency Project Source

“Not being able to go back on the Prime Minister's pledge to call up the single men before the married, certain Ministers are trying to render compulsion useless by making out that although we may have power to take the men we cannot pay for them, and that they cannot be spared from their trades and at the same time admit of keeping up the necessary exports and so provide the money we need with which to subsidize our Allies.”

William Robertson · January 4, 1916 · Letter Verified (secondary source)

Robertson had become Chief of the Imperial General Staff the previous month. He wrote to the Commander-in-Chief in France about the Cabinet's divisions over compulsory military service and the number of divisions the country could afford.

Sir William Robertson, letter to Sir Douglas Haig, 4 January 1916, as printed in Sir William Robertson, Soldiers and Statesmen, 1914-1918, vol. 1 (London: Cassell, 1926), pp. 293-294 Source

“The arguments I advanced were that we need every man we can get, and that it is for the Government to say how many they can pay for and how many they can find. The idea of some of the politicians is to abolish some if not all of the second line Territorial divisions now at home, thirteen in number, which are preparing to go out later. But I do not think this will be done.”

William Robertson · January 4, 1916 · Letter Verified (secondary source)

From the same letter. Robertson describes the argument he made in the Cabinet about the number of troops and a proposal to disband second-line Territorial divisions.

Sir William Robertson, letter to Sir Douglas Haig, 4 January 1916, as printed in Sir William Robertson, Soldiers and Statesmen, 1914-1918, vol. 1 (London: Cassell, 1926), p. 294 Source

“I therefore, speaking for myself alone, say sorrowfully that I made an untrue estimate of this Sinn Fein movement—not indeed of its character or of the probable numbers of persons engaged in it or belonging to the association, nor of the localities where it is most to be found, nor of its frequent and obvious disloyalty, nor indeed of some of the dangers resulting from it. All this I knew and was able, if not fully, at all events with no great measures of incompleteness to appreciate, but not the possibility of a disturbance of the kind that has occurred in Dublin, of the mode of the warfare, if such an expression can be used in regard to it, which has been pursued—it was not street fighting, for there was no street fighting but of house and roof occupation—and of the desperate folly displayed by the leaders and by their dupes, which has resulted in the deaths of officers and soldiers who never enlisted for such purposes as these, and whose hopes, therefore, although their duty none the less has been well performed, were disappointed, and also in the deaths of equally brave inspectors, sergeants, and constables of the Royal Irish Constabulary.”

Augustine Birrell · May 3, 1916 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland since 1907, made a personal statement on his resignation after the Easter Rising in Dublin was put down, and gave his own account of how he had judged the Sinn Fein movement.

Augustine Birrell, personal statement on his resignation, House of Commons, 3 May 1916, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 82, col. 33 Source

“The unanimity of Ireland has, as I say, even yet been preserved. This is no Irish rebellion. I hope that, although put down, as it is being put down, as it must be put down, it will be so put down, with such success and with such courage, and yet at the same time humanity, displayed towards the dupes, the rank and file, led astray by their leaders, that this insurrection in Ireland will never, even in the minds and memories of that people, be associated with their past rebellions, or become an historical landmark in their history.”

Augustine Birrell · May 3, 1916 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Later in the same statement Birrell described the Rising as an insurrection led by a small group rather than an Irish rebellion, and referred to the treatment of those who followed them.

Augustine Birrell, personal statement on his resignation, House of Commons, 3 May 1916, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 82, col. 35 Source

“This outbreak, happily, seems to be over. It has been dealt with with firmness, which was not only right, but it was the duty of the Government to so deal with it. As the rebellion, or the outbreak, call it what you like, has been put down with firmness, I do beg the Government, and I speak from the very bottom of my heart and with all my earnestness, not to show undue hardship or severity to the great masses of those who are implicated, on whose shoulders there lies a guilt far different from that which lies upon the instigators and promoters of the outbreak.”

John Redmond · May 3, 1916 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Spoken in the debate in which Augustine Birrell announced his resignation as Chief Secretary after the Easter Rising in Dublin, while courts-martial of the participants were under way. Redmond was the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

John Redmond, speech on the resignation of Mr. Birrell, House of Commons, 3 May 1916, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 82, col. 37 Source

“We are sometimes told that the Government is weak. It may be weak—I do not know—but I tell my right hon. Friend this, that it is the intention of the Government and, I believe, with the approval of the great majority of the House and of the majority of this country, to see that, whereas the meetings of the Cabinet are intended to be secret, whereas we are all agreed that they ought to be secret, whereas they are protected by the oath which a Privy Councillor takes, that at least no newspaper shall publish the tittle-tattle, the inaccurate accounts which purport to be given day by day of what takes place in the Cabinet to be retailed, to the prejudice of this country, in neutral and foreign countries.”

F. E. Smith · May 8, 1916 · Speech · House of Commons, London

Sir Henry Dalziel, a newspaper proprietor, moved a motion on the Defence of the Realm regulation restricting the publication of Cabinet proceedings. Smith replied for the Government.

Sir F. E. Smith, Attorney General, speech in the House of Commons on the Defence of the Realm Act regulation on the publication of Cabinet proceedings, 8 May 1916, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 82, col. 429 Source

“whether he is aware that the continuance of military executions in Ireland has caused rapidly increasing bitterness of exasperation amongst large sections of the population who have not the slightest sympathy with the insurrection; and whether, following the precedent set by General Botha in South Africa, he will cause an, immediate stop to be put to military executions?”

John Redmond · May 8, 1916 · Speech · House of Commons, London

By 8 May 1916 military courts-martial had sentenced a number of the Easter Rising leaders to death and executions had begun. Redmond put the question to Asquith by private notice.

John Redmond, private notice question to the Prime Minister, House of Commons, 8 May 1916, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 82, col. 283 Source

“I see no reason for a prosecution. The statements are simply not believed.”

Andrew Bonar Law · May 11, 1916 · Statement · House of Commons, London

Mr. Ginnell asked about allegations, made on oath by a committee of Ceylonese, that people were shot without trial under martial law during the disturbances in Ceylon in 1915, and why those making them had not been prosecuted.

Andrew Bonar Law, Secretary of State for the Colonies, reply to a question from Mr. Ginnell on Ceylon, House of Commons, 11 May 1916, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 82, col. 883 Source

“There is no foundation for the allegation that excesses were committed by the local forces in the suppression of disorder in Ceylon.”

Andrew Bonar Law · May 11, 1916 · Statement · House of Commons, London

The question asked whether any inquiry had been held into the conduct of civilian employees appointed as officers in control of troops and volunteers during ten weeks of martial law in Ceylon in 1915.

Andrew Bonar Law, Secretary of State for the Colonies, reply to a question from Mr. Ginnell on Ceylon, House of Commons, 11 May 1916, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 82, col. 884 Source

Content note: Concerns executions after the Easter Rising. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We must agree that this is a horrible business. My hon Friend cannot think it is any satisfaction to me or my colleagues not to spare a man's life. It is one of the most painful duties that can possibly be cast on any human being to be responsible for the death of another.”

H. H. Asquith · May 11, 1916 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Asquith was answering John Dillon and others after the executions that followed the Easter Rising and amid questions about the shooting of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington.

Reply in the debate on Ireland (continuance of martial law), House of Commons, 11 May 1916, HC Deb vol. 82, c. 955 Source

“Weather conditions of a highly unfavourable nature robbed the Fleet of that complete victory which I know was expected by all ranks, which is necessary for the safety of the Empire and which will yet be ours.”

John Jellicoe · June 4, 1916 · Statement · HMS Iron Duke

Issued to the Grand Fleet four days after the Battle of Jutland, when, in Jellicoe's own words in the memorandum, full information was not available.

Memorandum by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe to the Grand Fleet, HMS Iron Duke, 4 June 1916, para. 3, as printed in The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916 (London: Cassell, 1919), pp. 412-413 Source

“Our losses were heavy and we miss many most gallant comrades, but, although it is very difficult to obtain accurate information as to the enemy losses, I have no doubt that we shall find that they are certainly not less than our own.”

John Jellicoe · June 4, 1916 · Statement · HMS Iron Duke

In the same memorandum Jellicoe gave the Fleet his estimate of German losses at Jutland, stating that accurate information was very difficult to obtain.

Memorandum by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe to the Grand Fleet, HMS Iron Duke, 4 June 1916, para. 4, as printed in The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916 (London: Cassell, 1919), p. 413 Source

Content note: Attributes political motives to German-American voters as a group. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It is clear, as the editorial appearing in this morning's New York World says, that the "hyphenate vote is a definite factor that cannot be discredited"; and that from the activities of the German-American Alliance every effort, as their own supporters declare, should be made to elect Justice Hughes.”

Joseph Tumulty · June 13, 1916 · Letter · Washington, D.C., White House

Letter to Wilson, then at the Democratic convention period, urging a public statement against the "hyphenate" vote, referring to Americans of German descent and the German-American Alliance, before the 1916 presidential election.

Joseph P. Tumulty to President Wilson, 13 June 1916, in Joseph P. Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1921), p. 189 Source

“If I have to depend almost entirely upon Press communiqués my opinion is not much more valuable than that of anyone else.”

William Robertson · August 1916 · Letter Verified (secondary source)

Writing to Haig during the Somme offensive, Robertson, who had to defend the offensive's casualties to Ministers, asked him to keep him informed beyond what the official communiqués said.

Sir William Robertson, letter to Sir Douglas Haig, August 1916 (after the Cabinet meeting of 1 August), as printed in Sir William Robertson, Soldiers and Statesmen, 1914-1918, vol. 1 (London: Cassell, 1926), p. 270 Source

“I said that we were now engaged in quite a new kind of warfare and that decisive results could not be expected in twenty-four hours nor in twenty-four days, and that relentless pressure on all fronts was the proper course to pursue and was promising good results by the winter.”

William Robertson · August 1916 · Letter Verified (secondary source)

Robertson reports to Haig what he told the Cabinet when Ministers were uneasy about the length of the Somme casualty lists.

Sir William Robertson, letter to Sir Douglas Haig reporting his statement to the Cabinet of 1 August 1916, as printed in Sir William Robertson, Soldiers and Statesmen, 1914-1918, vol. 1 (London: Cassell, 1926), p. 270 Source

“Germany elected to make it a finish fight with England. Now we intend to see that Germany has her way. The fight must be to the finish - to a knockout."”

David Lloyd George · September 28, 1916 · Interview · London Verified (secondary source)

Lloyd George was Secretary of State for War. The interview, given to an American news agency, addressed talk of neutral mediation and was widely reprinted.

Interview with Roy W. Howard of the United Press, London, 28 September 1916, as printed in the UPI Archives (dispatch of 28-29 September 1916) Source

“The ends of the Allies are well known; they have been frequently and precisely stated. They are not selfish ends, they are not vindictive ends, but they require that there shall be adequate reparation for the past and adequate security for the future.”

H. H. Asquith · October 11, 1916 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Asquith summarised the Allied war aims to the Commons in October 1916, two months before he ceased to be Prime Minister.

Statement by the Prime Minister, House of Commons, 11 October 1916, HC Deb vol. 86, c. 121 Source

“Gentlemen, in August, 1914, our enemies challenged the superiority of power in the world war. To-day we raise the question of peace, which is a question of humanity. We await the answer of our enemies with that sereneness of mind which is guaranteed to us by our exterior and interior strength, and by our clear conscience.”

English: English text of The New York Times, 13 December 1916, as reprinted in the Carnegie Endowment pamphlet. Original-language text not found.

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg · December 12, 1916 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag Verified (secondary source)

The Chancellor announced to the Reichstag that Germany and its allies had proposed peace negotiations to the Allied powers and read the note. The extract here is the passage immediately after the note.

Speech of Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg in the Reichstag, 12 December 1916 (extract), in Official Communications and Speeches Relating to Peace Proposals, 1916-1917, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law, Pamphlet no. 23 (Washington, 1917), pp. 1-3, reprinting The New York Times, 13 December 1916 Source

“There has been some talk about proposals of peace. What are the proposals? There are none. To enter at the invitation of Germany, proclaiming herself victorious, without any knowledge of the proposals she proposes to make, into a conference, is to put our heads into a noose with the rope end in the hands of Germany.”

David Lloyd George · December 19, 1916 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Lloyd George's first statement to the Commons as Prime Minister, days after the German Chancellor's peace note of 12 December and the American note that followed it.

Statement by the Prime Minister, House of Commons, 19 December 1916, HC Deb vol. 88, c. 1334 Source

“The care used by the department in its desire to do nothing to interfere with the legitimate exercise of the right of free speech is shown by the fact that in practically every case convictions were secured and substantial sentences imposed. In one instance the convicted defendant was sentenced to serve 20 years in the penitentiary.”

Thomas W. Gregory · 1917 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

From the Attorney General's annual report for the fiscal year that ended 30 June 1917, in the passage on prosecutions of persons charged with circulating newspapers and pamphlets and making speeches against the draft. The Espionage Act had been in force since 15 June 1917.

Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States for the Year 1917 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1917), p. 75 Source

“One of them in particular, which is nation-wide in scope and which is known as The American Protective League, has proven to be invaluable, and constitutes a most important auxiliary and reserve force for the Bureau of Investigation.”

Thomas W. Gregory · 1917 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

From the Attorney General's annual report for the fiscal year that ended 30 June 1917. "Them" refers to the local volunteer citizens' committees which the department says it encouraged to look out for "disloyal or enemy activities" and report them to officials.

Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States for the Year 1917 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1917), p. 83 Source

“We intend to begin on the 1st of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral.”

English: English translation supplied by the British government to Ambassador Page, as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Arthur Zimmermann · January 16, 1917 · Letter · Berlin, to the German Minister in Mexico

Cipher telegram from the German Foreign Secretary to the German Minister in Mexico, sent via Washington on 19 January 1917 (dated 16 January), deciphered by the British government and passed to the United States on 24 February 1917.

Zimmermann to the German Minister in Mexico, 16 January 1917 ("Zimmermann telegram"), English translation as sent in Ambassador Page to the Secretary of State, 24 February 1917, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 1: The World War, p. 147 Source

Content note: Proposal that Mexico seize United States territory. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.”

English: English translation supplied by the British government to Ambassador Page, as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Arthur Zimmermann · January 16, 1917 · Letter · Berlin, to the German Minister in Mexico

Cipher telegram from the German Foreign Secretary to the German Minister in Mexico, sent via Washington on 19 January 1917 (dated 16 January), deciphered by the British government and passed to the United States on 24 February 1917.

Zimmermann to the German Minister in Mexico, 16 January 1917 ("Zimmermann telegram"), English translation as sent in Ambassador Page to the Secretary of State, 24 February 1917, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 1: The World War, p. 147 Source

“The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves.”

English: English translation supplied by the British government to Ambassador Page, as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Arthur Zimmermann · January 16, 1917 · Letter · Berlin, to the German Minister in Mexico

Cipher telegram from the German Foreign Secretary to the German Minister in Mexico, sent via Washington on 19 January 1917 (dated 16 January), deciphered by the British government and passed to the United States on 24 February 1917.

Zimmermann to the German Minister in Mexico, 16 January 1917 ("Zimmermann telegram"), English translation as sent in Ambassador Page to the Secretary of State, 24 February 1917, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 1: The World War, p. 147 Source

“Please call the President’s attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace.”

English: English translation supplied by the British government to Ambassador Page, as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Arthur Zimmermann · January 16, 1917 · Letter · Berlin, to the German Minister in Mexico

Cipher telegram from the German Foreign Secretary to the German Minister in Mexico, sent via Washington on 19 January 1917 (dated 16 January), deciphered by the British government and passed to the United States on 24 February 1917.

Zimmermann to the German Minister in Mexico, 16 January 1917 ("Zimmermann telegram"), English translation as sent in Ambassador Page to the Secretary of State, 24 February 1917, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 1: The World War, p. 147 Source

“They imply, first of all, that it must be a peace without victory. It is not pleasant to say this. I beg that I may be permitted to put my own interpretation upon it and that it may be understood that no other interpretation was in my thought. I am seeking only to face realities and to face them without soft concealments. Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand.”

Woodrow Wilson · January 22, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C., United States Senate

Address delivered to the Senate while the United States was still neutral, setting out the terms on which Wilson said a lasting peace could be built. Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare nine days later.

Address to the Senate, 22 January 1917, as printed by the World War I Document Archive (Brigham Young University) Source

“A new era with a renewed people has arrived. The great war has brought it about. A generation that has been shaken to the core of its being by such extraordinary experiences, a people about whom a moving poem by a soldier poet said that its poorest son was also its most loyal, a nation that has learned a thousand times over every day that only collective strength can withstand and overcome external dangers—gentlemen, these are living forces that cannot be constrained or thrown off course by any party program, neither from the right nor from the left. Wherever political rights are to be reorganized, it is not a question of rewarding the people for what they have given. This idea has always seemed to me downright degrading, because it is solely a matter of finding the appropriate political and governmental expression for what this people is. Enormous political, intellectual, economic, and social tasks await us after the war. We can only solve them if the collective strength that enables us to prevail in this war continues to work in peacetime, if avenues are created in which it can operate freely and joyfully. This cannot be regulated by party templates; it is a demand of our state's inner strength, and this demand will prevail!”

English: English text on German History in Documents and Images (GHDI); translator not named on the page. Original-language text not found.

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg · February 27, 1917 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Bethmann Hollweg spoke in a Reichstag debate on constitutional reform during the war. The extract on GHDI is the passage he read for a sound recording in August 1918.

Speech of Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg in the Reichstag, 27 February 1917, as read in a recording of 26 August 1918, Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (DRA); full text in the Reichstag stenographic report (reichstagsprotokolle.de) Source

“A reactionary military dictatorship would lead us toward destruction. The course of events can make the satisfaction of democratic demands necessary during the war itself, in which case it is possible that the length of the war, the severity of sacrifice, and in the end developments in Russia, too, will make concessions appear insufficient that would have seemed adequate during the first year of the war. Without giving in to nervousness, one must be aware that a “too little” or “too late” can become fatal.”

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg · March 28, 1917 · Statement · Berlin

After the March revolution in Russia the Chancellor sent a confidential telegram about the effect on German politics and the press, for the information of the military leadership.

Telegram of the Chancellor to Legation Counsellor Freiherr von Grünau (Supreme Headquarters), 28 March 1917, no. 100, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Bonn, Gr. Hauptquartier, vol. 245, reprinted in Wilhelm Deist, Militär und Innenpolitik im Weltkrieg 1914-1918, vol. 2 (Düsseldorf: Droste, 1970), p. 694 Source

“I instructed the Minister to Mexico, in the event of war with the United States, to propose a German alliance to Mexico, and simultaneously to suggest that Japan join the alliance. I declared expressly that, despite the submarine war, we hoped that America would maintain neutrality.”

English: Translation as printed in Charles F. Horne, ed., Source Records of the Great War, vol. 5 (National Alumni, 1923); translator not named. Original-language text not found.

Arthur Zimmermann · March 29, 1917 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Reply to the Independent Socialist deputy Hugo Haase in the Reichstag on 29 March 1917, four weeks after Zimmermann had confirmed the authenticity of the telegram.

Arthur Zimmermann, speech in the Reichstag, 29 March 1917, in Charles F. Horne, ed., Source Records of the Great War, vol. 5 (National Alumni, 1923), p. 44 Source

“Every unprejudiced person must see in this the hostile attitude of the American Government, which seemed to consider it right, before being at war with us, to set the entire world against us. It cannot deny us the right to seek allies when it has itself practically declared war on us.”

English: Translation as printed in Charles F. Horne, ed., Source Records of the Great War, vol. 5 (National Alumni, 1923); translator not named. Original-language text not found.

Arthur Zimmermann · March 29, 1917 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Reply to the Independent Socialist deputy Hugo Haase in the Reichstag on 29 March 1917, four weeks after Zimmermann had confirmed the authenticity of the telegram.

Arthur Zimmermann, speech in the Reichstag, 29 March 1917, in Charles F. Horne, ed., Source Records of the Great War, vol. 5 (National Alumni, 1923), p. 44 Source

““Once lead this people into war,” he said, “and they’ll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. To fight you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of our national life, infecting Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street.””

Woodrow Wilson · April 1, 1917 · Private-remark · Washington, D.C., White House Verified (secondary source)

Cobb's account of a late-night conversation with Wilson at the White House on the evening before the war message, in which Wilson spoke about the effects of a declaration of war at home.

Wilson's words to Frank I. Cobb, editor of the New York World, as recalled in Cobb's memorandum printed in John L. Heaton, Cobb of "The World": A Leader in Liberalism (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1924), pp. 269-270 Source

“The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion.”

Woodrow Wilson · April 2, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

War message delivered to Congress after Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Congress declared war on Germany four days later. Carried over from the regime page's "In their words" list.

Address to a joint session of Congress asking for a declaration of war, 2 April 1917, in War and Peace: Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Public Papers (1917-1924), ed. Ray Stannard Baker and William E. Dodd, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927), p. 14 Source

Content note: Promises "stern repression" of disloyalty. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few.”

Woodrow Wilson · April 2, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

Passage of the war message about Americans of German birth or descent, after Wilson says most of them are loyal. The Espionage Act followed on 15 June 1917.

Address to a joint session of Congress asking for a declaration of war, 2 April 1917, as printed by the American Presidency Project Source

“But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open sea.”

Woodrow Wilson · April 2, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

Wilson explains to Congress why the armed neutrality he had proposed on 26 February 1917 could not answer unrestricted German submarine warfare, before asking for a declaration of war.

Address to a joint session of Congress, 2 April 1917, in Why We Are At War: Messages to the Congress, January to April 1917 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1917) Source

“Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic Governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people.”

Woodrow Wilson · April 2, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

From the passage of the war message setting out the aims of the war, shortly before Wilson asks Congress to recognise a state of war with Germany.

Address to a joint session of Congress, 2 April 1917, in Why We Are At War: Messages to the Congress, January to April 1917 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1917) Source

“Given the colossal achievements of the whole people in this terrible war, I am convinced that there is no room any longer for the three-class franchise system in Prussia. Furthermore, the proposed bill is to provide for the direct and secret election of deputies.”

Wilhelm II · April 7, 1917 · Statement · Supreme Headquarters

Issued after the February Revolution in Russia and during growing pressure in Germany for constitutional change. It promised reform of the Prussian three-class franchise after the war.

Erlass of Wilhelm II to Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg, 7 April 1917 ("Easter Message"), in F. Purlitz, ed., Der europäische Krieg in aktenmäßiger Darstellung: Deutscher Geschichtskalender, vol. 6 (Leipzig, 1919), pp. 768ff, reprinted in Ernst Rudolf Huber, Dokumente zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte, vol. 2 (Stuttgart, 1961), pp. 467-68 Source

“I can easily imagine a man whose affiliations, for instance, would be with a German ancestry and German traditions, making an indiscreet remark and arousing a very great deal of resentment, and following this a heady community impulse not only against him and his remark, but generalized against all persons who bore the same kind of name or the same sort of traditional affiliation. And I can easily imagine a community getting itself worked up into a pretty feverish state of opinion, and feeling that it ought to resent as disloyal what was perhaps only a thoughtless and unmeant indiscretion.”

Newton D. Baker · May 5, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C.

Baker spoke about five weeks after the United States entered the war, to college presidents called to Washington. He asked them to discourage intolerance toward people of German descent.

"The Task of the Colleges", address to a gathering of college presidents, Washington, 5 May 1917, in Newton D. Baker, Frontiers of Freedom (New York: George H. Doran, 1918), p. 28 Source

“This is the time for physicians of public opinion to exercise a curative impulse. You gentlemen and the young men who are in your colleges, who go to their homes from your colleges and write to their homes from your colleges, making up thus a very large part of the direction of public opinion, you can exercise a curative influence by preaching the doctrine of tolerance, by exemplifying the fact that it is not necessary for a nation like the United States, which is fighting for the vindication of a great ideal, to discolor its purpose by hatreds or by the entertainment of any unworthy emotion.”

Newton D. Baker · May 5, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C.

The passage follows his warning about community reactions to remarks by people of German descent, in the same address to college presidents.

"The Task of the Colleges", address to a gathering of college presidents, Washington, 5 May 1917, in Newton D. Baker, Frontiers of Freedom (New York: George H. Doran, 1918), pp. 28-29 Source

“It was my opinion that we ought not to let our desires run away with our judgment in the matter of making peace. For instance, if Turkey and Austria were willing to break away from Germany, or were willing to force Germany to make peace, I thought certain concessions should be made to them other than what we would have in mind in the event we had our complete will.”

Edward M. House · May 13, 1917 · Letter · New York

Letter to Wilson five weeks after the United States entered the war, on House's talk with the British foreign secretary then visiting Washington about what to do if Germany made a tentative peace offer.

Colonel House to President Wilson, New York, 13 May 1917, reporting a lunch with Arthur Balfour, in Charles Seymour, ed., The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, vol. 3, "Into the World War" (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928), p. 56 Source

“Some time ago I had a letter from Page proposing that we start a propaganda in England to improve the feeling towards us. I spoke to Balfour about this and suggested that it would be better if this were done by the English themselves. He agreed to take it up with his government and see that it was properly done.”

Edward M. House · May 13, 1917 · Letter · New York

Postscript to the same letter, about a suggestion from Walter Hines Page, the American ambassador in London, for American publicity work in Britain.

Colonel House to President Wilson, New York, 13 May 1917, in Charles Seymour, ed., The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, vol. 3, "Into the World War" (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928), p. 57 Source

Content note: Advocates press censorship. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“authority to exercise censorship over the press to the extent that that censorship is embodied in the recent action of the House of Representatives is absolutely necessary to the public safety.”

Woodrow Wilson · May 22, 1917 · Letter · Washington, D.C.

Letter to the congressman who chaired the House Judiciary Committee, written after the House had voted against a press-censorship provision in the Espionage bill. Carried over from the regime page's "In their words" list.

Letter to Representative Edwin Y. Webb on censorship of the press, 22 May 1917, in War and Peace: Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Public Papers (1917-1924), ed. Ray Stannard Baker and William E. Dodd, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927), p. 45 Source

“Not to add a square inch to the territory of the United States; not to take from any man, woman, or child living in the world a single thing which belongs to him; not even for the glory of successful arms; but in order to reestablish those principles of national justice without which national continuance and life can not prevail, and to give to the stricken peoples of the world who have been fighting for the right, rest and respite to rehabilitate their almost destroyed civilization.”

Newton D. Baker · June 5, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C.

Baker spoke on the evening of the first national registration under the Selective Service Act, describing the purpose of the war and the draft registration that took place that day.

"On the Evening of Registration Day", address to the Georgetown Citizens' Association, Washington, 5 June 1917, in Newton D. Baker, Frontiers of Freedom (New York: George H. Doran, 1918), p. 38 Source

Content note: Calls critics of the war "agents and dupes" of the German government. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted in this country than in Russia and in every country in Europe to which the agents and dupes of the Imperial German Government can get access. That government has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. They have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It is opinion they utter now, not sedition. They proclaim the liberal purposes of their masters: declare this a foreign war which can touch America with no danger to either her lands or her institutions; set England at the centre of the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economic dominion throughout the world; appeal to our ancient tradition of isolation in the politics of the nations; and seek to undermine the government with false professions of loyalty to its principles.”

Woodrow Wilson · June 14, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C., Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument grounds

Speech on Flag Day two months after the declaration of war, during the debate over the Espionage Act. In the same address Wilson says he is speaking of the German government and its supporters rather than of Americans generally.

Flag Day Address, 14 June 1917, as printed by the American Presidency Project Source

Content note: Warns opponents of the war effort. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Woe be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our way in this day of high resolution when every principle we hold dearest is to be vindicated and made secure for the salvation of the nations.”

Woodrow Wilson · June 14, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C., Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument grounds

Closing passage of the Flag Day Address, delivered in a heavy rainstorm.

Flag Day Address, 14 June 1917, as printed by the American Presidency Project Source

“The war has demonstrated the exceptional power of photography and film as a means of educating and influencing. Unfortunately, our enemies have thoroughly exploited their lead in this area, causing us severe damage. In the further course of the war film will retain its momentous significance as a political and military means of influence.”

Erich Ludendorff · July 4, 1917 · Letter · Great Headquarters (Grosses Hauptquartier)

Opening paragraph of the letter that proposed consolidating the German film industry under state influence and led to the founding of Ufa in December 1917. The letter is usually described as drafted with the Military Office of the Foreign Ministry under Hans von Haeften.

Letter from the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army (signed pp. Ludendorff) to the Royal War Ministry, Berlin, 4 July 1917, M.J. Nr. 20851 P., opening paragraph Source

Content note: Plan to conceal state ownership. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“However, it must not become known that the state is the purchaser. The entire financial transaction must be carried out by way of an expert, influential, experienced, reliable private entity (banking house), above all one that is absolutely loyal to the government. In no way should the negotiators be aware who the representative’s actual client is.”

Erich Ludendorff · July 4, 1917 · Letter · Great Headquarters (Grosses Hauptquartier)

Passage of the film-industry letter on how shares in German and Danish film companies would be bought without the state appearing as the buyer.

Letter from the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army (signed pp. Ludendorff) to the Royal War Ministry, Berlin, 4 July 1917, M.J. Nr. 20851 P., section 2 ("What expenditure is required?") Source

“These ends are attainable within the framework of your resolution, as I interpret it.”

Georg Michaelis · July 19, 1917 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Michaelis had become Chancellor on 14 July 1917 and spoke to the Reichstag on the day it passed the Peace Resolution, which called for a peace of understanding without forced territorial acquisitions. This sentence is the one cited for the phrase "as I interpret it".

Speech of Chancellor Georg Michaelis in the Reichstag, 19 July 1917, in Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstages, XIII. Legislaturperiode, 2. Session, vol. 310, pp. 3571-72, reprinted in Wolfdieter Bihl, ed., Deutsche Quellen zur Geschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges (Darmstadt, 1991), pp. 297-98 Source

“I define our war aims in light of this situation. In the first place, the territory of the Fatherland is inviolable. We cannot negotiate with an enemy who demands territory from us. When we make peace, we must above all secure the frontiers of the German Empire for all time.”

Georg Michaelis · July 19, 1917 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Michaelis had become Chancellor on 14 July 1917 and spoke to the Reichstag on the day it passed the Peace Resolution, which called for a peace of understanding without forced territorial acquisitions.

Speech of Chancellor Georg Michaelis in the Reichstag, 19 July 1917, in Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstages, XIII. Legislaturperiode, 2. Session, vol. 310, pp. 3571-72, reprinted in Wolfdieter Bihl, ed., Deutsche Quellen zur Geschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges (Darmstadt, 1991), pp. 297-98 Source

“We cannot offer peace again. (Quite right! on the right.) The hand that we sincerely extended met with no response.”

Georg Michaelis · July 19, 1917 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Michaelis had become Chancellor on 14 July 1917 and spoke to the Reichstag on the day it passed the Peace Resolution, which called for a peace of understanding without forced territorial acquisitions.

Speech of Chancellor Georg Michaelis in the Reichstag, 19 July 1917, in Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstages, XIII. Legislaturperiode, 2. Session, vol. 310, pp. 3571-72, reprinted in Wolfdieter Bihl, ed., Deutsche Quellen zur Geschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges (Darmstadt, 1991), pp. 297-98 Source

“The rifle and the bayonet are the principal weapons of the infantry soldier. He will be trained to a high degree of skill as a marksman, both on the target range and in field firing. An aggressive spirit must be developed until the soldier feels himself, as a bayonet fighter, invincible in battle.”

John J. Pershing · October 1917 · Statement · American Expeditionary Forces, France

A training directive for the AEF, issued from his headquarters in October 1917, requiring instruction for open warfare and an offensive spirit; the Final Report reproduces the passage.

General Headquarters training instructions of October 1917, as quoted in Final Report of Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief American Expeditionary Forces (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1920; H. Doc. 626, 66th Congress, 2d session), Part I, p. 15 Source

Content note: Calls non-subscribers friends of the enemy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“If the thousands of patriotic citizens of this country want to win this war now is the time for them to show it. If they don't subscribe for this loan and lend their money to the Government, they are helping the enemy. Every person who refused to subscribe or who takes the attitude of 'let the other fellow do it' is a friend of Germany, and I would like nothing better than to tell it to him to his face.”

William G. McAdoo · October 1917 · Speech · San Francisco Verified (secondary source)

McAdoo was touring the country in the campaign for the Second Liberty Loan, a bond issue of at least $3 billion that opened on 1 October 1917 and closed on 27 October. Government and volunteer publicity for the loans described buying bonds as a duty of citizens.

Speeches at San Francisco, October 1917, as reported in a Los Angeles dispatch of 12 October 1917, in The New York Times, 13 October 1917, front page (the same sentence is quoted, with McAdoo named, in Forbes, 16 March 1918, and in a Liberty Loan advertisement in The New York Times of 24 October 1917) Source

“Let us meet that challenge by a subscription to our second Liberty Loan, on the 27th day of October, nine days after the close of the German loan, which will make clear to the German military despotism that America marshals not alone her brave soldiers upon the field, her invincible navy upon the high seas, her industries throughout the length and breadth of this land, but as well her financial resources, and that she is determined to use them all, without stint and regardless of sacrifice to vindicate American rights, outraged too frequently by German infamies.”

William G. McAdoo · October 1, 1917 · Speech · Toledo, Ohio Verified (secondary source)

McAdoo was touring the country in the campaign for the Second Liberty Loan, a bond issue of at least $3 billion that opened on 1 October 1917 and closed on 27 October. Government and volunteer publicity for the loans described buying bonds as a duty of citizens. The "challenge" was a manifesto he read out, issued in Berlin by the League of German Municipalities, which said the proceeds of a German war loan would drown out the protests of the American President.

Speech opening the Liberty Loan campaign, Memorial Hall, Toledo, 1 October 1917, as reported in The New York Times in a dispatch of the same date Source

“every American dollar is back of them, and that lines of communication and supplies would be kept open. We must be just as willing to sacrifice all our money as they are willing to sacrifice their lives for us.”

William G. McAdoo · October 2, 1917 · Speech · Indianapolis Verified (secondary source)

McAdoo was touring the country in the campaign for the Second Liberty Loan, a bond issue of at least $3 billion that opened on 1 October 1917 and closed on 27 October. Government and volunteer publicity for the loans described buying bonds as a duty of citizens. He was speaking about what the soldiers and sailors at the front should be told.

Speech to a mass meeting for the Second Liberty Loan, Indianapolis, 2 October 1917, as reported in The New York Times in a dispatch of the same date Source

Content note: Threat to suppress newspapers. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We shall take great care not to let criticism which is personally or politically offensive to the administration affect our action. But if newspapers go so far as to impugn the motives of the government and thus encourage insubordination, they will be dealt with severely. For instance, papers may not say that the government is controlled by Wall Street, or munition manufacturers, or any other special interests. Publication of any news calculated to urge the people to violate law will be considered grounds for drastic action. We will not tolerate campaigns against conscription, enlistments, sale of securities or revenue collections. We will not permit the publication or circulation of anything hampering the war's prosecution, or attacking improperly our allies.”

Albert S. Burleson · October 9, 1917 · Statement · Washington, D.C. Verified (secondary source)

Burleson spoke after a Cabinet meeting that discussed the executive order putting the Trading with the Enemy Act into effect, which gave the Post Office power to license foreign-language newspapers. The Espionage Act of June 1917 already allowed the Post Office to refuse to carry matter it judged to be unlawful.

Remarks to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Washington, 9 October 1917, as reported by the Associated Press in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 10 October 1917, p. 3 (the same report is in The New York Times, 10 October 1917, the Birmingham Age-Herald, 10 October 1917, p. 9, and the Wheeling Intelligencer, 10 October 1917, p. 10) Source

“The trouble is [...] that most Socialist papers do contain this matter.”

Albert S. Burleson · October 9, 1917 · Statement · Washington, D.C. Verified (secondary source)

Burleson spoke after a Cabinet meeting that discussed the executive order putting the Trading with the Enemy Act into effect, which gave the Post Office power to license foreign-language newspapers. The Espionage Act of June 1917 already allowed the Post Office to refuse to carry matter it judged to be unlawful. He was explaining that no Socialist paper would be barred from the mails unless it contained "treasonable or seditious matter."

Remarks to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Washington, 9 October 1917, as reported by the Associated Press in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 10 October 1917, p. 3 (the same report is in The New York Times, 10 October 1917, the Birmingham Age-Herald, 10 October 1917, p. 9, and the Wheeling Intelligencer, 10 October 1917, p. 10) Source

“Since weapons and hunger could not break Germany's will to win, the enemy resorted to treachery. It sought to sow discord and divide the people from their emperor.”

English: English translation by German History in Documents and Images (GHDI). Original-language text not found.

Paul von Hindenburg · October 17, 1917 · Speech · Bad Kreuznach, Army High Command headquarters

Short recorded address on the war situation made for the sound archive of the Prussian State Library, three months after the Reichstag peace resolution of July 1917. It states the official account that Germany was fighting a defensive war.

Paul von Hindenburg, "Ansprache zur Lage Deutschlands im vierten Kriegsjahr", recorded 17 October 1917 at Bad Kreuznach (Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv), GHDI document ghdi:audio-5144 Source

“No one connected with the Government, from the President down, seeks by reason of these laws to avoid criticism, or even attack, but no publication containing matter which falls within the prohibition of the law will be permitted to circulate.”

Albert S. Burleson · October 25, 1917 · Letter · Washington, D.C. Verified (secondary source)

The letter set out how the Post Office would apply the Espionage Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act to newspapers and magazines, listing six kinds of matter that could not be mailed. The Masses had been refused mailing rights in August 1917 under the Espionage Act.

Letter from Postmaster General Burleson to publishers on the Espionage and Trading with the Enemy acts, made public 25 October 1917, as quoted in The New York Times, 26 October 1917 (Washington dispatch of 25 October) and The Sun (New York), 26 October 1917, p. 2 Source

Content note: Threat of prosecution against opponents of the war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“To all the disloyal in this country a message will be sounded which they can understand through the criminal courts. May God have mercy on them, for they need expect none from an outraged people and an avenging Government.”

Thomas W. Gregory · November 20, 1917 · Speech · New York City Verified (secondary source)

Gregory spoke at a dinner in New York City, seven months after the United States entered the war and five months after the Espionage Act. The New York Times reported the speech the next morning. He had said just before that 95 per cent of Americans would die as willingly for their beliefs as the men of 1776 and that he would address the other 5 per cent.

Report of Gregory's speech to the Lincoln Memorial University dinner, New York, 20 November 1917, in The New York Times, 21 November 1917 (the same sentence is repeated in the paper's editorial "Disloyalists and Aliens" of the same issue) Source

Content note: Derogatory language about opponents of the war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I will not speak of them, but I would address the other 5 per cent of disloyal persons and moral and physical degenerates who believe nothing is worth fighting for.”

Thomas W. Gregory · November 20, 1917 · Speech · New York City Verified (secondary source)

Gregory spoke at a dinner in New York City, seven months after the United States entered the war and five months after the Espionage Act. The New York Times reported the speech the next morning. "Them" refers to the 95 per cent he had just described as loyal.

Report of Gregory's speech to the Lincoln Memorial University dinner, New York, 20 November 1917, in The New York Times, 21 November 1917 (the same sentence is repeated in the paper's editorial "Disloyalists and Aliens" of the same issue) Source

“You and I are both too wise and we have had too much experience in this country to imagine that a broken accent means a broken mind, or that a non-American name, or the inability to speak readily our language means any lack of loyalty in the man or in his make-up.”

Newton D. Baker · December 4, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C.

Baker addressed the International Association of Chiefs of Police eight months into the war. He had just asked them to search out and suppress disloyalty, and went on to ask them to discriminate between disloyal people and those with ties to the enemy countries by blood or tradition.

"Problems of the Melting Pot", address to the annual convention of police chiefs, Washington, 4 December 1917, in Newton D. Baker, Frontiers of Freedom (New York: George H. Doran, 1918), p. 168 Source

“But never let us hesitate a second when we find a man living here, eating of our bread and drinking of the milk of plenty, when we find that man disloyal! The man who strikes us in the back, who undertakes to sap our strength through fire or otherwise, let us see that he is rendered harmless to accomplish any such purpose against the Government and our people.”

Newton D. Baker · December 4, 1917 · Speech · Washington, D.C.

The passage closes his appeal to police chiefs to apply "justice and fair dealing" and avoid "haste, ignorance and suspicion" while still acting against disloyal persons.

"Problems of the Melting Pot", address to the annual convention of police chiefs, Washington, 4 December 1917, in Newton D. Baker, Frontiers of Freedom (New York: George H. Doran, 1918), p. 169 Source

“Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.”

Woodrow Wilson · January 8, 1918 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

First of the fourteen points in Wilson's statement of war aims, delivered to Congress ten months after the declaration of war. The speech followed the Bolshevik publication of the Allies' secret treaties.

Address to a joint session of Congress ("Fourteen Points"), 8 January 1918, point I, as printed by the Avalon Project (Yale Law School) Source

“A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.”

Woodrow Wilson · January 8, 1918 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

Last of the fourteen points; it is the basis of the League of Nations later written into the Covenant at the Paris Peace Conference.

Address to a joint session of Congress ("Fourteen Points"), 8 January 1918, point XIV, as printed by the Avalon Project (Yale Law School) Source

“Our war aims from the beginning were the defense of the Fatherland, the maintenance of our territorial integrity, and the freedom of our economic development. Our warfare, even where it must be aggressive in action, is defensive in aim.”

English: English text of The New York Times Current History (New York Times Company, 1918). Original-language text not found.

Georg von Hertling · February 25, 1918 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag Verified (secondary source)

Hertling replied to President Wilson's address of 11 February 1918 and described German aims in the east. His army was advancing in Ukraine and the Baltic region after the Russian delegation broke off the Brest-Litovsk talks on 10 February.

Count Georg von Hertling, address to the Reichstag, 25 February 1918, in The New York Times Current History: The European War, vol. 15 (New York: The New York Times Company, 1918), "Long-Distance Peace Parley: Hertling's Address", pp. 99-102 Source

“We do not intend to establish ourselves, for example, in Esthonia or Livonia. In Courland and Lithuania our chief object is to create organs of self-determination and self-administration.”

English: English text of The New York Times Current History (New York Times Company, 1918). Original-language text not found.

Georg von Hertling · February 25, 1918 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag Verified (secondary source)

In the same speech Hertling described German policy towards the Baltic provinces taken from Russia. On 3 March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk took Courland and Lithuania from Russian control, and on 19 March the Chancellor told the Reichstag that they were united to Germany politically, economically and militarily.

Count Georg von Hertling, address to the Reichstag, 25 February 1918, in The New York Times Current History: The European War, vol. 15 (New York: The New York Times Company, 1918), "Long-Distance Peace Parley: Hertling's Address", pp. 99-102 Source

“Practically since the day war broke out between England and the Central Powers I became responsible for American publicity. I need hardly say that the scope of my department was very extensive, and its activities widely ranged. Among the activities was a weekly report to the British Cabinet on the state of American opinion, and constant touch with the permanent correspondents of American newspapers in England.”

Gilbert Parker · March 1918 · Article Verified (secondary source)

Parker, a novelist and Conservative MP, wrote in 1918 about the work of the American department of the British propaganda organisation, which operated without being publicly identified as official. Lasswell reproduced the extract as an account of British methods in the United States.

Sir Gilbert Parker, "The United States and the War," Harper's Magazine 136 (March 1918), pp. 521-531, extract reproduced in Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1927), p. 165 Source

“We advertised and stimulated many people to write articles. We utilised the friendly services and assistance of confidential friends; we had reports from important Americans constantly, and established association by personal correspondence with influential and eminent people of every profession in the United States, beginning with the university and college presidents, professors, and scientific men, and running through all the ranges of population.”

Gilbert Parker · March 1918 · Article Verified (secondary source)

Parker, a novelist and Conservative MP, wrote in 1918 about the work of the American department of the British propaganda organisation, which operated without being publicly identified as official. Lasswell reproduced the extract as an account of British methods in the United States.

Sir Gilbert Parker, "The United States and the War," Harper's Magazine 136 (March 1918), pp. 521-531, extract reproduced in Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1927), pp. 165-166 Source

“We asked our friends and correspondents to arrange for speeches, debates and lectures by American citizens, but we did not encourage Britishers to go to America and preach the doctrine of entrance into the war.”

Gilbert Parker · March 1918 · Article Verified (secondary source)

Parker, a novelist and Conservative MP, wrote in 1918 about the work of the American department of the British propaganda organisation, which operated without being publicly identified as official. Lasswell reproduced the extract as an account of British methods in the United States.

Sir Gilbert Parker, "The United States and the War," Harper's Magazine 136 (March 1918), pp. 521-531, extract reproduced in Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1927), p. 166 Source

Content note: Contempt for the Allies. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Hypocrisy has become second nature to the enemy, whose untruthfulness is made worse by its brutality. Every attempt at calm explanation and every real deliberation must fail, when the enemy, at the very moment he is laying a heavy hand on a neutral country, dares to speak of a policy guided by complete unselfishness.”

English: English text of The New York Times Current History (New York Times Company, 1918). Original-language text not found.

Georg von Hertling · March 19, 1918 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag Verified (secondary source)

Hertling defended the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918) at its first reading in the Reichstag, after German forces had advanced in the east and Russia had accepted the peace terms.

Count Georg von Hertling, address to the Reichstag on the first reading of the peace treaty with Russia, 19 March 1918, as reported in The New York Times Current History: The European War, vol. 15 (New York, 1918), "Von Hertling Defends Treaty", pp. 50-51 Source

“But despite all this, despite the fact that the aggressive tendency of the Russian policy was becoming constantly more evident, the idea of a preventive war was far removed from us. We did not decide to declare war on Russia until we had to face the Russian mobilization and to defend ourselves against a Russian invasion.”

English: Munroe Smith, in The Disclosures from Germany (New York: American Association for International Conciliation, 1918). Original-language text not found.

Gottlieb von Jagow · March 23, 1918 · Article · Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

Published reply of the former Foreign Secretary to Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum on the origins of the war, which had circulated in Germany and abroad in 1918.

Gottlieb von Jagow, "Remarks on the article of Prince Lichnowsky 'My London Mission'," Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 March 1918, in The Disclosures from Germany, trans. Munroe Smith (New York: American Association for International Conciliation, 1918), p. 139 Source

“It must either submit to the Russo-Serbian machinations, or command a quos ego, even at the risk of war. We could not leave our ally in the lurch.”

English: Munroe Smith, in The Disclosures from Germany (New York: American Association for International Conciliation, 1918). Original-language text not found.

Gottlieb von Jagow · March 23, 1918 · Article · Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

The same published reply: Jagow's account of why Germany supported Austria-Hungary against Serbia in July 1914.

Gottlieb von Jagow, "Remarks on the article of Prince Lichnowsky 'My London Mission'," Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 March 1918, in The Disclosures from Germany, trans. Munroe Smith (New York: American Association for International Conciliation, 1918), p. 139 Source

“Force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust.”

Woodrow Wilson · April 6, 1918 · Speech · Baltimore, Fifth Regiment Armory

War-bond speech on the first anniversary of the American declaration of war, delivered a few weeks after the German spring offensive began on the Western Front.

Speech opening the Third Liberty Loan campaign, Fifth Regiment Armory, Baltimore, 6 April 1918, as printed by the American Presidency Project Source

“I said that the fighting strength of the Army had increased. General Maurice says that it had diminished, as compared with the previous year. The figures that I gave were taken from the official records of the War Office, for which I sent before I made the statement. If they were incorrect, General Maurice was as responsible as anyone else. But they were not inaccurate.”

David Lloyd George · May 9, 1918 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice had published a letter alleging that statements by Lloyd George and Bonar Law on army strength in France were incorrect, and Asquith moved for a select committee. Lloyd George answered in the debate.

Prime Minister's reply to Asquith's motion, House of Commons, 9 May 1918, HC Deb vol. 105, c. 2359 Source

“Nor, again, is the Motion which I am about to make, either in intention or in effect, as I have seen it rather absurdly described, a Vote of Censure upon the Government.”

H. H. Asquith · May 9, 1918 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Asquith, then Leader of the Opposition, moved an inquiry into General Maurice's allegations about ministerial statements on army strength. Lloyd George answered in the same debate and the motion was defeated.

Speech moving a select committee on the Maurice letter, House of Commons, 9 May 1918, HC Deb vol. 105, c. 2347 Source

“It was a war of the American people against the English who despoiled America of its resources and held in colonial subjection, just as their "civilized" descendants are draining the life-blood of hundreds of millions of human beings in India, Egypt and all corners and ends of the world to keep them in subjection.”

English: English edition of 1918 as digitised by Project Gutenberg (eBook #35232); translator and publisher are not named in the text. Original-language text not found.

Vladimir Lenin · August 20, 1918 · Letter · Moscow Verified (secondary source)

Open letter addressed to American workers during the Russian Civil War and the Allied intervention. Lenin is describing the American War of Independence and contrasting it with British rule elsewhere.

Lenin, 'A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia', Moscow, 20 August 1918, English edition, Project Gutenberg eBook #35232 Source

“We shook hands with the French Monarchists although we knew that each one of us would rather have seen the other hang. But temporarily our interests were identical.”

English: English edition of 1918 as digitised by Project Gutenberg (eBook #35232); translator and publisher are not named in the text. Original-language text not found.

Vladimir Lenin · August 20, 1918 · Letter · Moscow Verified (secondary source)

Lenin recounts an arrangement with a French monarchist, de Lubersac, to destroy railway lines to slow the German advance after Brest-Litovsk. He presents it as an example of an agreement a class-conscious worker must be ready to make.

Lenin, 'A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia', Moscow, 20 August 1918, English edition, Project Gutenberg eBook #35232 Source

“The Workmen's and Peasant's Soviets are a new type of state, a new highest form of Democracy, a particular form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, a mode of conducting the business of the state without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie. For the first time democracy is placed at the service of the masses, of the workers, and ceases to be a democracy for the rich, as it is, in the last analysis, in all capitalist, yes, in all democratic republics.”

English: English edition of 1918 as digitised by Project Gutenberg (eBook #35232); translator and publisher are not named in the text. Original-language text not found.

Vladimir Lenin · August 20, 1918 · Letter · Moscow Verified (secondary source)

Lenin defines Soviet power to an American audience, describing the new state as a dictatorship of the proletariat and existing democratic republics as democracies for the rich.

Lenin, 'A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia', Moscow, 20 August 1918, English edition, Project Gutenberg eBook #35232 Source

“The German Government requests the President of the United States of America to take steps for the restoration of peace, to notify all belligerents of this request, and to invite them to delegate plenipotentiaries for the purpose of taking up negotiations. The German Government accepts, as a basis for the peace negotiations, the program laid down by the President of the United States in his message to Congress of January 8, 1918, and in his subsequent pronouncements, particularly in his address of September 27, 1918. In order to avoid further bloodshed the German Government requests to bring about the immediate conclusion of a general armistice on land, on water, and in the air.”

English: English translation enclosed by the Swiss Legation, as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Max von Baden · October 3, 1918 · Statement · Berlin

The first German request to the United States for an armistice, sent through the Swiss government after the Supreme Army Command asked the government at the end of September 1918 to seek one. Signed by the new Chancellor.

Note of the German Imperial Chancellor (Max, Prince of Baden) to President Wilson, dispatched 3-4 October 1918 and transmitted by the Swiss Chargé (Oederlin) on 6 October 1918, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Supplement 1, The World War, vol. 1, p. 338 Source

“The telephone message has been correctly repeated by Mr. von Payer. General Ludendorff thought that we might be able to hold out for perhaps two weeks longer, but that the crisis might come then, and that a delay of four days would therefore be considerable. Also at General Headquarters they did not sufficiently appreciate the difficulties of forming a new government.”

English: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law (Preliminary History of the Armistice, 1924). Original-language text not found.

Hans von Haeften · October 11, 1918 · Statement · Berlin, conference of the Imperial Chancellor with the Vice-Chancellor, Secretaries of State and party leaders

Haeften, who represented the Supreme Army Command at the Chancellor's conferences, confirms Vice-Chancellor Payer's account of Ludendorff's telephone message of 1 October 1918 about the timing of the first German armistice note, and adds what Ludendorff thought about holding out.

Statement by Colonel von Haeften, conference of 11 October 1918 (Document No. 42), in Preliminary History of the Armistice: Official Documents Published by the German National Chancellery, trans. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 1924), p. 62; German: Vorgeschichte des Waffenstillstandes: Amtliche Urkunden (Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1919) Source

“And here I do not advise the acceptance of the Social Democratic Ultimatum, but the upholding of the Monarchical principle by means of a solution still more democratic than that of the Ultimatum : His Majesty would at once declare his firm determination to abdicate as soon as the armistice negotiations have reached a point which permits of the issue of writs for the election of a Constituent National Assembly.”

English: W. M. Calder and C. W. H. Sutton (Constable, 1928). Original-language text not found.

Max von Baden · November 8, 1918 · Statement · Berlin, to the Emperor at Spa (by telephone)

Message the Chancellor says he telephoned to the Emperor's headquarters on 8 November 1918, the day after the Social Democratic ultimatum and during the revolution, proposing a conditional declaration of abdication.

The Memoirs of Prince Max of Baden, vol. 2, authorised translation by W. M. Calder and C. W. H. Sutton (London: Constable, 1928), p. 332 (message of 8 November 1918 as printed in the memoir) Source

“I was well aware that I was not formally entitled to make the publication without having the express consent of the Kaiser. But I considered it my duty to make known the Kaiser’s decision—now that, according to my information, it had been finally taken—while some good might still come of such publication.”

English: W. M. Calder and C. W. H. Sutton (Constable, 1928). Original-language text not found.

Max von Baden · November 9, 1918 · Book

Memoir account of why he sent the announcement of the Emperor's abdication to the Wolff Telegraph Agency on 9 November 1918 without the Emperor's express consent, after failing to reach him by telephone at Spa.

The Memoirs of Prince Max of Baden, vol. 2, authorised translation by W. M. Calder and C. W. H. Sutton (London: Constable, 1928), p. 352 (memoir account of 9 November 1918) Source

“The Kaiser and King has resolved to renounce the throne. The Chancellor remains in office until the questions connected with the abdication of the Kaiser, the renunciation of the Crown Prince of the German Empire and of Prussia, and the setting-up of the Regency have been regulated. He intends to propose to the Regent the appointment of Herr Ebert to the Chancellorship and the bringing in of a Bill to enact that election writs be immediately issued for a German Constituent National Assembly. This would have to settle finally the future constitution of the German people, including any sections of it that might wish to be included within the Empire.”

English: W. M. Calder and C. W. H. Sutton (Constable, 1928). Original-language text not found.

Max von Baden · November 9, 1918 · Statement · Berlin, Reich Chancellery, to the Wolff Telegraph Agency

Announcement the Chancellor issued around midday on 9 November 1918, as given in his memoirs. The memoir states he issued it on his own responsibility, without having the Emperor's express consent.

The Memoirs of Prince Max of Baden, vol. 2, authorised translation by W. M. Calder and C. W. H. Sutton (London: Constable, 1928), p. 353 (manifesto of 9 November 1918 as printed in the memoir) Source

“The enemy has capitulated. It is fitting that I address myself in thanks directly to the officers and soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces who by their heroic efforts have made possible this glorious result. Our armies, hurriedly raised and hastily trained, met a veteran enemy, and by courage, discipline and skill always defeated him. Without a complaint you have endured incessant toil, privation and danger. You have seen many of your comrades make the supreme sacrifice that freedom may live.”

John J. Pershing · November 12, 1918 · Statement · General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces, France Verified (secondary source)

Order to the AEF the day after the Armistice took effect, thanking the troops and warning that discipline had to be kept in the occupation.

General Orders No. 203, G.H.Q., American Expeditionary Forces, 12 November 1918; original held by the Library of Congress (Gladstone Afro-American Military Collection, mss83434, box 5, item 477); text as printed by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Source

“The whole business of mobilizing the mind of the world so far as American participation in the war was concerned was in a sense the work of the Committee on Public Information.”

Newton D. Baker · November 29, 1918 · Speech · Washington, D.C.

Baker spoke at a dinner for George Creel after the armistice. His remarks were printed, in Creel's book, as the Foreword.

Informal address at a dinner for George Creel, Washington, 29 November 1918, printed as the Foreword to George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), p. xiii Source

“We had an alternative to face when we went into this war. The instant reaction of habit and tradition was to establish strict censorship, to allow to ooze out just such information as a few select persons might deem to be helpful, and to suppress all of the things which these persons deemed hurtful.”

Newton D. Baker · November 29, 1918 · Speech · Washington, D.C.

Baker contrasts the Committee on Public Information with a conventional press-censorship board, in remarks printed as the Foreword to Creel's history of the Committee.

Informal address at a dinner for George Creel, Washington, 29 November 1918, printed as the Foreword to George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), p. xiii Source

“When the President talks of "self-determination" what unit has he in mind? Does he mean a race, a territorial area, or a community? Without a definite unit which is practical, application of this principle is dangerous to peace and stability.”

Robert Lansing · December 20, 1918 · Private-remark · Paris

Private note written a week after the American Commission reached France, on Wilson's use of "self-determination" as a basis of peace. Lansing quotes it in his 1921 memoir of the Paris Peace Conference.

Robert Lansing, memorandum of 20 December 1918, quoted in The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrative (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), p. 86 Source

“The more I think about the President's declaration as to the right of "self-determination," the more convinced I am of the danger of putting such ideas into the minds of certain races. It is bound to be the basis of impossible demands on the Peace Congress and create trouble in many lands. What effect will it have on the Irish, the Indians, the Egyptians, and the nationalists among the Boers? Will it not breed discontent, disorder, and rebellion? Will not the Mohammedans of Syria and Palestine and possibly of Morocco and Tripoli rely on it? How can it be harmonized with Zionism, to which the President is practically committed? The phrase is simply loaded with dynamite. It will raise hopes which can never be realized. It will, I fear, cost thousands of lives. In the end it is bound to be discredited, to be called the dream of an idealist who failed to realize the danger until too late to check those who attempt to put the principle in force. What a calamity that the phrase was ever uttered!”

Robert Lansing · December 30, 1918 · Private-remark · Paris

Private note on the reaction to the Fourteen Points among groups seeking hearings at the Paris Peace Conference. The Secretary of State disagreed with Wilson about self-determination.

Robert Lansing, memorandum of 30 December 1918, quoted in The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrative (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), p. 87 Source

“We did not want to put railings round ourselves, but wanted to have the fleet as a thing belonging to the German people. We instituted tours to the water-side and exhibited the ships and the wharves; we applied to the schools, and we called upon novelists to write for us: stacks of novels and pamphlets were the result.”

English: Anonymous English translation (Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Alfred von Tirpitz · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of the publicity campaign for the Navy Bills of 1898 and 1900 run by the Reich Naval Office.

Alfred von Tirpitz, My Memoirs, vol. 1 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919), chapter 11, "The Navy Bills", p. 146 Source

“On the other hand, what we aimed at was to be so strong that it would mean a certain risk even for the English fleet, with its enormous superiority, to pick a quarrel with us. Herein lay the political defensive as well as the tactical will to fight in a war of defence.”

English: Anonymous English translation (Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Alfred von Tirpitz · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of the aims of the 1900 Navy Bill, setting out the 'risk' idea: a German fleet large enough to make a British attack hazardous.

Alfred von Tirpitz, My Memoirs, vol. 1 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919), chapter 11, "The Navy Bills", pp. 159-160 Source

“The Entente’s guilt is also established in its deeds. The Entente, which tore Alsace-Lorraine from the German motherland; which made the German people the hirelings of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, and wanted to dissolve the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and annihilate the Turkish Empire; which fought with sword, hunger, internment, theft of trade, and moral poison, until the death of our nation was sealed; which translated immediately into fact the enmity that it had shown for decades, as soon as the negotiations of July, 1914, offered a particularly favourable opportunity,—this Entente will not be able, by hypocritically turning to advantage our unhappy policy, to avoid for ever the judgment of the history of the world upon the crime that it has committed on the spirit of humanity.”

English: Anonymous English translation (Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Alfred von Tirpitz · 1919 · Book

Memoir passage on responsibility for the outbreak of war in 1914, from a section arguing against German responsibility.

Alfred von Tirpitz, My Memoirs, vol. 1 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919), chapter on the outbreak of the war, pp. 375-376 Source

Content note: Attributes civilian deaths to the passengers. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“American citizens who in wanton recklessness, and in spite of the warnings of our ambassador, had embarked in this armed cruiser, heavily laden with munitions, lost their lives in the sinking of the vessel.”

English: Anonymous English translation (Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Alfred von Tirpitz · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915 and the American protest that followed.

Alfred von Tirpitz, My Memoirs, vol. 2 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919), chapter on the submarine campaign, p. 155 Source

“One could regret the loss of life, but must insist on our clear rights. Our prestige would then be increased in America, and the danger of war thus most effectively diminished.”

English: Anonymous English translation (Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Alfred von Tirpitz · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of Tirpitz's telegram of 9 May 1915 to General Headquarters urging that Germany hold its legal position after the Lusitania sinking.

Alfred von Tirpitz, My Memoirs, vol. 2 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919), chapter on the submarine campaign, p. 156 Source

“When the Northcliffe propaganda for the undermining of the German army had made full and successful use of the explosives thus supplied to it by the German democrats, Prince Max of Baden, Erzberger, and Scheidemann could not rest until they had tested their theory of the “peace of justice, not of force,” at the cost of our monarchy, our army, our honour, and our freedom.”

English: Anonymous English translation (Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Alfred von Tirpitz · 1919 · Book

Memoir passage on German politicians' calls in 1918 for democratisation and a peace of understanding, and on British propaganda directed at the German army.

Alfred von Tirpitz, My Memoirs, vol. 2 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919), chapter "Main Questions of War", p. 45 Source

“In accordance with the proposal submitted to me by Lieut.-Colonel Nicolai, General Headquarters arranged for patriotic instruction in the Field Army. But this was only a poor substitute for the work of enlightening public opinion at home, work which was done so consistently and effectively in the Entente countries.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich Ludendorff · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of the introduction of 'patriotic instruction' in the army in 1917 and the lack of a comparable civilian effort at home.

Erich Ludendorff, My War Memories, 1914-1918, vol. 2 (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 460 Source

“At home our attempt to improve the moral of the people by means of propaganda never got beyond the initial stages. After two years of pressure from me, the Chancellor had at last, in August, 1918, decided to create a Central Bureau for Press and propaganda purposes, both at home and abroad.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich Ludendorff · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of the August 1918 decision to create a central press and propaganda bureau, written after the war.

Erich Ludendorff, My War Memories, 1914-1918, vol. 2 (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 701 Source

Content note: Calls for hatred of the enemy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“England's defiance of the laws of nations in employing the blockade against our very flesh and blood was not met by fiery protest ; the heart of the people was not filled with strong, manly hatred ; its holy ire was not directed against the inhuman enemy.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich Ludendorff · 1919 · Book

Memoir passage on the home front under the British blockade, arguing that the German government and public had not met it with sufficient anger.

Erich Ludendorff, My War Memories, 1914-1918, vol. 2 (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 453 Source

“The attempt on the part of our Foreign Office to establish military relations with Mexico strengthened public opinion against us in the United States. In spite of my warnings the Foreign Office had used an antiquated and easily decipherable secret code.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich Ludendorff · 1919 · Book

Memoir comment on the Foreign Office's January 1917 approach to Mexico and the cipher used for it, in the chapter covering America's entry into the war.

Erich Ludendorff, My War Memories, 1914-1918, vol. 2 (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 414 (on the Zimmermann telegram) Source

“August 8th was the black day of the German Army in the history of this war. This was the worst experience that I had to go through, except for the events that, from September 15th onwards, took place on the Bulgarian Front and sealed the fate of the Quadruple Alliance.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich Ludendorff · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of 8 August 1918, the first day of the Allied offensive at Amiens.

Erich Ludendorff, My War Memories, 1914-1918, vol. 2 (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 679 Source

“Duty compelled us at last to substitute action for idle time-wasting and empty words. The enemy had to be asked for peace and an armistice. The military position, which would all too probably get worse, demanded this.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich Ludendorff · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of the reasoning behind the Supreme Army Command's request at the end of September 1918 that the government seek an armistice.

Erich Ludendorff, My War Memories, 1914-1918, vol. 2 (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 719 (on the end of September 1918) Source

“Further, people were still convinced at the time that the Government of the United States seriously intended to remain neutral, and it was also credited with the strength of carrying out its intentions, all the more so as it was not expected that this Government, too, which could not be a stranger to the real whys and wherefores of the war, would fall a victim to the hypnotic power of the lying propaganda of the Entente. The opening of the submarine campaign in the form mentioned above was accordingly decided upon.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich von Falkenhayn · 1919 · Book

Memoir account of the reasoning behind the February 1915 German declaration of a war zone around Britain and the expected American reaction.

Erich von Falkenhayn, General Headquarters 1914-1916 and its Critical Decisions (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 72 (on the opening of the submarine campaign, February 1915) Source

“We could still anticipate that such a resumption, even if it took another form, would have attained its purpose of bleeding France white.”

English: Anonymous English translation, Hutchinson (London, 1919). Original-language text not found.

Erich von Falkenhayn · 1919 · Book

Memoir assessment of the Verdun offensive after its restriction in July 1916.

Erich von Falkenhayn, General Headquarters 1914-1916 and its Critical Decisions (London: Hutchinson, 1919), p. 286 (on the Verdun operations, summer 1916) Source

“I said that the command of the British Forces in France had been entrusted to me by His Majesty's Government; that I alone was responsible to them for whatever happened, and that on French soil my authority as regards the British Army must be supreme until I was legally superseded by the same authority which had put that responsibility upon me.”

John French · 1919 · Book

In his 1919 account of the war's first months, French describes a private conversation with Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, in Paris on 1 September 1914, after the Field Marshal arrived in uniform and announced he would inspect the troops.

Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 100 Source

“I therefore determined on taking the most drastic measures to destroy the apathy of a Government which had brought the Empire to the brink of disaster.”

John French · 1919 · Book

French describes watching the failure of the attack at Festubert on 9 May 1915 from an observation post and the decision he took afterwards. The book appeared in 1919, after he had been replaced as Commander-in-Chief.

Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 357 Source

“I immediately gave instructions that evidence should be furnished to Colonel Repington, military correspondent of The Times, who happened to be then at Headquarters, that the vital need of high-explosive shells had been a fatal bar to our Army success on that day.”

John French · 1919 · Book

In the same passage French states that, after the Festubert attack, he had evidence given to The Times's military correspondent, and sent his secretary and an aide-de-camp to London with the correspondence on ammunition. The Times article followed on 15 May 1915.

Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 357 Source

“When this was reported to me I issued immediate orders to prevent any recurrence of such conduct, and called the local commanders to strict account, which resulted in a good deal of trouble. I have since often thought deeply over the principle involved in the manifestation of such sentiments between hostile armies in the field. I am not sure that, had the question of the agreement upon an armistice for the day been submitted to me, I should have dissented from it.”

John French · 1919 · Book

French's account of the unofficial fraternisation between British and German troops on Christmas Day 1914 and his order against a repeat.

Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 338 Source

“The Germans glaringly and wantonly set all such sentiments at defiance by their ruthless conduct of the present war; even from its very commencement.”

John French · 1919 · Book

Written in the same passage on Christmas 1914, French contrasts the German conduct of the war with what he calls the chivalry of earlier campaigns, comparing it with the Boers in South Africa.

Viscount French of Ypres, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 338 Source

“However, a situation might arise which would necessitate the temporary use of all American troops in the units of our Allies for the defensive, but nothing in the situation justified the relinquishment of our firm purpose to form our own Army under our own flag.”

John J. Pershing · 1919 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Pershing's Final Report to the Secretary of War describes his 1918 refusal to place American troops permanently under French or British command, as the Allies had urged after the German spring offensives.

Final Report of Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief American Expeditionary Forces (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1920; H. Doc. 626, 66th Congress, 2d session), Part I, p. 19 Source

“As our troops were being trained for open warfare, there was every reason why we could not allow them to be scattered among our Allies, even by divisions, much less as replacements, except by pressure of sheer necessity. Any sort of permanent amalgamation would irrevocably commit America's fortunes to the hands of the Allies.”

John J. Pershing · 1919 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

From the same passage of the Final Report, giving his reasons for opposing amalgamation of American units into Allied armies.

Final Report of Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief American Expeditionary Forces (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1920; H. Doc. 626, 66th Congress, 2d session), Part I, p. 19 Source

“Finally, the memory of the unflinching fortitude and heroism of the soldiers of the line fills me with greatest admiration. To them I again pay the supreme tribute. Their devotion, their valor and their sacrifices will live forever in the hearts of their grateful countrymen.”

John J. Pershing · 1919 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Closing tribute in the Final Report, addressed to the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, after the Armistice.

Final Report of Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief American Expeditionary Forces (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1920; H. Doc. 626, 66th Congress, 2d session), final paragraphs, p. 95 Source

“I wired to the Admiralty suggesting that the loss of the Audacious should be kept secret for as long as possible, so that the enemy should not learn of it, as the fact would afford him encouragement at a time when the military situation was extremely critical for the Allies, and also because, as a general policy, it was desirable to conceal from the enemy any serious losses of which he could otherwise have no immediate knowledge.”

John Jellicoe · 1919 · Book

Jellicoe's account of the loss of the battleship Audacious to a mine off the north coast of Ireland on 27 October 1914. The liner Olympic, carrying American passengers who photographed the sinking ship, had been held at Lough Swilly.

Admiral Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa, The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916: Its Creation, Development and Work (London: Cassell, 1919), p. 150 Source

“One other factor exercised a cramping effect upon our naval strategy throughout the War, namely, the bombardment of our undefended towns on the East Coast. Such bombardments were of no immediate military value to the enemy, but, in spite of the fact that the majority of the Press, and the public, realised that the Navy should not be led into false strategy because of these bombardments, it was difficult for the Fleet to ignore them, and I have no doubt that the Germans relied upon this fact.”

John Jellicoe · 1919 · Book

In a chapter on the strategic position of the Grand Fleet, Jellicoe lists factors that limited the Fleet's freedom of action, including the German naval bombardments of the east coast of England in 1914 and 1916.

Admiral Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa, The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916: Its Creation, Development and Work (London: Cassell, 1919), p. 25 (chapter 'Strategy in Home Waters') Source

“I ejaculated impatiently that, compared to the fearful fact of an Anglo-German war, the treaty of neutrality was only a scrap of paper. This expression was perhaps an indiscretion, but my blood boiled at his hypocritical harping on Belgian neutrality which was not the thing that had driven England into war [...]”

English: George Young (Thornton Butterworth, London, 1920). Original-language text not found.

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg · 1919 · Book

Bethmann Hollweg describes his talk of 4 August 1914 with the British ambassador Sir Edward Goschen and the remark about the Belgian neutrality treaty that the ambassador reported as "a scrap of paper".

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, Reflections on the World War, part 1, translated by George Young (London: Thornton Butterworth, 1920), chapter "The Outbreak of War", pp. 158-159 (German edition: Betrachtungen zum Weltkriege, Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1919) Source

“You may strip Germany of her colonies, reduce her armaments to a mere police force and her navy to that of a fifth rate power; all the same in the end if she feels that she has been unjustly treated in the peace of 1919 she will find means of exacting retribution from her conquerors.”

David Lloyd George · March 25, 1919 · Statement · Fontainebleau, France Verified (secondary source)

Written over a weekend at Fontainebleau and circulated to Wilson and Clemenceau while the terms of the German treaty were being drafted. It argued for moderation toward Germany.

"Some Considerations for the Peace Conference Before They Finally Draft Their Terms", memorandum by Lloyd George (the Fontainebleau Memorandum), 25 March 1919 Source

“From all this I am forced to the conclusion that a bargain has been struck by which the Japanese agree to sign the Covenant in exchange for admission of their claims. If so, it is an iniquitous agreement. Apparently the President is going to do this to avoid Japan's declining to enter the League of Nations. It is a surrender of the principle of self-determination, a transfer of millions of Chinese from one foreign master to another. This is another of those secret arrangements which have riddled the "Fourteen Points" and are wrecking a just peace.”

Robert Lansing · April 28, 1919 · Private-remark · Paris

Memorandum written on the day the Covenant of the League of Nations was adopted in plenary session, after Japan withdrew its "racial equality" amendment and the Allied leaders agreed to Japan's claims on the Shantung peninsula.

Robert Lansing, memorandum of 28 April 1919, quoted in The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrative (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), p. 229 Source

Content note: Advocates gas against 'uncivilised tribes'; colonial racial language. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.”

Winston Churchill · May 12, 1919 · Private-remark · London, War Office Verified (secondary source)

Internal War Office minute written months after the Armistice, on the possible use of gas in colonial operations. The text distinguishes lachrymatory (tear) gas from the most deadly gases.

Departmental minute by Winston S. Churchill, Secretary of State for War, War Office, 12 May 1919 (Churchill papers 16/16), printed in Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, Companion Volume IV, Part 1 (London: Heinemann, 1977) Source

Content note: Attributes League opposition to Irish and Jewish Americans; compares it to German propaganda. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“There is a tremendous drive against League, resembling German propaganda, backed by Irish and Jews. Irish openly opposing; Jews attacking along collateral lines.”

Joseph Tumulty · May 26, 1919 · Letter · Washington, D.C., White House

Cable from Wilson's secretary to the President at the Paris Peace Conference reporting opposition to the League of Nations in the United States, several weeks before the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

Cablegram, Tumulty to President Wilson in Paris, 26 May 1919, printed in the Appendix to Joseph P. Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1921), pp. 529-530 Source

“I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it.”

Woodrow Wilson · September 8, 1919 · Speech · Omaha, Nebraska, Auditorium

Speech during Wilson's national tour in support of the Treaty of Versailles and the League Covenant, in the Senate ratification fight. It is often attributed to the Pueblo speech of 25 September 1919; Wilson said it at Omaha.

Address at the Auditorium, Omaha, Nebraska, 8 September 1919, in War and Peace: Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Public Papers (1917-1924), ed. Ray Stannard Baker and William E. Dodd, vol. 2 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927), pp. 36-37 Source

“An English general said with justice: “The German army was stabbed in the back.” No guilt applies to the good core of the army. Its achievements are just as admirable as those of the officer corps. Where the guilt lies has clearly been demonstrated. If it needed more proof, then it would be found in the quoted statement of the English general and in the boundless astonishment of our enemies at their victory.”

Paul von Hindenburg · November 18, 1919 · Testimony · Berlin, Parliamentary Investigatory Committee of the National Assembly

Closing passage of a written declaration Hindenburg read before the committee investigating the causes of the war and the defeat, after the chairman had objected to part of his remarks. The GHDI introduction states it was drafted with Karl Helfferich and Erich Ludendorff. Hindenburg does not name the 'English general' in the passage.

Testimony of Field Marshal von Hindenburg, 18 November 1919, Stenographischer Bericht über die öffentlichen Verhandlungen des 15. Untersuchungsausschusses der verfassungsgebenden Nationalversammlung, vol. 2 (Berlin, 1920), pp. 700-701 Source

“In all things, from first to last, without halt or change, it was a plain publicity proposition, a vast enterprise in salesmanship, the world's greatest adventure in advertising.”

George Creel · 1920 · Book · United States

Creel's own account of the Committee on Public Information, the federal agency created by executive order in April 1917 to publicise the American war effort at home and abroad. The sentence sums up how he described its method.

George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), chapter 1, "The 'Second Lines'", p. 4 Source

“We did not call it propaganda, for that word, in German hands, had come to be associated with deceit and corruption. Our effort was educational and informative throughout, for we had such confidence in our case as to feel that no other argument was needed than the simple, straightforward presentation of facts.”

George Creel · 1920 · Book · United States

From the opening chapter of Creel's 1920 history of the Committee, written after the war to answer charges that it had manipulated opinion.

George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), chapter 1, "The 'Second Lines'", pp. 4-5 Source

“Nothing, it seemed to me, was more dangerous, for people did not need less criticism in time of war, but more. Incompetence and corruption, bad enough in peace, took on an added menace when the nation was in arms. One had a right to hope that the criticism would be honest, just, and constructive, but even a blackguard's voice was preferable to the dead silence of an iron suppression.”

George Creel · 1920 · Book · United States

Creel describes why he opposed a statutory press-censorship bill that was before Congress when he was appointed in April 1917. The Committee instead ran a voluntary censorship agreement with the press; the Espionage Act of June 1917 and the Post Office under Burleson restricted the press by other means.

George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), chapter 2, "The 'Censorship' Bugbear", p. 17 Source

“We wanted to reach the people through their minds, rather than through their emotions, for hate has its undesirable reactions. We wanted to do it, not by over-emphasis of historical appeal, but by unanswerable arguments that would make every man and woman know that the war was a war of self-defense that had to be waged if free institutions were not to perish.”

George Creel · 1920 · Book · United States

Creel explains the intended approach of the Committee's pamphlet and publication programme, in a chapter that describes the series of printed tracts it produced for domestic and foreign distribution.

George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), chapter on "The Fight for the Mind of Mankind", p. 100 Source

“A chief offense of the Committee was its attitude in regard to "atrocity stories." From the very first we held that unprovable accounts of "horrors" were bound to result in undesirable reactions, for if the Germans could manage to refute one single charge, they would straightway use it to discredit our entire indictment.”

George Creel · 1920 · Book · United States

Creel recounts disputes with members of Congress, including Senator Poindexter, who accused the Committee of circulating German propaganda because it had issued denials of exaggerated atrocity reports.

George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), chapter on "Relations with Congress", p. 56 Source

“Never was a country so thoroughly contra-espionaged! Not a pin dropped in the home of any one with a foreign name but that it rang like thunder on the inner ear of some listening sleuth!”

George Creel · 1920 · Book · United States

Creel's description of the wartime surveillance apparatus, including the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation, military and naval intelligence and the American Protective League of volunteers. He goes on to give figures for enemy aliens detained and prosecutions under the Espionage Act.

George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), chapter on "The 'Americanizers'", p. 168 Source

“As a consequence, their patriotism was a thing of screams, violence, and extremes; they outjingoed the worst of the jingoes, and their constant practice of extreme statement left a trail of anger, irritation, and resentment.”

George Creel · 1920 · Book · United States

Creel criticises the volunteer patriotic societies that sprang up after April 1917, which he says sought newspaper publicity. The example he gives next is a National Security League speaker's remarks about the University of Wisconsin.

George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), chapter on "The 'Americanizers'", p. 181 Source

“Under the pressure of tremendous necessities an organization grew that not only reached deep into every American community, but that carried to every corner of the civilized globe the full message of America's idealism, unselfishness, and indomitable purpose.”

George Creel · 1920 · Book · United States

Creel's summary of the Committee on Public Information's growth, directly after his statement that the work was a "plain publicity proposition". Written after the committee closed in 1919.

George Creel, How We Advertised America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1920), chapter 1, "The 'Second Lines'" Source

Content note: Defends intimidation as a tool of policy (Red Terror). The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Intimidation is a powerful weapon of policy, both internationally and internally. War, like revolution, is founded upon intimidation.”

English: English edition printed by the Workers Party of America as 'Dictatorship vs. Democracy' (Terrorism and Communism), as hosted by Marxists Internet Archive; translator not named on the page. Original-language text not found.

Leon Trotsky · 1920 · Book Verified (secondary source)

From his reply to Karl Kautsky's book on terrorism, written during the Russian Civil War. Trotsky treats intimidation as an ordinary instrument of both war and revolution.

Leon Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism (1920; American edition Dictatorship vs. Democracy), chapter 4, 'Terrorism' Source

Content note: Defends killing to intimidate and break a class's will (Red Terror). The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“A victorious war, generally speaking, destroys only an insignificant part of the conquered army, intimidating the remainder and breaking their will. The revolution works in the same way: it kills individuals, and intimidates thousands.”

English: English edition printed by the Workers Party of America as 'Dictatorship vs. Democracy' (Terrorism and Communism), as hosted by Marxists Internet Archive; translator not named on the page. Original-language text not found.

Leon Trotsky · 1920 · Book Verified (secondary source)

Same chapter of the reply to Kautsky. He compares the effect of revolutionary killing on a class with the effect of a victorious war on a defeated army.

Leon Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism (1920; American edition Dictatorship vs. Democracy), chapter 4, 'Terrorism' Source

Content note: Defends the Red Terror as a continuation of armed insurrection. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“In this sense, the Red Terror is not distinguishable from the armed insurrection, the direct continuation of which it represents.”

English: English edition printed by the Workers Party of America as 'Dictatorship vs. Democracy' (Terrorism and Communism), as hosted by Marxists Internet Archive; translator not named on the page. Original-language text not found.

Leon Trotsky · 1920 · Book Verified (secondary source)

Follows directly after the sentence on revolution killing individuals and intimidating thousands. Trotsky describes the Red Terror as a continuation of the armed insurrection of 1917.

Leon Trotsky, Terrorism and Communism (1920; American edition Dictatorship vs. Democracy), chapter 4, 'Terrorism' Source

“A commander who cannot or will not dare to stake his last resources for the sake of victory is committing a crime towards his own people. If his blow fails, he is certain to have the curses and scorn of the weaklings and cowards upon his head !”

English: F. A. Holt (Cassell, 1920). Original-language text not found.

Paul von Hindenburg · 1920 · Book

Written after the war, in the passage defending the January 1917 decision for unrestricted submarine warfare, which the Emperor took against the advice of the Imperial Chancellor. Hindenburg answers the charge that it was a last desperate throw.

Paul von Hindenburg, Out of My Life, trans. F. A. Holt (London: Cassell, 1920), p. 256 (on the decision of 9 January 1917 to begin unrestricted U-boat warfare) Source

“It was a dreadful disappointment for the army in the West ; worse, perhaps, for the public at home ; and worst — as we had good reason to fear — for our Allies. Loud rejoicings among our enemies ! Could more suitable material for propaganda be imagined ? The 246 Out of My Life brilliant, if somewhat belated, visible result of the bloody battle, the collapse of German resistance, the impetuous unceasing pursuit, the paroxysms about our methods of .warfare ! We could hear all the stops being drawn out beforehand. What a hail of propagandist literature would now descend on and behind our lines !”

English: F. A. Holt (Cassell, 1920). Original-language text not found.

Paul von Hindenburg · 1920 · Book

Memoir account of the German withdrawal to the Arras-St Quentin-Soissons line in March 1917 and the expected Allied propaganda about it.

Paul von Hindenburg, Out of My Life, trans. F. A. Holt (London: Cassell, 1920), pp. 245-246 (on the withdrawal to the Siegfried Line, March 1917) Source

“Like Siegfried, stricken down by the treacherous spear of savage Hagan, our weary front collapsed. It was in vain that it had tried to drink in new vitality from that fountain in our homeland which had run dry. It was now our task to save what was left of our army for the subsequent reconstruction of our Fatherland.”

English: F. A. Holt (Cassell, 1920). Original-language text not found.

Paul von Hindenburg · 1920 · Book

Memoir account of the end of the war on the Western Front in November 1918, written in 1920 after his November 1919 committee testimony. The spelling 'Hagan' is the translation's.

Paul von Hindenburg, Out of My Life, trans. F. A. Holt (London: Cassell, 1920), p. 440 (chapter "My Farewell", on the collapse of autumn 1918) Source

“Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution of law and order a year ago. It was eating its way into the homes of the American workman, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat were licking the altars of the churches, leaping into the belfry of the school bell, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes, seeking to replace marriage vows with libertine laws, burning up the foundations of society.”

A. Mitchell Palmer · February 1920 · Article · United States

Palmer wrote the article at the request of The Forum, in the weeks after the Justice Department's raids on suspected radicals in November 1919 and January 1920, to explain the arrests and deportations of aliens. The sentence describes the conditions he says prevailed in 1919.

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'", The Forum, vol. 63, no. 2 (February 1920), p. 174 Source

Content note: Derogatory language about aliens and a named individual. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“A small clique of outcasts from the East Side of New York has attempted this, with what success we all know. Because a disreputable alien—Leon Bronstein, the man who now calls himself Trotzky—can inaugurate a reign of terror from his throne room in the Kremlin; because this lowest of all types known to New York can sleep in the Czar’s bed, while hundreds of thousands in Russia are without food or shelter, should Americans be swayed by such doctrines?”

A. Mitchell Palmer · February 1920 · Article · United States

Palmer wrote the article at the request of The Forum, in the weeks after the Justice Department's raids on suspected radicals in November 1919 and January 1920, to explain the arrests and deportations of aliens.

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'", The Forum, vol. 63, no. 2 (February 1920), p. 175 Source

Content note: Derogatory language about aliens. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“My information showed that communism in this country was an organization of thousands of aliens, who were direct allies of Trotzky. Aliens of the same misshapen caste of mind and indecencies of character, and it showed that they were making the same glittering promises of lawlessness, of criminal autocracy to Americans, that they had made to the Russian peasants. How the Department of Justice discovered upwards of 60,000 of these organized agitators of the Trotzky doctrine in the United States, is the confidential information upon which the Government is now sweeping the nation clean of such alien filth.”

A. Mitchell Palmer · February 1920 · Article · United States

Palmer wrote the article at the request of The Forum, in the weeks after the Justice Department's raids on suspected radicals in November 1919 and January 1920, to explain the arrests and deportations of aliens.

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'", The Forum, vol. 63, no. 2 (February 1920), ppp. 175-176 Source

“The whole purpose of communism appears to be a mass formation of the criminals of the world to overthrow the decencies of private life, to usurp property that they have not earned, to disrupt the present order of life regardless of health, sex or religious rights.”

A. Mitchell Palmer · February 1920 · Article · United States

Palmer wrote the article at the request of The Forum, in the weeks after the Justice Department's raids on suspected radicals in November 1919 and January 1920, to explain the arrests and deportations of aliens.

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'", The Forum, vol. 63, no. 2 (February 1920), p. 182 Source

Content note: Derogatory language about groups of people, including women. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“These include the I. W. W.’s, the most radical socialists, the misguided anarchists, the agitators who oppose the limitations of unionism, the moral perverts and the hysterical neurasthenic women who abound in communism.”

A. Mitchell Palmer · February 1920 · Article · United States

Palmer wrote the article at the request of The Forum, in the weeks after the Justice Department's raids on suspected radicals in November 1919 and January 1920, to explain the arrests and deportations of aliens. The sentence follows his quotation of the Communist Party of America's manifesto and lists the organisations and kinds of people he says it draws in.

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'", The Forum, vol. 63, no. 2 (February 1920), p. 183 Source

“There is no legislation at present which can reach an American citizen who is discontented with our system of American Government, nor is it necessary.”

A. Mitchell Palmer · February 1920 · Article · United States

Palmer wrote the article at the request of The Forum, in the weeks after the Justice Department's raids on suspected radicals in November 1919 and January 1920, to explain the arrests and deportations of aliens. He distinguishes between aliens, who could be deported under the Immigration Act of 1918, and citizens.

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'", The Forum, vol. 63, no. 2 (February 1920), p. 184 Source

“When we realize that each member of the Communist Party of America pledges himself to the principles above, set forth, deportation of men and women bound to such a theory is a very mild reformatory sentence.”

A. Mitchell Palmer · February 1920 · Article · United States

Palmer wrote the article at the request of The Forum, in the weeks after the Justice Department's raids on suspected radicals in November 1919 and January 1920, to explain the arrests and deportations of aliens.

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'", The Forum, vol. 63, no. 2 (February 1920), p. 184 Source

“The Department of Justice will pursue the attack of these ‘‘Reds’’ upon the Government of the United States with vigilance, and no alien, advocating the overthrow of existing law and order in this country, shall escape arrest and prompt deportation.”

A. Mitchell Palmer · February 1920 · Article · United States

Palmer wrote the article at the request of The Forum, in the weeks after the Justice Department's raids on suspected radicals in November 1919 and January 1920, to explain the arrests and deportations of aliens.

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'", The Forum, vol. 63, no. 2 (February 1920), p. 185 Source

Content note: Antisemitic conspiracy claim about Jews and revolution. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, a definitely recognisable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.”

Winston Churchill · February 8, 1920 · Article · London Verified (secondary source)

Newspaper article written while Churchill was Secretary of State for War and Air, during the British debate over intervention in the Russian civil war. The article also contrasts these Jews with 'National Russian Jews' and with Zionism, which it presents as a rival and constructive movement, and it condemns pogroms against Russian Jews.

Winston S. Churchill, 'Zionism versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People', Illustrated Sunday Herald, 8 February 1920, p. 5 Source

“This necessity was so great that our Allied colleagues considered it our duty to impose a compulsory ration upon the American population. My colleagues and myself, however, believed that the spirit of self-sacrifice of the American people could be relied upon for so great a service as to accomplish the necessary results upon a voluntary basis.”

Herbert Hoover · March 27, 1920 · Book

Hoover wrote the Preface in 1920 as a summary of the Food Administration's work, after the agency was demobilised, because no formal report was prepared. The passage explains why the Food Administration asked households to cut consumption voluntarily instead of rationing them.

Herbert Hoover, Preface to a Report of the United States Food Administration (introduction dated 27 March 1920; April 1920), p. 12 Source

“The plan of organization adopted was to assemble, as far as possible, the voluntary service of individuals in administrative work and the voluntary co-operation of the householders, farmers and the food trades. The results amply demonstrated the high sense of service in our people, as it proved that measures of legal force were needed for an infinitesimal per cent.”

Herbert Hoover · March 27, 1920 · Book

Hoover wrote the Preface in 1920 as a summary of the Food Administration's work, after the agency was demobilised, because no formal report was prepared. He describes the agency set up by executive order on 10 August 1917.

Herbert Hoover, Preface to a Report of the United States Food Administration (introduction dated 27 March 1920; April 1920), p. 8 Source

“A large amount of propaganda was initiated to secure the substitution in consumption of littoral for deep sea fishes.”

Herbert Hoover · March 27, 1920 · Book

Hoover wrote the Preface in 1920 as a summary of the Food Administration's work, after the agency was demobilised, because no formal report was prepared. The sentence is from his account of measures to protect supplies of fats and meats needed for export to the Allies. He uses the word propaganda for the Food Administration's own conservation publicity.

Herbert Hoover, Preface to a Report of the United States Food Administration (introduction dated 27 March 1920; April 1920), p. 12 Source

“It was imperative that no charge of inhumanity should be laid at our door by continuing this starvation after the surrender. Furthermore, the only hope of saving Europe from anarchy lay in prompt measures on a large scale.”

Herbert Hoover · March 27, 1920 · Book

Hoover wrote the Preface in 1920 as a summary of the Food Administration's work, after the agency was demobilised, because no formal report was prepared. The passage explains why the Food Administration continued to organise food supplies for Central Europe, including the former enemy states, after the armistice of November 1918.

Herbert Hoover, Preface to a Report of the United States Food Administration (introduction dated 27 March 1920; April 1920), p. 39 Source

“That is an episode which appears to me to be without precedent or parallel in the modern history of the British Empire. It is an event of an entirely different order from any of those tragical occurrences which take place when troops are brought into collision with the civil population. It is an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation.”

Winston Churchill · July 8, 1920 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Churchill, Secretary of State for War, spoke for the government in the Commons debate on the Army Council's handling of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, who ordered troops to fire on a crowd at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, on 13 April 1919.

Speech on the Army Council and General Dyer, House of Commons, 8 July 1920, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 131, c. 1725 Source

“Frightfulness is not a remedy known to the British pharmacopœia.”

Winston Churchill · July 8, 1920 · Speech · London, House of Commons

From the same debate, in reply to an interjection about violence on the other side, after he had defined 'frightfulness' as great slaughter inflicted on a crowd to terrorise a district.

Speech on the Army Council and General Dyer, House of Commons, 8 July 1920, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 131, c. 1728 Source

Content note: Concerns the Irish conflict and reprisal policy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“There [Ireland] we have witnessed a spectacle of organised assassination of the most cowardly character [...] But, at last, unless I am mistaken by the steps we have taken we have murder by the throat.”

David Lloyd George · November 9, 1920 · Speech · London, Guildhall Verified (secondary source)

Delivered during the Irish War of Independence, twelve days before Bloody Sunday, as the Government was reinforcing the Royal Irish Constabulary with the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries.

Speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Guildhall, London, 9 November 1920, as quoted in the Irish Times, "We have murder by the throat" (Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920) Source

Content note: Calls an imprisoned antiwar socialist leader a traitor and refuses a pardon. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I will never consent to the pardon of this man. I know that in certain quarters of the country there is a popular demand for the pardon of Debs, but it shall never be accomplished with my consent. Were I to consent to it, I should never be able to look into the faces of the mothers of this country who sent their boys to the other side. While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this man, Debs, stood behind the lines, sniping, attacking, and denouncing them. Before the war he had a perfect right to exercise his freedom of speech and to express his own opinion, but once the Congress of the United States declared war, silence on his part would have been the proper course to pursue. I know there will be a great deal of denunciation of me for refusing this pardon. They will say I am cold blooded and indifferent, but it will make no impression on me. This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration.”

Woodrow Wilson · 1921 · Private-remark · Washington, D.C., White House Verified (secondary source)

Tumulty's account of Wilson's response to the Justice Department recommendation on Eugene V. Debs, imprisoned since 1919 under the Espionage Act for an antiwar speech. Wilson left office on 4 March 1921; President Harding commuted Debs's sentence in December 1921.

Wilson's remarks on the Debs pardon recommendation, as recorded in Joseph P. Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1921), p. 505 Source

“It is not enough to mobilize the Nation's military strength. There must be a mobilization of her full economic resources — industrial, agricultural and financial. These must be organized, coordinated, and directed with the same strategy that governs the operations of the purely military arms of service.”

Bernard M. Baruch · March 1921 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Baruch wrote the Preface in March 1921, as a letter to the President accompanying the Board's report on its work in 1917-1919. The sentences are from a statement of the Board's theory and policy that he reprints in the Preface and says the Board adopted during the war.

Bernard M. Baruch, Preface, in American Industry in the War: A Report of the War Industries Board (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1921), p. 6 Source

“The abnormal conditions of the war demand sacrifices. It is the price of victory. Only actual needs, not fancied wants, should and can be satisfied. To save heavy and long privation, temporary deprivation must be the rule. America's willingness to accept these conditions marks her ability to quicken the end of the conflict.”

Bernard M. Baruch · March 1921 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Baruch wrote the Preface in March 1921, as a letter to the President accompanying the Board's report on its work in 1917-1919. The passage ends the Board's wartime statement of policy that he reprints in the Preface.

Bernard M. Baruch, Preface, in American Industry in the War: A Report of the War Industries Board (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1921), p. 7 Source

“It is with great pride I inform you that there was not a slacker to be found among the industries. Not one had to be coerced. They governed themselves by the answer to a single question, namely: "Do the continuation of our enterprises help or hurt the war program?" The choice was unanimous for service rather than profit — for national need instead of individual expediency.”

Bernard M. Baruch · March 1921 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Baruch wrote the Preface in March 1921, as a letter to the President accompanying the Board's report on its work in 1917-1919. The War Industries Board had used licensing, priorities and price-fixing powers during the war, which he refers to elsewhere in the report.

Bernard M. Baruch, Preface, in American Industry in the War: A Report of the War Industries Board (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1921), p. 7 Source

“An Investigation Section was formed to seek out and take into custody persons who were, by sabotage, explosion, fomenting strikes or other means, seeking to prevent or retard the manufacture of munitions; to discover and thwart any attempt to damage vessels, shipyards, bases or factories; to counteract German propaganda and, in general, restrain the activities of Germans and German sympathizers.”

Josephus Daniels · 1922 · Book

Daniels describes the work of the Office of Naval Intelligence on the home front after April 1917. The sentence is from the book he published a year after leaving office, and describes the Navy's own part in the domestic security effort.

Josephus Daniels, Our Navy at War (Washington, D.C.: Pictorial Bureau, 1922), ch. on the war at home, p. 263 Source

“Arrests of suspects sent fear into the hearts of any who might be plotting sabotage. In one day I ordered the arrest of more than a score in one plant.”

Josephus Daniels · 1922 · Book

Daniels continues his account of naval intelligence work at home during the war, in the paragraph that follows his description of the Investigation Section.

Josephus Daniels, Our Navy at War (Washington, D.C.: Pictorial Bureau, 1922), p. 263 Source

“Close inspection and censorship of mails and cables prevented Germany from communicating with its agents in this country, and also prevented them from sending out military information.”

Josephus Daniels · 1922 · Book

Daniels summarises the censorship of mail and cable traffic, which the Navy operated for cables and radio and which the Post Office and the Exports Administrative Board shared for the mails after the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 1917.

Josephus Daniels, Our Navy at War (Washington, D.C.: Pictorial Bureau, 1922), p. 263 Source

“a great movement must be engineered among the people, among the "general public," indifferent as yet, to arouse its interest and enthusiasm for the navy, in order that pressure from the people itself might be brought to bear upon the Reichstag members.”

English: Thomas R. Ybarra (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1922). Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm II · 1922 · Book

Wilhelm's own account, written in exile, of how the naval bills of the 1890s were pressed in the Reichstag and publicised.

The Kaiser's Memoirs, 1888-1918, English translation by Thomas R. Ybarra (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1922), chapter 9, "Army and Navy", pp. 229-230 (on the naval bills) Source

“I cannot bring myself to dismiss this propaganda by branding it with catchwords such as "a piece of rascality," etc., since it constitutes an achievement which, in spite of its repugnant nature, cannot be ignored; it did us more harm than the arms in the hands of our opponents.”

English: Thomas R. Ybarra (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1922). Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm II · 1922 · Book

Wilhelm's own account of Allied wartime propaganda, written in exile.

The Kaiser's Memoirs, 1888-1918, English translation by Thomas R. Ybarra (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1922), chapter 14, "The Question of Guilt", p. 332 (on British wartime propaganda) Source

“I went, or — to put it much more correctly — I was overthrown by my own Government, and — Herr Solf remained.”

English: Thomas R. Ybarra (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1922). Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm II · 1922 · Book

Wilhelm's own account of the events of October and November 1918 and his departure from Germany, written in exile.

The Kaiser's Memoirs, 1888-1918, English translation by Thomas R. Ybarra (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1922), p. 277 (on November 1918) Source

Content note: Antisemitic rhetoric; invokes Christian scripture against Jews. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I would like here to appeal to a greater than I, Count Lerchenfeld. He said in the last session of the Landtag that his feeling ‘as a man and a Christian’ prevented him from being an Anti-Semite. I say: my feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Saviour as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to the fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as sufferer but as fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and of adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison to-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice. And as a man I have the duty to see to it that human society does not suffer the same catastrophic collapse as did the civilization of the ancient world some two thousand years ago—a civilization which was driven to its ruin through this same Jewish people.”

English: Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler (OUP for the RIIA, 1942). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · April 12, 1922 · Speech · Munich

Early speech to a Munich audience, answering a Bavarian politician who had said his feelings as a Christian kept him from antisemitism. Hitler was then a regional party speaker; the National Socialist German Workers' Party had been founded two years earlier.

Speech of 12 April 1922, in Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922 to August 1939, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1942), pp. 19-20 Source

Content note: Justification of political violence. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Violence is not immoral. On the contrary it is sometimes moral. We dispute the right of our enemies to bewail our violence, because, compared with that which was committed in the unlucky years of ’19 and ’20 and with that of the Bolshevists in Russia—where two million people have been executed and another two million still pine in prison—our violence is child’s-play. On the other hand violence is decisive, because at the end of July and August, after having made use of it systematically for forty-eight hours, we got results which we should not have obtained in forty-eight years of sermons and propaganda. When, therefore, violence removes a gangrene of this sort, it is morally sacred and necessary.”

Benito Mussolini · September 20, 1922 · Speech · Udine

Mussolini addressed a Fascist gathering at Udine about six weeks before the March on Rome. He was referring to the Fascist action against the general strike of late July and early August 1922.

Speech at Udine, 20 September 1922 ("L'azione e la dottrina fascista dinanzi alle necessità storiche della Nazione"), in Mussolini as Revealed in His Political Speeches (November 1914 - August 1923), selected, translated and edited by Barone Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino (J. M. Dent, London, 1923), p. 147. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 18: Dalla Conferenza di Cannes alla marcia su Roma (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), p. 413 Source

“We have created our myth. The myth is a faith, it is passion. It is not necessary that it shall be a reality. It is a reality by the fact that it is a goad, a hope, a faith, that it is courage. Our myth is the Nation, our myth is the greatness of the Nation! And to this myth, to this grandeur, that we wish to translate into a complete reality, we subordinate all the rest”

Benito Mussolini · October 24, 1922 · Speech · Naples

Mussolini spoke to the Fascist congress at Naples four days before the March on Rome began. The passage defines the nation as a myth that the movement serves.

Speech at the Fascist congress, Naples, 24 October 1922, in Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), p. 218 (English). Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 18: Dalla Conferenza di Cannes alla marcia su Roma (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), p. 457 Source

Content note: Boast of ability to close Parliament by force. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“With three hundred thousand young men, fully armed, ready for anything and almost religiously prompt to obey any command of mine, I could have punished all those who have slandered the Fascisti and thrown mud at them. (Approval on the Right.) I could have made a bivouac of this gloomy grey hall; I could have shut up Parliament and formed a Government of Fascisti exclusively; I could have done so, but I did not wish to do so, at any rate at the moment.”

Benito Mussolini · November 16, 1922 · Speech · Rome, Chamber of Deputies

Mussolini's first address to the Chamber as Prime Minister, two and a half weeks after the March on Rome and the formation of his government, asking the Chamber for confidence.

Speech in the Chamber of Deputies, 16 November 1922 (first speech as Prime Minister), in Mussolini as Revealed in His Political Speeches (November 1914 - August 1923), selected, translated and edited by Barone Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino (J. M. Dent, London, 1923), p. 208. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 19: Dalla marcia su Roma al viaggio negli Abruzzi (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), p. 17 Source

“No British statesman could have consented to such an ignominious surrender of his country's freedom of action in the future.”

H. H. Asquith · 1923 · Book

Asquith's retrospective account of the 1912 Anglo-German exchanges, after the Haldane mission, explaining why the British Government would not give an unconditional neutrality pledge.

H. H. Asquith, The Genesis of the War (London: Cassell, 1923), p. 56 Source

“Propaganda and a service of political news were lacking in Germany, and there was not a strong Government, a Government determined to fight and win, to set them up at the outbreak of war. It was an irretrievable blunder that, when war came, when there could be no more doubts and events had to take their course, this neglect was not made good and the whole news service of the country taken charge of by the Government.”

Walter Nicolai · 1923 · Book

Memoir by the former head of the Supreme Army Command's intelligence section (IIIb), who also directed its press service, written after the war.

Walter Nicolai, The German Secret Service, trans. George Renwick (London: Stanley Paul, 1924), chapter V, "The Outbreak of War", pp. 72-73; German: Walter Nicolai, Geheime Mächte: Internationale Spionage und ihre Bekämpfung im Weltkrieg und heute, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: K. F. Koehler, 1924; first published 1923) Source

“When they demanded that the Government should undertake to instruct public opinion, the representative of the Imperial Chancellor refused, saying that von Bethmann, the Chancellor, wanted nothing to do with the Press.”

Walter Nicolai · 1923 · Book

Memoir by the former head of the Supreme Army Command's intelligence section (IIIb), who also directed its press service, written after the war. 'They' are Hindenburg and Ludendorff, whom the preceding sentence says protested against the army carrying out press and news work.

Walter Nicolai, The German Secret Service, trans. George Renwick (London: Stanley Paul, 1924), chapter V, "The Outbreak of War", p. 77; German: Walter Nicolai, Geheime Mächte: Internationale Spionage und ihre Bekämpfung im Weltkrieg und heute, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: K. F. Koehler, 1924; first published 1923) Source

Content note: Generalisation about Jews. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The Russian Jews looked upon espionage in war and in peace as a matter of business first and foremost. They lacked all spiritual participation in the War. Though, from the political and religious points of view, they fared better under the German occupation than under Russian rule, their sympathies lay more on the Russian than on the German side.”

Walter Nicolai · 1923 · Book

Passage in the chapter on intelligence work on the Eastern Front, describing Russian Jews who were used as agents.

Walter Nicolai, The German Secret Service, trans. George Renwick (London: Stanley Paul, 1924), chapter VII, "The Eastern Front", p. 116; German: Walter Nicolai, Geheime Mächte: Internationale Spionage und ihre Bekämpfung im Weltkrieg und heute, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: K. F. Koehler, 1924; first published 1923), p. 83 Source

Content note: Generalisation about Jewish soldiers. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The Jew fought very badly, surrendered readily or deserted “to escape death”; he gave information clearly, because he was intelligent, and readily, because he expected good treatment.”

Walter Nicolai · 1923 · Book

Passage in the chapter on the Eastern Front comparing how prisoners of different nationalities behaved under interrogation.

Walter Nicolai, The German Secret Service, trans. George Renwick (London: Stanley Paul, 1924), chapter VII, "The Eastern Front", p. 120; German: Walter Nicolai, Geheime Mächte: Internationale Spionage und ihre Bekämpfung im Weltkrieg und heute, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: K. F. Koehler, 1924; first published 1923), p. 84 Source

“The press must grow day in and day out—it is our Party's sharpest and most powerful weapon.”

Joseph Stalin · April 19, 1923 · Speech · Moscow, Twelfth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)

Stalin proposed four amendments to the Central Committee's proposals at the end of the congress debate on the organisational report. The fourth concerned the Party press.

Reply to the discussion on the Central Committee's organisational report, Twelfth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.), 19 April 1923, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 5 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954); Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 5 (Moscow: OGIZ-Gospolitizdat, 1947) Source

“Unlike her opponents, Germany had not at her command a political, economic, and military service of information conducted in co-ordinated fashion by the Government. She did not, that is to say, take any advantage of political conditions in enemy countries or influence the neutrals by means of propaganda.”

Walter Nicolai · June 1923 · Book · Berlin

Memoir by the former head of the Supreme Army Command's intelligence section (IIIb), who also directed its press service, written after the war. The preface also distinguishes the army's 'Press Service' from its 'Intelligence Service' and says the former devolved on the General Staff after the outbreak of war because no government department had prepared one.

Walter Nicolai, The German Secret Service, trans. George Renwick (London: Stanley Paul, 1924), Preface, pp. 8-9 (preface dated Berlin, June 1923); German: Walter Nicolai, Geheime Mächte: Internationale Spionage und ihre Bekämpfung im Weltkrieg und heute, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: K. F. Koehler, 1924; first published 1923), Vorwort Source

“No exceptional laws were passed, [...] and the regulation of the Press is not an exceptional law. You forget a very simple thing, that the revolution has the right of defending itself.”

Benito Mussolini · July 16, 1923 · Speech · Rome, Chamber of Deputies

Mussolini answered opposition deputies who said his government was suppressing liberty, in the debate on the electoral reform bill.

Speech on the Electoral Reform Bill, Chamber of Deputies, 16 July 1923, in Mussolini as Revealed in His Political Speeches (November 1914 - August 1923), selected, translated and edited by Barone Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino (J. M. Dent, London, 1923), p. 355. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 19: Dalla marcia su Roma al viaggio negli Abruzzi (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), p. 315 Source

Content note: Attributes the big-lie technique to Jews and Marxists. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“All this was inspired by the principle - which is quite true in itself - that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.”

Adolf Hitler · 1925 · Book

Passage in the chapter on the causes of Germany's 1918 defeat, where Hitler describes what he says Jewish and Marxist writers did in blaming General Ludendorff. It is the origin of the phrase 'big lie' (große Lüge) in the German text.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. 1, ch. 10 (Eher Verlag, Munich, 1925); English in Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. James Murphy (Hurst and Blackett, London, 1939), p. 185; German in the Eher one-volume edition, 851st-855th printing (1943), pp. 252-253 Source

“The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. If this principle be forgotten and if an attempt be made to be abstract and general, the propaganda will turn out ineffective; for the public will not be able to digest or retain what is offered to them in this way.”

Adolf Hitler · 1925 · Book

Passage in the chapter on the propaganda of the First World War, where Hitler sets out the rules he says effective propaganda must follow. Written in 1924-25 and published in the first volume of Mein Kampf in July 1925.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. 1, ch. 6 'War Propaganda' (Kriegspropaganda) (Eher Verlag, Munich, 1925); English in Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. James Murphy (Hurst and Blackett, London, 1939), p. 148 (page number as printed in the Internet Archive scan); German in the Eher one-volume edition, 855th printing (1943) Source

“The Press is the chief means employed in the process of political ‘enlightenment’. It represents a kind of school for adults. This educational activity, however, is not in the hands of the State but in the clutches of powers which are partly of a very inferior character.”

Adolf Hitler · 1925 · Book

Passage in Hitler's account of his years in Vienna, on the role of the newspaper press in forming public opinion. The paragraph goes on to describe what he saw of how the press shaped opinion in a few days.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. 1, ch. 3 (Vienna years: political reflections) (Eher Verlag, Munich, 1925); English in Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. James Murphy (Hurst and Blackett, London, 1939); German in the Eher one-volume edition, 855th printing (1943) Source

“To bind ourselves by rules which we intend to keep and others intend to break is unreasonable, so long as those who break them can do it with impunity. To return to the question of contraband, blockade of Germany was essential to the victory of the Allies, but the ill-will of the United States meant their certain defeat.”

Edward Grey · 1925 · Book

Grey, the Foreign Secretary who handled the contraband and blockade disputes with the United States in 1914-1916, explains in his memoir why Britain pursued the blockade of Germany within limits.

Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Twenty-Five Years 1892-1916, vol. 2 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1925), ch. 22 "America and the War", p. 107 Source

Content note: Dismissive remarks about the suffrage movement and women voters. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“One of the most annoying things was the everlasting clatter of the militant suffragettes. I think the adoption by the Senate of the Nineteenth Amendment was portrayed in the Scriptures by the unjust judge who got tired of hearing about it. The amendment really was submitted to the people in self-defense, to get rid of these women in order that some business might be transacted.”

Thomas R. Marshall · 1925 · Book

Memoir passage about his years presiding over the Senate (1913-1921), on lobbying for the woman suffrage amendment that Congress sent to the states in 1919.

Thomas R. Marshall, Recollections of Thomas R. Marshall, Vice-President and Hoosier Philosopher: A Hoosier Salad (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925), p. 233 Source

Content note: Joke about women's right to vote. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I called her attention to the fact that I had announced that women had a right to shave and sing bass if they wanted to, but that I was not going to assist in the process.”

Thomas R. Marshall · 1925 · Book

Marshall's account of an exchange with a woman who asked him to support the suffrage amendment, which he opposed.

Thomas R. Marshall, Recollections of Thomas R. Marshall, Vice-President and Hoosier Philosopher: A Hoosier Salad (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925), p. 234 Source

“I was having some difficulty myself in remaining neutral. I had almost reached the conclusion that the only way to be strictly neutral was to be a congenital idiot.”

Thomas R. Marshall · 1925 · Book

Memoir passage on Washington society during the period of American neutrality (1914-1917), which he recalls as strongly pro-Allied.

Thomas R. Marshall, Recollections of Thomas R. Marshall, Vice-President and Hoosier Philosopher: A Hoosier Salad (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925), p. 263 Source

“The standing joke of the country is that the only business of the vice-president is to ring the White House bell every morning and ask what is the state of health of the president. If there were a soul so lost to humanity as to have desired his death, I was not that soul. I hoped that he might acquire his wonted health. I was afraid to ask about it, for fear some censorious soul would accuse me of a longing for his place. I never have wanted his shoes.”

Thomas R. Marshall · 1925 · Book

Marshall on the months after President Wilson's stroke of 2 October 1919, when Wilson did not carry out the full duties of the office. The vice-president did not assume them.

Thomas R. Marshall, Recollections of Thomas R. Marshall, Vice-President and Hoosier Philosopher: A Hoosier Salad (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925), p. 367 Source

Content note: Refers to political violence (castor oil and club). The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Well, I declare here before this assembly, before all the Italian people, that I assume, I alone, the political, moral, historical responsibility for everything that has happened. If sentences, more or less maimed, are enough to hang a man, out with the noose! If Fascism has only been castor oil or a club, and not a proud passion of the best Italian youth, the blame is on me!”

Benito Mussolini · January 3, 1925 · Speech · Rome, Chamber of Deputies

Mussolini spoke to the Chamber about six months after the killing of the Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti, during a political crisis in which most opposition deputies were boycotting the Chamber. He asked whether any deputy wished to invoke Article 47 of the Statute to accuse the ministers, and no one did.

Speech on the Matteotti affair, Chamber of Deputies, 3 January 1925. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 21: Dal delitto Matteotti all'attentato Zaniboni (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), pp. 238-239. English text: Biblioteca Fascista, "Speech in the Chamber, January 3, 1925" Source

“...Fascism is a party, a political doctrine. But Fascism—in so far as it is a party, a political doctrine—is before all else a total conception of life. That is its force...its great merit, and the secret of the prestige it exercises over all those who are not victims of the malign and interminable maunderings of certain newspapers. One cannot be a Fascist in politics and not a Fascist...in school, not a Fascist in one’s family, not a Fascist in one’s workplace.”

Giovanni Gentile · March 8, 1925 · Speech · Florence, Salone dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio

Gentile, then a senator and the leading philosopher associated with the regime, spoke to a Florence audience in the Salone dei Cinquecento on the question "what is Fascism". The lecture was reprinted with his other speeches in the Vallecchi volume of 1925.

Giovanni Gentile, "Che cosa è il fascismo", lecture given at Florence, 8 March 1925, in Che cosa è il fascismo: Discorsi e polemiche (Vallecchi, Florence), pp. 38-39 of the Italian volume; English in "Fascism is Religion", Selections from What is Fascism?, ed. and trans. A. James Gregor, Origins and Doctrine of Fascism (Transaction, 2003), p. 57 Source

Content note: Justification of political violence. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Now, we say it clearly once again for all persons of good will. There is violence and there is violence. No one worthy of marching under Fascist guidons has ever confused the two. Those who are not worthy of remaining with us—are to be expelled when discovered. There is private violence, which is arbitrary, anarchic, and which undermines society. If Fascism is not a word devoid of meaning—something that even its adversaries do not pretend—private violence finds no more determined, more genuine, more formidable an enemy than Fascism. There is another violence, willed by God and by all men who believe in God and in order—in support of laws that God certainly wishes to obtain in the world.”

Giovanni Gentile · March 8, 1925 · Speech · Florence, Salone dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio

Gentile addressed the violence of the Fascist action squads of 1920 to 1922 and the moral criticism of it made after the Fascist government took office. He distinguished "private" violence from violence "willed by God" in support of law, and described the squads' truncheons as having once been welcomed.

Giovanni Gentile, "Che cosa è il fascismo", lecture given at Florence, 8 March 1925, in Che cosa è il fascismo: Discorsi e polemiche (Vallecchi, Florence), section on Fascist violence (pp. 29-32 of the Italian volume); English in "Fascist Violence", Selections from What is Fascism?, ed. and trans. A. James Gregor, Origins and Doctrine of Fascism (Transaction, 2003), p. 50 Source

Content note: Endorses political violence. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“An energetic, violent faith, not disposed to respect anything that stood against the life and greatness of the Fatherland.”

Giovanni Gentile · April 21, 1925 · Article Verified (secondary source)

Written after the March 1925 Bologna conference on Fascist culture and published as the manifesto of the Fascist intellectuals. The sentence describes the faith behind the Fascist squads (squadrismo) of 1919-22.

Giovanni Gentile, Manifesto degli intellettuali fascisti, in Il Popolo d'Italia, 21 April 1925; Italian as printed on an Edatlas teaching sheet and on it.wikisource Source

“each one vies with the other to create interpretations and philosophies always more and more in contradiction with one another; the multitude of those who have an average culture — without speaking of the workmen who also have some right to understand something — ends up by not understanding anything.”

English: Gaetano Salvemini, in Under the Axe of Fascism (Victor Gollancz, London, 1936). Original-language text not found.

Roberto Farinacci · June 21, 1925 · Speech · Florence Verified (secondary source)

Salvemini introduces the passage as a remark by a "Fascist high personage" on the confusion of Fascist doctrine in the literature about it. Farinacci had become Secretary of the National Fascist Party in February 1925.

Speech at Florence, 21 June 1925, quoted in the preface of Gaetano Salvemini, Under the Axe of Fascism (Victor Gollancz, London, 1936) Source

“For Liberalism, the individual is the end and society the means; nor is it conceivable that the individual, considered in the dignity of an ultimate finality, be lowered to mere instrumentality. For Fascism, society is the end, individuals the means, and its whole life consists in using individuals as instruments for its social ends. The state therefore guards and protects the welfare and development of individuals not for their exclusive interest, but because of the identity of the needs of individuals with those of society as a whole. We can thus accept and explain institutions and practices, which like the death penalty, are condemned by Liberalism in the name of the preeminence of individualism.”

Alfredo Rocco · August 30, 1925 · Speech · Perugia, Aula dei Notari

Rocco, Minister of Justice and a former leader of the Italian Nationalist Association, gave the address at the Aula dei Notari in Perugia at the opening of a course of summer lectures. The Carnegie Endowment published it in English in 1926, stating that it had Mussolini's approval.

Alfredo Rocco, "The Political Doctrine of Fascism", speech at Perugia, 30 August 1925, in International Conciliation, no. 223 (October 1926), translated by Professor Bigongiari of Columbia University (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York), p. 403. Italian: Alfredo Rocco, La dottrina del fascismo e il suo posto nella storia del pensiero politico: discorso pronunciato nell'Aula dei Notari di Perugia il 30 agosto 1925 (La periodica lombarda, 1925), p. 14 Source

Content note: Describes war as an eternal law and accepts the total sacrifice of individuals. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“For Fascism, society has historical and immanent ends of preservation, expansion, improvement, quite distinct from those of the individuals which at a given moment compose it; so distinct in fact that they may even be in opposition. Hence the necessity, for which the older doctrines make little allowance, of sacrifice, even up to the total immolation of individuals, in behalf of society; hence the true explanation of war, eternal law of mankind, interpreted by the liberal-democratic doctrines as a degenerate absurdity or as a maddened monstrosity.”

Alfredo Rocco · August 30, 1925 · Speech · Perugia, Aula dei Notari

Rocco, Minister of Justice and a former leader of the Italian Nationalist Association, gave the address at the Aula dei Notari in Perugia at the opening of a course of summer lectures. The Carnegie Endowment published it in English in 1926, stating that it had Mussolini's approval.

Alfredo Rocco, "The Political Doctrine of Fascism", speech at Perugia, 30 August 1925, in International Conciliation, no. 223 (October 1926), translated by Professor Bigongiari of Columbia University (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York), p. 402. Italian: Alfredo Rocco, La dottrina del fascismo e il suo posto nella storia del pensiero politico: discorso pronunciato nell'Aula dei Notari di Perugia il 30 agosto 1925 (La periodica lombarda, 1925), pp. 13-14 Source

“Fascism on the other hand faces squarely the problem of the right of the state and of the duty of individuals. Individual rights are only recognized in so far as they are implied in the rights of the state. In this preeminence of duty we find the highest ethical value of Fascism.”

Alfredo Rocco · August 30, 1925 · Speech · Perugia, Aula dei Notari

Rocco, Minister of Justice and a former leader of the Italian Nationalist Association, gave the address at the Aula dei Notari in Perugia at the opening of a course of summer lectures. The Carnegie Endowment published it in English in 1926, stating that it had Mussolini's approval.

Alfredo Rocco, "The Political Doctrine of Fascism", speech at Perugia, 30 August 1925, in International Conciliation, no. 223 (October 1926), translated by Professor Bigongiari of Columbia University (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York), p. 403. Italian: Alfredo Rocco, La dottrina del fascismo e il suo posto nella storia del pensiero politico: discorso pronunciato nell'Aula dei Notari di Perugia il 30 agosto 1925 (La periodica lombarda, 1925), p. 14 Source

“Freedom therefore is due to the citizen and to classes on condition that they exercise it in the interest of society as a whole and within the limits set by social exigencies, liberty being, like any other individual right, a concession of the state.”

Alfredo Rocco · August 30, 1925 · Speech · Perugia, Aula dei Notari

Rocco, Minister of Justice and a former leader of the Italian Nationalist Association, gave the address at the Aula dei Notari in Perugia at the opening of a course of summer lectures. The Carnegie Endowment published it in English in 1926, stating that it had Mussolini's approval.

Alfredo Rocco, "The Political Doctrine of Fascism", speech at Perugia, 30 August 1925, in International Conciliation, no. 223 (October 1926), translated by Professor Bigongiari of Columbia University (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York), p. 404. Italian: Alfredo Rocco, La dottrina del fascismo e il suo posto nella storia del pensiero politico: discorso pronunciato nell'Aula dei Notari di Perugia il 30 agosto 1925 (La periodica lombarda, 1925), p. 15 Source

Content note: Declares the mass of citizens unsuited to judge social interests. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Fascism therefore not only rejects the dogma of popular sovereignty and substitutes for it that of state sovereignty, but it also proclaims that the great mass of citizens is not a suitable advocate of social interests for the reason that the capacity to ignore individual private interests in favor of the higher demands of society and of history is a very rare gift and the privilege of the chosen few.”

Alfredo Rocco · August 30, 1925 · Speech · Perugia, Aula dei Notari

Rocco, Minister of Justice and a former leader of the Italian Nationalist Association, gave the address at the Aula dei Notari in Perugia at the opening of a course of summer lectures. The Carnegie Endowment published it in English in 1926, stating that it had Mussolini's approval.

Alfredo Rocco, "The Political Doctrine of Fascism", speech at Perugia, 30 August 1925, in International Conciliation, no. 223 (October 1926), translated by Professor Bigongiari of Columbia University (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York), p. 405. Italian: Alfredo Rocco, La dottrina del fascismo e il suo posto nella storia del pensiero politico: discorso pronunciato nell'Aula dei Notari di Perugia il 30 agosto 1925 (La periodica lombarda, 1925), p. 16 Source

Content note: Justification of reprisals after a killing. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The campaign which the opposition parties waged against the Fascist rule, the Fascist Party and its leaders, had a most lamentable epilogue. In the house of a “Venerable” Freemason, which was used as a lodge, Giovanni Luporini, one of the most brilliant figures of Tuscan Fascism, was lured into an ambush and treacherously murdered. The local leaders have had to display the utmost energy and authority to prevent the legitimate exasperation of our faithful comrades from having still graver consequences. [...] The martyrdom of Giovanni Luporini cannot weaken Fascism. We shall pursue our course unshaken as long as a single enemy of the national cause treads the sacred soil of our country.”

Roberto Farinacci · October 5, 1925 · Article · Florence

Farinacci wrote after the Fascist Giovanni Luporini was shot dead in a Freemason's house in Florence on the evening of 3 October 1925. In the reprisals that followed, according to Salvemini and the contemporary press, three men were killed and homes and shops of suspected Freemasons and opponents were looted.

Article by Roberto Farinacci, Secretary of the National Fascist Party, in the Florentine Fascist weekly Battaglie Sindacali (extra edition, 5 October 1925), reported in Il Piccolo (Trieste), 6 October 1925, p. 2 (Italian); English in Gaetano Salvemini, The Fascist Dictatorship in Italy, vol. 1 (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1927), pp. 211-212 Source

“All in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

Benito Mussolini · October 28, 1925 · Speech · Milan, Teatro alla Scala

Mussolini received the city of Milan's medal of merit at La Scala and set out what he called the central idea of the movement, the State, ahead of the laws of December 1925 and November 1926 restricting the press and opposition parties.

Speech at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 28 October 1925, Italian text in Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 21: Dal delitto Matteotti all'attentato Zaniboni (La Fenice, Florence, 1956), p. 425; English wording of the formula from Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), p. 168 Source

“It is an unavoidable necessity of the State, that all those who belong to public administration must not only absolve with scrupulous regularity the specific duties of their office, but further carry out every activity in whatever form, with intimate, convinced, and sincere devotion to the State, in the particular positive order which it assumes at a determinate historic phase of its development. This follows from the very nature of the relationship of public employment, according to the fundamental conception of it, as laid down by the national Government, as a militia into which one enters and in which one has the title to remain only when conscience, which inspires and upholds the work, responds to the impulses not of an enforced exterior discipline, but to a spontaneous spiritual persuasion, concentrated in the oath. [...] This supreme exigency implies that the public official must be considered as unsatisfactory for his duties, not only for the material inobservance of single legislative or regulation dispositions, which discipline bureaucratic action, but also for attitudes which contrast with the national spirit, from which those dispositions, like any other law of the State, have drawn their life.”

English: Herman Finer, in Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935). Original-language text not found.

Alfredo Rocco · December 1925 · Statement Verified (secondary source)

Finer quotes Rocco's argument for the law of 24 December 1925, which allowed the State to dismiss civil servants who did not give full guarantee of faith in their duties or who were incompatible with the general political aims of the Government. Rocco was Minister of Justice.

Alfredo Rocco, defending the law of 24 December 1925 on the dismissal of civil servants, as quoted and translated in Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), pp. 271-272, citing Rocco, La trasformazione dello Stato, pp. 74-75 Source

Content note: Says poison gas should have been used on Jews; genocidal rhetoric. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“At the beginning of the War, or even during the War, if twelve or fifteen thousand of these Jews who were corrupting the nation had been forced to submit to poison-gas, just as hundreds of thousands of our best German workers from every social stratum and from every trade and calling had to face it in the field, then the millions of sacrifices made at the front would not have been in vain. On the contrary: If twelve thousand of these malefactors had been eliminated in proper time probably the lives of a million decent men, who would be of value to Germany in the future, might have been saved.”

Adolf Hitler · 1926 · Book

Passage in the second volume, in the chapter on the right of self-defence, about the First World War and the Marxist movement.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. 2, ch. 15 'Das Notwehrrecht' (Eher Verlag, Munich, 1926); English in Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. James Murphy (Hurst and Blackett, London, 1939), vol. 2 ch. XV, p. 518 Source

“Therefore we National Socialists have purposely drawn a line through the line of conduct followed by pre-War Germany in foreign policy. We put an end to the perpetual Germanic march towards the South and West of Europe and turn our eyes towards the lands of the East. We finally put a stop to the colonial and trade policy of pre-War times and pass over to the territorial policy of the future. But when we speak of new territory in Europe to-day we must principally think of Russia and the border States subject to her.”

Adolf Hitler · 1926 · Book

Passage setting out the foreign-policy aim of acquiring territory in Eastern Europe, in the chapter on Germany's policy towards Russia. Hitler returns to the argument in later speeches and in the 1937 conference of 5 November (see that entry).

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. 2, ch. 14 'Ostorientierung oder Ostpolitik' (Eher Verlag, Munich, 1926); English in Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. James Murphy (Hurst and Blackett, London, 1939), vol. 2 ch. XIV, p. 500 Source

“Most indiscreet references to our intentions had appeared in the Press, and, in general, the longer the military attack was delayed the more formidable would the defences be found if it was eventually decided to make the attack.”

William Robertson · 1926 · Book

In his 1926 account of the planning of the Dardanelles campaign in early 1915, Robertson comments on what the press had published about the intended operation.

Sir William Robertson, Soldiers and Statesmen, 1914-1918, vol. 1 (London: Cassell, 1926), p. 112 (chapter 'The Dardanelles Expedition') Source

“Ministers, too, may become impatient with the small progress made in existing theatres, be alarmed at the long casualty lists and their possible effect on public opinion, and begin to search for a "way round" to victory in preference to the direct method of fighting and defeating the enemy's principal armies.”

William Robertson · 1926 · Book

Robertson, writing after the war, sets out his view of the effect of casualty lists and public opinion on Ministers' choice of strategy.

Sir William Robertson, Soldiers and Statesmen, 1914-1918, vol. 1 (London: Cassell, 1926), p. 74 (chapter 'The Dardanelles Expedition') Source

“The Jews, in fact, have lived in Russia for centuries, and they have as much right here as any other part of the population.”

English: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1926; translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Mikhail Kalinin · July 1926 · Statement Verified (secondary source)

Kalinin, then Chairman of the Central Executive Committee, answered a Komsomol member who reported peasant opposition in the Crimea to the settlement of Jewish families on the land. The statement was published in Izvestia and reprinted in other Soviet papers, according to JTA.

Statement in reply to a letter from V. Ovchinnikov of the Crimean Komsomol, published in Izvestia, July 1926, in English in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin, 30 July 1926 ("Text of Kalinin's Statement on Jewish Question in Russia") Source

Content note: Addresses an antisemitic accusation against the government. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The Soviet Government is accused of being a Jewish Government, but this is so much nonsense. It is true that the Soviet Government restored their rights to the Jews, but to which Jews? It restored rights only to the impoverished working class Jews, but the Jewish capitalists it treated exactly like all other capitalists.”

English: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1926; translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Mikhail Kalinin · July 1926 · Statement Verified (secondary source)

Kalinin, then Chairman of the Central Executive Committee, answered a Komsomol member who reported peasant opposition in the Crimea to the settlement of Jewish families on the land. The statement was published in Izvestia and reprinted in other Soviet papers, according to JTA.

Statement in reply to a letter from V. Ovchinnikov of the Crimean Komsomol, published in Izvestia, July 1926, in English in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin, 30 July 1926 ("Text of Kalinin's Statement on Jewish Question in Russia") Source

“There is no National Socialist and no racialist who expects any kind of manly German deed from that gossip club on the Koenigsplatz and who is not convinced of the necessity for direct action by the unbroken will of the 4 German people to bring about their spiritual and physical liberation. But there is a long road ahead. After the failure of November 1923, there was no choice but to begin all over again and to strive to bring about a change in the spirit and determination of the most valuable of our racial comrades as the indispensable prerequisite for the success of the coming fight for freedom. Our activities in parliament must be evaluated as merely part of this propaganda work. Our participation in the parliament does not indicate a support, but rather an undermining of the parliamentarian system. It does not indicate that we renounce our antiparliamentarian attitude, but that we are fighting the enemy with his own weapons and that we are fighting for our National Socialist goal from the parliamentary platform.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 2742-PS. Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm Frick · 1927 · Article

Written by Frick, then a Nazi member of the Reichstag, for the party yearbook. It explains why the party took part in parliamentary elections and sat in the Reichstag while rejecting the parliamentary system.

Passage written by Frick, Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch 1927, p. 124, document 2742-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 5 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 382 Source

Content note: Praises Italian Fascism's struggle against communism. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“If I had been an Italian, I am sure I should have been whole-heartedly with you from the start to finish in your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism.”

Winston Churchill · January 20, 1927 · Statement · Rome Verified (secondary source)

Said to Italian journalists in Rome after two short meetings with Mussolini, while Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and at a time of negotiation over Italy's war debt. The statement is about Italy; he added that Britain was protected from such a choice.

Press statement, 'Anglo-Italian Relations', Rome, 20 January 1927, reprinted in Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches 1897-1963, vol. IV: 1922-1928, ed. Robert Rhodes James (1974), p. 4126, as cited by the International Churchill Society Source

“Secondly, a revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”

Mao Zedong · March 1927 · Article · Hunan

Written after a 32-day investigation (4 January to 5 February 1927) of five counties in Hunan, in answer to criticism that the peasant movement was going 'too far'.

Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan, March 1927, in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. 1 (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965) Source

Content note: Advocates terror against landlords and counter-revolutionaries. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“To put it bluntly, it is necessary to create terror for a while in every rural area, or otherwise it would be impossible to suppress the activities of the counter-revolutionaries in the countryside or overthrow the authority of the gentry. Proper limits have to be exceeded in order to right a wrong, or else the wrong cannot be righted.”

Mao Zedong · March 1927 · Article · Hunan

From the section answering the objection that peasant associations were 'going too far' by punishing landlords and 'evil gentry'. The report was written as the Kuomintang-Communist alliance was breaking down.

Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan, March 1927, in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. 1 (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965) Source

“I affirm that the fact, not fundamental, but determinant of the political, and, therefore, economic and moral power of nations, is their demographic strength. Let us speak plainly: what are 40 million Italians compared with 90 million Germans and 200 million Slavs? Let us turn to the West: what are 40 million Italians compared with 40 million Frenchmen plus the 90 million in their colonies, or compared with the 46 million English and more than 450 million of them in the colonies? Sirs, Italy to count as anything must arrive on the threshold of the second half of this century (1950) with a population not inferior to 60 million inhabitants”

Benito Mussolini · May 26, 1927 · Speech · Rome, Chamber of Deputies

In the Ascension Day speech to the Chamber Mussolini announced a programme of measures to raise the birth rate, including a tax on bachelors. Finer calls it Mussolini's first important speech on the subject.

"Discorso dell'Ascensione", Chamber of Deputies, 26 May 1927, in Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), p. 490 (English). Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 22: Dall'attentato Zaniboni al discorso dell'Ascensione (La Fenice, Florence, 1957), p. 364, and Biblioteca Fascista transcription Source

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”

Edward L. Bernays · 1928 · Book · New York

Opening sentences of the book's first chapter. Bernays, a public-relations counsel, was writing for a general readership about organised persuasion in American public life.

Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Horace Liveright, 1928), chapter 1, "Organizing Chaos", opening Source

“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”

Edward L. Bernays · 1928 · Book · New York

Follows directly after the invisible-government sentences in chapter 1. The next sentence in the book calls this a logical result of how a democratic society is organised.

Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Horace Liveright, 1928), chapter 1, "Organizing Chaos" Source

“Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.”

Edward L. Bernays · 1928 · Book · New York

From chapter 2, after Bernays argues that large-scale cooperation in politics, finance, education and other fields is done with the help of propaganda.

Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Horace Liveright, 1928), chapter 2, "The New Propaganda" Source

“Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.”

Edward L. Bernays · 1928 · Book · New York

Bernays's own definition, offered in chapter 2 after several examples of organised publicity.

Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Horace Liveright, 1928), chapter 2, "The New Propaganda" Source

“in its sum total it is regimenting the public mind every bit as much as an army regiments the bodies of its soldiers.”

Edward L. Bernays · 1928 · Book · New York

From chapter 2, describing continuous, universal publicity. The sentence begins mid-passage; the antecedent of "it" is the propaganda described in the preceding sentences.

Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Horace Liveright, 1928), chapter 2, "The New Propaganda" Source

“But clearly it is the intelligent minorities which need to make use of propaganda continuously and systematically. In the active proselytizing minorities in whom selfish interests and public interests coincide lie the progress and development of America. Only through the active energy of the intelligent few can the public at large become aware of and act upon new ideas.”

Edward L. Bernays · 1928 · Book · New York

Closing passage of chapter 2, where Bernays argues that organised minorities, not the public at large, drive social change.

Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Horace Liveright, 1928), chapter 2, "The New Propaganda" Source

“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it?”

Edward L. Bernays · 1928 · Book · New York

From chapter 4, tracing how group psychology came to be applied to publicity. Bernays answers the question in the following sentences: practice has shown it is possible "at least up to a certain point and within certain limits."

Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Horace Liveright, 1928), chapter 4, "The Psychology of Public Relations" Source

“My speech would have aroused Germany to the startling consciousness that it had never considered what Wilson’s programme really meant.”

English: W. M. Calder and C. W. H. Sutton (Constable, 1928). Original-language text not found.

Max von Baden · 1928 · Book

Memoir passage on the Reichstag speech of 5 October 1918: he says he gave up the speech he had intended after objections from his advisers, and that he regrets the decision.

The Memoirs of Prince Max of Baden, vol. 2, authorised translation by W. M. Calder and C. W. H. Sutton (London: Constable, 1928), p. 41 Source

“We do not want to be a movement of a few straw brains, but rather a movement that can conquer the broad masses. Propaganda should be popular, not intellectually pleasing. It is not the task of propaganda to discover intellectual truths.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · January 9, 1928 · Speech · Berlin

Early speech to party members in Berlin on how propaganda should be practised, years before Goebbels held government office. It is part of the text Bytwerk uses to show Goebbels's view of popular propaganda.

Speech "Erkenntnis und Propaganda" (Knowledge and Propaganda), Berlin, 9 January 1928, published in Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1934), pp. 28-52; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“We go into the Reichstag to supply ourselves at the arsenal of arms of Democracy with its own weapons. We become Deputies of the Reichstag to paralyze the Weimar way of thinking with its own support. If the Democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and Deputies' pay for this sham "service," that is its own affair. We will not worry about it. Any lawful means will do if it serves to revolutionize today's conditions.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 2500-PS. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · April 30, 1928 · Article

Article written by Goebbels in the weeks before the May 1928 Reichstag election, in which the Nazi Party won its first seats, explaining why a party that rejected the Weimar Constitution would stand for parliament.

"Was wollen wir im Reichstag?" (What Do We Want in the Reichstag?), Der Angriff, 30 April 1928, reprinted in Der Angriff: Aufsätze aus der Kampfzeit (Munich: Franz Eher Nachf., 1936), pp. 71-73, document 2500-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 5 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 236 Source

“The first point, therefore, that must be established in a definition of Fascism, is the totalitarian character of its doctrine, which concerns itself not only with political order and direction of the nation, but with its will, thought and sentiment.”

Giovanni Gentile · 1929 · Book

Gentile set out the doctrine of the regime in a short book published in 1929 by the Fascist publishing house in Rome. Section IX opens his account of what, in his view, defined Fascism as a doctrine.

Giovanni Gentile, Origini e dottrina del fascismo (Libreria del Littorio, Rome, 1929), section IX, "Carattere totalitario della dottrina fascista"; English in Origins and Doctrine of Fascism, trans. A. James Gregor (Transaction, 2003), p. 21 Source

“For Fascism, on the other hand, the State and the individual are one, or better, perhaps, “State” and “individual” are terms that are inseparable in a necessary synthesis.”

English: A. James Gregor, in Giovanni Gentile, Origins and Doctrine of Fascism, with Selections from Other Works (Transaction Publishers, 2003). Original-language text not found.

Giovanni Gentile · 1929 · Book

In section XII Gentile contrasts the Fascist conception of the State with liberal individualism and with Nationalist doctrine, which in his account made the individual a result of the State.

Giovanni Gentile, Origini e dottrina del fascismo (Libreria del Littorio, Rome, 1929), section XII, "La dottrina fascista dello Stato"; English in Origins and Doctrine of Fascism, trans. A. James Gregor (Transaction, 2003), p. 25 Source

Content note: Announces the elimination of a social class (dekulakisation). The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“What does this mean? It means that we have passed from the policy of restricting the exploiting tendencies of the kulaks to the policy of eliminating the kulaks as a class. It means that we have carried out, and are continuing to carry out, one of the decisive turns in our whole policy.”

Joseph Stalin · December 27, 1929 · Speech · Moscow

Stalin addressed a conference of Marxist agrarian scholars during the first phase of mass collectivisation. He described the change in Party policy towards better-off peasants (kulaks).

Speech at a Conference of Marxist Students of Agrarian Questions, 27 December 1929, 'Concerning Questions of Agrarian Policy in the U.S.S.R.', in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 12 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954), pp. 147-178; Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 12 (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1949), pp. 141-172 Source

Content note: Dismissive remark about the dispossession of peasant households. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Now we are able to carry on a determined offensive against the kulaks, break their resistance, eliminate them as a class and replace their output by the output of the collective farms and state farms. Now, dekulakisation is being carried out by the masses of poor and middle peasants themselves, who are putting complete collectivisation into practice. Now, dekulakisation in the areas of complete collectivisation is no longer just an administrative measure. Now, it is an integral part of the formation and development of the collective farms. Consequently it is now ridiculous and foolish to discourse at length on dekulakisation. When the head is off, one does not mourn for the hair.”

Joseph Stalin · December 27, 1929 · Speech · Moscow

In the same speech, Stalin answered the question whether dekulakisation (expropriation and removal of kulak households) could be permitted in areas of complete collectivisation.

Speech at a Conference of Marxist Students of Agrarian Questions, 27 December 1929, 'Concerning Questions of Agrarian Policy in the U.S.S.R.', in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 12 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954), pp. 147-178; Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 12 (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1949), pp. 141-172 Source

“The worst speech of this period, and perhaps the most harmful that William II ever made, was the speech in Bremerhaven on 27th June 1900.”

English: F. A. Voigt (Putnam, London, 1931). Original-language text not found.

Bernhard von Bülow · 1930 · Book

Bülow, who accompanied Chancellor Hohenlohe to Bremerhaven on the day of the speech, describes the Emperor's speech to troops leaving for China and his own attempt to hold back the strongest passages.

Bernhard von Bülow, Memoirs of Prince von Bülow, vol. 1: From Secretary of State to Imperial Chancellor, 1897-1903, translated by F. A. Voigt (London and New York: Putnam, 1931), p. 356 (German edition: Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1, Berlin: Ullstein, 1930) Source

“Collective farms must not be established by force. That would be foolish and reactionary.”

Joseph Stalin · March 2, 1930 · Article · Pravda, no. 60

The article states that by 20 February 1930 half of the peasant farms of the U.S.S.R. had been collectivised, and criticises local officials who, it says, violate the voluntary principle.

'Dizzy with Success: Concerning Questions of the Collective-Farm Movement', Pravda, no. 60, 2 March 1930, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 12 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1955), pp. 197-205; Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 12 (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1949), pp. 191-199 Source

Content note: Threat of retribution against political opponents. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I can assure you that when the National Socialist Movement is victorious in its fight then there will come a National Socialist Court of Justice and November 1918 will then find its retribution and heads will roll.”

English: Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler (OUP for the RIIA, 1942). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · September 25, 1930 · Testimony · Leipzig, Reichsgericht

Hitler was called as a witness in the trial of three Reichswehr officers charged with Nazi activity, a fortnight after his party won 107 Reichstag seats. Baynes notes that the phrase is often quoted as 'heads will roll on the sand' and that the Frankfurter Zeitung report does not include those last words.

Evidence given at the Leipzig trial of Reichswehr officers, 25 September 1930, as reported in Frankfurter Zeitung, 26 September 1930, in Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922 to August 1939, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1942), p. 191 Source

“The Italian people to-day are by no means lying on a bed of roses. They are tormented by an economic crisis the gravity of which it would be ridiculous to deny or even attenuate. It dominates all industry, commerce, and agriculture. Even the most favourably situated provinces find themselves faced by economic difficulties that are neither light to bear nor easy to solve. No one, however affected by an incurable frenzy or abject servility, can deny the reality of things as they are, or, with the aid of artificial rhetoric, make them appear otherwise than they are.”

English: Gaetano Salvemini, in Under the Axe of Fascism (Victor Gollancz, London, 1936). Original-language text not found.

Roberto Farinacci · October 28, 1930 · Article Verified (secondary source)

Farinacci edited Il Regime Fascista and had been Party Secretary in 1925 and 1926. Salvemini quotes the article beside official statements of the same month that Italy was prosperous.

Article in Il Regime Fascista (Cremona), 28 October 1930, quoted in Gaetano Salvemini, Under the Axe of Fascism (Victor Gollancz, London, 1936), p. 214 Source

“Bad was made worse than ever by Bethmann-Hollweg’s speech in the Reichstag (4th August 1914). Never, perhaps, has any other statesman at the head of a great and civilized people for whose safety and future he had to answer, pronounced, in an hour of mortal crisis, a clumsier, a more terrible speech.”

English: Geoffrey Dunlop (Putnam, London, 1932). Original-language text not found.

Bernhard von Bülow · 1931 · Book

Bülow, who had resigned as Chancellor in 1909, wrote of his reading of Bethmann Hollweg's Reichstag speech of 4 August 1914 and of the "scrap of paper" remark attributed to the Chancellor.

Bernhard von Bülow, Memoirs of Prince von Bülow, vol. 3: The World War and the Collapse of Germany, 1909-1919, translated by Geoffrey Dunlop (London and New York: Putnam, 1932), chapter XIII, pp. 170-171 (German edition: Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 3, Berlin: Ullstein, 1931) Source

“We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall go under.”

Joseph Stalin · February 4, 1931 · Speech · Moscow, First All-Union Conference of Leading Personnel of Socialist Industry

Stalin spoke during the first Five-Year Plan, in answer to the question whether the pace of industrialisation could be reduced.

'The Tasks of Business Executives', speech at the First All-Union Conference of Leading Personnel of Socialist Industry, 4 February 1931, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 13 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954), pp. 29-42; Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 13 (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1951), pp. 29-42 Source

“A Bolshevik's word is his bond. Bolsheviks are in the habit of fulfilling promises made by them.”

Joseph Stalin · February 4, 1931 · Speech · Moscow, First All-Union Conference of Leading Personnel of Socialist Industry

Opening of the passage in which Stalin asks industrial managers whether the pledge to meet the 1931 control figures, an increase in industrial output of 45 percent, will be kept. He goes on to say that the 1930 pledge was not fulfilled in full.

Speech 'The Tasks of Business Executives', 4 February 1931, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 13 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954) Source

Content note: Demeaning remark about Gandhi's dress and status. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It is alarming … to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal Palace while he is still organising and conducting a campaign of civil disobedience.”

Winston Churchill · February 23, 1931 · Speech Disputed

Made weeks after Churchill resigned from the Conservative shadow cabinet over the party's India policy, in response to Gandhi's talks with the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, following Gandhi's release from prison.

Speech to the West Essex Unionist Association, 23 February 1931, as quoted by the International Churchill Society ('India', The Life of Churchill) Source

The ellipsis is the International Churchill Society's, not ours. Circulated versions differ: others read 'alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer of the type well-known in the East, now posing as a fakir, striding half-naked...'. The exact wording of the original report is not confirmed here; the venue 'Epping' is not confirmed either and should be treated as unverified.

Content note: Call to overthrow the government by force. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Turn your guns in the opposite direction and fight to overthrow imperialism and the Kuomintang, which exploit, oppress, and butcher the Chinese labouring masses; fight to establish the Soviet Government and the Red Army of the workers, peasants, and soldiers!”

English: Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. 6 (English-language edition as transcribed on Marxists.org). Original-language text not found.

Zhu De · September 25, 1931 · Statement · Jiangxi Soviet area

An appeal issued a week after the Japanese seizure of Mukden, addressed to Kuomintang soldiers and signed by the Red Army's commander-in-chief and other commanders. It calls on them to stop fighting the Red Army and to turn on Japan and the Kuomintang government.

Letter from the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army to the soldiers of the White Army on the forced occupation of Manchuria by Japanese imperialism, 25 September 1931 (signed by Chu Teh, Mao Tse-tung, Ho Lung, P'eng Te-huai and Huang Kung-lueh), in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. 6 Source

Content note: Glorification of war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism — born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put men into the position where they have to make the great decision — the alternative of life or death.”

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Article

The 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana entry on Fascism has two parts. The first, on fundamental ideas, is attributed to Giovanni Gentile; the second, on political and social doctrine, is Mussolini's. This is his statement on peace and war.

Benito Mussolini, "La dottrina del fascismo" (Part 2, "Dottrina politica e sociale"), Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. 14 (1932); English: The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, authorised translation by Jane Soames (Hogarth Press, Day to Day Pamphlets no. 18, London, 1933), p. 11 Source

“Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the State.”

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Article

The 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana entry on Fascism has two parts. The first, on fundamental ideas, is attributed to Giovanni Gentile; the second, on political and social doctrine, is Mussolini's. This is the opening of his statement on the State.

Benito Mussolini, "La dottrina del fascismo" (Part 2, "Dottrina politica e sociale"), Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. 14 (1932); English: The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, authorised translation by Jane Soames (Hogarth Press, Day to Day Pamphlets no. 18, London, 1933), p. 21 Source

“Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial and fruitful inequality of mankind, which can never be permanently levelled through the mere operation of a mechanical process such as universal suffrage. The democratic regime may be defined as from time to time giving the people the illusion of sovereignty, while the real effective sovereignty lies in the hands of other concealed and irresponsible forces. Democracy is a regime nominally without a king, but it is ruled by many kings — more absolute, tyrannical and ruinous than one sole king, even though a tyrant.”

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Article

The 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana entry on Fascism has two parts. The first, on fundamental ideas, is attributed to Giovanni Gentile; the second, on political and social doctrine, is Mussolini's. Here he sets out the Fascist objection to democracy, after the section on Socialism.

Benito Mussolini, "La dottrina del fascismo" (Part 2, "Dottrina politica e sociale"), Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. 14 (1932); English: The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, authorised translation by Jane Soames (Hogarth Press, Day to Day Pamphlets no. 18, London, 1933), p. 14 Source

“The Fascist State is an embodied will to power and government: the Roman tradition is here an ideal of force in action. According to Fascism, government is not so much a thing to be expressed in territorial or military terms as in terms of morality and the spirit. It must be thought of as an Empire — that is to say, a nation which directly or indirectly rules other nations, without the need for conquering a single square yard of territory. For Fascism, the growth of Empire, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence. Peoples which are rising, or rising again after a period of decadence, are always imperialist; any renunciation is a sign of decay and of death.”

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Article

The 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana entry on Fascism has two parts. The first, on fundamental ideas, is attributed to Giovanni Gentile; the second, on political and social doctrine, is Mussolini's. The passage appears in the closing section on the State and its aims, three years before the invasion of Ethiopia.

Benito Mussolini, "La dottrina del fascismo" (Part 2, "Dottrina politica e sociale"), Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. 14 (1932); English: The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, authorised translation by Jane Soames (Hogarth Press, Day to Day Pamphlets no. 18, London, 1933), p. 25 Source

“Every speech made to the crowd has a twofold object, to clarify the situation and to suggest something to the masses. That is why speeches made to the people are essential to the arousing of enthusiasm for a war.”

English: Eden and Cedar Paul (from the German of Emil Ludwig). Original-language text not found.

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Interview · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Ludwig had watched Mussolini address a crowd in the Piazza Venezia from the balcony and then asked about the relation between a leader and the masses. This is part of Mussolini's answer.

Emil Ludwig, conversations with Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia, March-April 1932, chapter "Influencing the Masses", in Emil Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1933), pp. 119-120 Source

Content note: Contemptuous description of the masses. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“For me the masses are nothing but a herd of sheep, so long as they are unorganised. I am nowise antagonistic to them. All that I deny is that they are capable of ruling themselves. But if you would lead them, you must guide them by two reins, enthusiasm and interest.”

English: Eden and Cedar Paul (from the German of Emil Ludwig). Original-language text not found.

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Interview · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Asked by Ludwig how a leader can be influenced by the masses he addresses, Mussolini began his answer with this account of how to lead them.

Emil Ludwig, conversations with Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia, March-April 1932, chapter "Influencing the Masses", in Emil Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1933), p. 119 Source

Content note: Compares a crowd to a woman; says a dictator is loved if the masses also fear him. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Provided that the masses fear him at the same time. The crowd loves strong men. The crowd is like a woman.”

English: Eden and Cedar Paul (from the German of Emil Ludwig). Original-language text not found.

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Interview · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Ludwig had asked whether history knows any usurper who was loved, and whether a dictator can be loved. Mussolini first named Julius Caesar, then answered Ludwig's follow-up question as quoted.

Emil Ludwig, conversations with Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia, March-April 1932, chapter "The School of History", in Emil Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1933), p. 61 Source

“Of course there are no pure races left; not even the Jews have kept their blood unmingled. Successful crossings have often promoted the energy and the beauty of a nation. Race! It is a feeling, not a reality; ninety-five per cent., at least, is a feeling. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist to-day. Amusingly enough, not one of those who have proclaimed the 'nobility' of the Teutonic race was himself a Teuton. [...] National pride has no need of the delirium of race.”

English: Eden and Cedar Paul (from the German of Emil Ludwig). Original-language text not found.

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Interview · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Ludwig asked whether Fascists risked talking about the Latin races in the way northern writers talked about the 'noble blonds'. Mussolini was answering that question six years before Italy's racial laws.

Emil Ludwig, conversations with Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia, March-April 1932, chapter "Socialism and Nationalism", in Emil Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1933), pp. 68-69 Source

“Anti-Semitism does not exist in Italy, [...] Italians of Jewish birth have shown themselves good citizens, and they fought bravely in the war. Many of them occupy leading positions in the universities, in the army, in the banks. Quite a number of them are generals; Modena, the commandant of Sardinia, is a general of the artillery.”

English: Eden and Cedar Paul (from the German of Emil Ludwig). Original-language text not found.

Benito Mussolini · 1932 · Interview · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Ludwig had remarked that Mussolini's statement on race was the best argument against anti-Semitism. Mussolini replied as quoted. Six years later he announced the racial laws.

Emil Ludwig, conversations with Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia, March-April 1932, chapter "Socialism and Nationalism", in Emil Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1933), p. 69 Source

“I don’t intend to spend the next four years counting the buttons on another man’s coat tails.”

John Nance Garner · June 1932 · Interview · Chicago, Democratic National Convention (reported by the Washington Herald) Verified (secondary source)

Said about the vice presidency while Garner, then Speaker of the House, was a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination and before he agreed to join Franklin Roosevelt's ticket.

Quoted in Patrick Cox, "Not Worth a Bucket of Warm Spit," History News Network (Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin), citing Arthur "Bugs" Baer, Washington Herald, 30 June 1932 Source

“Criticism should be undertaken at the Ukrainian conference of the work of the CC CP(B)U, whose shortcomings have brought about a difficult situation in some regions. The question arises of how this should be explained in the press. In order not to give fodder to the foreign press, we deem it necessary to expound on this criticism in our press in moderate tones, without printing facts about the situation in the bad regions.”

English: Maksym Motorenko and Bohdan Klid, in The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, ed. Bohdan Klid and Alexander J. Motyl (Edmonton and Toronto: CIUS Press, 2012). Original-language text not found.

Lazar Kaganovich · July 6, 1932 · Letter

A joint telegram of Molotov and Kaganovich, who were taking part in the All-Ukrainian Party Conference, asking Stalin how the press should report criticism of the work of the Ukrainian Party leadership.

Telegram from Molotov and Kaganovich to Stalin, 6 July 1932, in Holod 1932-1933 rokiv v Ukraini (2007), p. 232 Source

“Criticism should be undertaken at the Ukrainian conference of the work of the CC CP(B)U, whose shortcomings have brought about a difficult situation in some regions. The question arises of how this should be explained in the press. In order not to give fodder to the foreign press, we deem it necessary to expound on this criticism in our press in moderate tones, without printing facts about the situation in the bad regions.”

English: Maksym Motorenko and Bohdan Klid, in 'Holodomor Documents' (Holodomor Research and Education Consortium), from The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, ed. Bohdan Klid and Alexander J. Motyl (Edmonton and Toronto: CIUS Press, 2012). Original-language text not found.

Vyacheslav Molotov · July 6, 1932 · Letter

A joint telegram of Molotov and Kaganovich, who were taking part in the All-Ukrainian Party Conference, asking Stalin how the press should report criticism of the work of the Ukrainian Party leadership.

Telegram from Molotov and Kaganovich to Stalin, 6 July 1932, in Holod 1932-1933 rokiv v Ukraini (2007), p. 232 Source

“If we do not correct the situation in Ukraine immediately, we could lose Ukraine…. Also keep in mind that within the Communist Party of Ukraine (500,000 members, ha, ha) there is no lack (yes, no lack!) of rotten elements, active and latent Petliurites and direct agents of [Józef] Piłsudski.”

Joseph Stalin · August 11, 1932 · Letter Verified (secondary source)

Stalin wrote to Kaganovich during the 1932 grain-procurement campaign. The letter proposed replacing the leaders of the Communist Party of Ukraine and of the Ukrainian GPU.

Letter from Stalin to L. M. Kaganovich, 11 August 1932, in J. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 17 (Tver: Severnaya Korona, 2004), pp. 571-573; English excerpt in Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine: Documents and Materials (Kyiv, 2008), pp. 47-49, as reproduced in 'Holodomor Documents' (Holodomor Research and Education Consortium) Source

Content note: Announces removal of goods and threatens deportation of entire villages. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“In ten districts of the Kuban, delivery of goods to cooperative and state stores was halted, and in another ten districts that most shamefully failed in sowing and procurements, in addition to stopping deliveries, all goods were removed. Residents of the blacklisted stanitsy were warned that in the event sabotage continued in sowing and grain procurements, they would be deported beyond the borders of the territory to the northern oblasts, and these stanitsy would be settled by conscientious collective farmers....”

English: Bohdan Klid, in The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, ed. Bohdan Klid and Alexander J. Motyl (Edmonton and Toronto: CIUS Press, 2012). Original-language text not found.

Lazar Kaganovich · November 23, 1932 · Speech · Rostov-on-Don

Kaganovich, a Secretary of the Central Committee, spoke after a Central Committee group went to the North Caucasus to deal with what the resolution called sabotage of sowing and grain procurement by kulak elements in the Kuban. He described measures taken against villages that had not met the plan.

Speech at a joint meeting of the enlarged bureau of the North Caucasus Territorial Committee of the AUCP(B) and the bureau of the Rostov city committee and activists, 23 November 1932, 'Tasks of the North Caucasus Bolsheviks in the struggle for grain and for the strengthening of collective farms', in Komandyry velykoho holodu (2001), pp. 286-289, 291-292 (excerpts) Source

Content note: Announces deportation of purged Party members as 'traitors to the working class'. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We will deport those purged from the Party beyond the borders of the territory to the northern oblasts as traitors to the working class and as politically dangerous.”

English: Bohdan Klid, in The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, ed. Bohdan Klid and Alexander J. Motyl (Edmonton and Toronto: CIUS Press, 2012). Original-language text not found.

Lazar Kaganovich · November 23, 1932 · Speech · Rostov-on-Don

In the same speech, Kaganovich reported that 25-30 percent of the staff of the village (stanitsa) organisations had been purged from the Party, and said what would happen to them.

Speech at a joint meeting of the enlarged bureau of the North Caucasus Territorial Committee of the AUCP(B) and the bureau of the Rostov city committee and activists, 23 November 1932, 'Tasks of the North Caucasus Bolsheviks in the struggle for grain and for the strengthening of collective farms', in Komandyry velykoho holodu (2001), pp. 286-289, 291-292 (excerpts) Source

“The very raising of the issue of creating and securing reserves, as well as prohibiting the transfer of seed reserves to grain procurement, provides the legal grounds and basis for entrenching the established view that the plan cannot be fulfilled, although this is not said openly.... [W]e are convinced that this “preoccupation” with reserves, including seed reserves, is seriously hampering and undermining the entire grain-procurement plan.”

English: English text in 'Holodomor Documents' (Holodomor Research and Education Consortium, holodomor.ca, 7_HR_Documents.pdf), from Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine: Documents and Materials (Kyiv, 2008); translator not credited for this item. Original-language text not found.

Lazar Kaganovich · December 22, 1932 · Letter Verified (secondary source)

Kaganovich and Mikhail Chernov wrote to Stalin about a resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine of 18 November 1932, which they argued allowed collective farms to keep grain reserves.

Telegram from Kaganovich and M. A. Chernov to Stalin, 22 December 1932, on the need to cancel the resolution of the CC CP(B)U of 18 November 1932, in Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine (2008), p. 70 (excerpt) Source

Content note: Antisemitic characterisation of Jews as a destructive race. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Richard Wagner once called the Jews the “plastic demon of decomposition” and Theodor Mommsen meant the same when he saw them as the “ferment of decomposition.” In contrast, the Aryan sees himself as a creative creature. There may be a certain tragedy inherent in the nature of the Jews, but is it our fault that this race works destructively among the peoples and is a constant danger to their domestic and international security?”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · 1933 · Speech

Speech at the first Nuremberg rally after the Nazi takeover, answering foreign press criticism of Germany's racial policies.

Speech "Rassenfrage und Weltpropaganda" (The Racial Question and World Propaganda), Nuremberg Party Rally 1933, in Reichstagung in Nürnberg 1933 (Berlin: Vaterländischer Verlag C. A. Weller, 1933), pp. 131-142; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“The abolition of classes is not achieved by the extinction of the class struggle, but by its intensification. The state will wither away, not as a result of weakening the state power, but as a result of strengthening it to the utmost, which is necessary for finally crushing the remnants of the dying classes and for organising defence against the capitalist encirclement that is far from having been done away with as yet, and will not soon be done away with.”

Joseph Stalin · January 7, 1933 · Speech · Moscow, Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission

Stalin reported that the first Five-Year Plan had been completed in four years, and addressed the view that class struggle would fade as classes were abolished.

'The Results of the First Five-Year Plan', report to the Joint Plenum of the C.C. and C.C.C., C.P.S.U.(B.), 7 January 1933, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 13 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954); Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 13 (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1951), pp. 161-215 Source

“Humanity crucified Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years ago. And to-day? Can any of you assure me that the so-called world opinion can make no mistake ? We Japanese feel that we are now put on trial. Some of the people in Europe and America may wish even to crucify Japan in the twentieth century. Gentlemen, Japan stands ready to be crucified! But we do believe, and firmly believe, that, in a very few years, world opinion will be changed and that we also shall be understood by the world as Jesus of Nazareth was.”

Yosuke Matsuoka · February 24, 1933 · Speech · Geneva, Special Assembly of the League of Nations

Delivered before the Assembly voted on the report of the Committee of Nineteen on the Manchurian dispute. Matsuoka and the Japanese delegation walked out after the vote, and Japan gave notice of withdrawal from the League the following month.

Address by Yosuke Matsuoka, Chief Japanese Delegate, at the Seventeenth Plenary Meeting of the Special Assembly of the League of Nations, 24 February 1933, in Japan's Case in the Sino-Japanese Dispute as Presented before the Special Session of the Assembly of the League of Nations (Japanese Delegation to the League of Nations, 1933) Source

Content note: Threatens Communists and says his mission is to "destroy and exterminate". The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Fellow Germans, my measures will not be crippled by any judicial thinking. My measures will not be crippled by any bureaucracy. Here I don't have to give Justice, my mission is only to destroy and exterminate, nothing more! This struggle, fellow Germans, will be a struggle against chaos and such a struggle I shall not conduct with the power of any police. A bourgeoise state might have done that. Certainly, I shall use the power of the state and the police to the utmost my dear Communists, so that you won't draw any false conclusions but the struggle to the death, in which my fist will grasp your necks, I shall lead with those down there, — those are the brown shirts.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 1856-PS. Original-language text not found.

Hermann Göring · March 3, 1933 · Speech · Frankfurt am Main

Election-campaign speech five weeks after Hitler became Chancellor and two days before the Reichstag election of 5 March 1933. Göring was Prussian Minister of the Interior and in command of the Prussian police. The US prosecution cited the passage as an example of the purge of political opponents.

Speech "Wir tragen die Verantwortung" (We Bear the Responsibility), NSDAP demonstration, Frankfurt am Main, 3 March 1933, in Hermann Göring, Reden und Aufsätze, ed. Erich Gritzbach, 3rd ed. (Munich: Franz Eher Nachf., 1939), p. 27, document 1856-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 4 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 495 Source

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · March 4, 1933 · Speech · Washington, D.C., east portico of the Capitol

Delivered at the start of his first term, during the banking crisis of the Great Depression, and broadcast on radio.

First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1933, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · March 4, 1933 · Speech · Washington, D.C., East Portico of the Capitol

Said early in his first inaugural address, delivered during the banking crisis of the Great Depression.

First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1933, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · March 4, 1933 · Speech · Washington, D.C., East Portico of the Capitol

Said in the opening passage of his first inaugural address, delivered during the banking crisis of the Great Depression.

First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1933, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“Similarly, the Reich Government, which regards Christianity as the unshakable foundation of the ethics and morality of the Volk, places great value on friendly relations with the Vatican and attempts to develop them.”

English: Mary Fran Gilbert, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations (Bolchazy-Carducci). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · March 23, 1933 · Speech · Berlin, Kroll Opera House (Reichstag)

Delivered to the Reichstag meeting in the Kroll Opera House two days after the Day of Potsdam, before the vote on the Enabling Act. This section of the speech addresses the churches and foreign relations.

Speech to the Reichstag introducing the Enabling Act, 23 March 1933, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945, vol. 1 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 1990), p. 283

“But on the other hand, where real crimes were committed against the people, there must be pitiless and just revenge. That is the prerequisite if we are to forgive the others. The big ones must be caught, not the little ones. We want to let the little ones alone, but we must settle accounts with the big ones who know how to juggle things back and forth, doing their business here and there. They must receive just revenge with pitiless hardness.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Hermann Göring · April 9, 1933 · Speech · Berlin, Sportpalast

Speech to the Nazi factory-cell organisation about two months after Hitler became Chancellor. In the surrounding passage Göring urges generosity toward former opponents who were minor figures and asks for an end to denunciations.

Speech "Nationalismus und Sozialismus" to the NSBO, Berlin Sportpalast, 9 April 1933, in Hermann Göring, Reden und Aufsätze (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1941), pp. 36-49; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“Finding a reasonable and lasting solution to the problems existing today lies in the interests of all. No new European war would be capable of bringing about anything better in place of the unsatisfactory conditions of the present.”

English: Mary Fran Gilbert, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations (Bolchazy-Carducci). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · May 17, 1933 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Reply to President Roosevelt's message of 16 May 1933 to heads of state on disarmament, delivered to the Reichstag and broadcast. It came during the Geneva disarmament conference, four months after Hitler became Chancellor.

Reichstag speech of 17 May 1933 (the 'peace speech'), in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945, vol. 1 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 1990), p. 327

“It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio and the airplane. It is no exaggeration to say that the German revolution, at least in the form it took, would have been impossible without the airplane and the radio.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · August 18, 1933 · Speech · Berlin

Speech at the opening of a radio exhibition in Berlin, six months after Hitler became Chancellor, when Goebbels was Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. A cheap radio set, the Volksempfänger, had just been introduced.

Speech "Der Rundfunk als achte Großmacht" (The Radio as the Eighth Great Power), Berlin, 18 August 1933, in Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1938), pp. 197-207; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

Content note: States that the government has a duty to subordinate institutions, including radio, to its goals. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“A government that has determined to bring a nation together so that it is once more a center of power in the scales of great world events has not only the right, but the duty, to subordinate all aspects of the nation to its goals, or at least ensure that they are supportive. That is also true for the radio.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · August 18, 1933 · Speech · Berlin

From the same radio-exhibition speech, on the government's claim to direct the content of broadcasting.

Speech "Der Rundfunk als achte Großmacht" (The Radio as the Eighth Great Power), Berlin, 18 August 1933, in Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1938), pp. 197-207; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“Three conditions are necessary for the full, complete, integral, and revolutionary fulfilment of the Corporate State: A single party, by means of which there shall be effectuated political control as well as economic control, and which shall be, above the competing interests, a bond which unites all in a common faith. Nor is that enough. We must have, as well as the single party, the totalitarian State, that is to say, the State which absorbs in itself, to transform and make them effective, all the energy, all the interests, and all the hope of a people. And even that is not enough. The third, and ultimate, and the most important condition, is to live a period of the highest ideal tension. We are now living in this period of high ideal tension.”

Benito Mussolini · November 14, 1933 · Speech · Rome, Ministry of Corporations

Mussolini presided over the assembly of the National Council of Corporations, which was discussing the law creating the corporations. He was answering the question whether corporatism could be applied in other countries.

Speech to the general assembly of the National Council of Corporations, Rome, 14 November 1933, in Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), p. 231 (English). Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 26: Dal patto a quattro all'inaugurazione della provincia di Littoria (La Fenice, Florence, 1958), p. 96 Source

“You take an oath to a man whom you know follows the laws of providence, which he obeys independently of the influence of earthly powers, who leads the German people rightly, and who will guide Germany’s fate. Through your oath you bind yourselves to a man who — that is our faith — was sent to us by higher powers. Do not seek Adolf Hitler with your mind. You will find him through the strength of your hearts! Adolf Hitler is Germany and Germany is Adolf Hitler. He who takes an oath to Hitler takes an oath to Germany!”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Rudolf Hess · February 25, 1934 · Broadcast · Germany (radio address to party officials)

Hess spoke to about a million political leaders, Labour Service and Hitler Youth leaders gathered at points across Germany to swear an oath to Hitler. The speech was broadcast to the nation.

'Der Eid auf Adolf Hitler', radio speech of 25 February 1934, in Rudolf Hess, Reden (Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Munich, 1938), pp. 10-14; English translation by Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University Source

Content note: Glorification of war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Meanwhile history tells us that war is the phenomenon which accompanies the development of humanity. Perhaps it is the tragic destiny which weighs on man. War is to man as maternity is to woman [...] I do not believe in perpetual peace; not only that, I consider it depresses and negatives the fundamental virtues of man which only in bloody effort reveal themselves in the full light of the sun.”

Benito Mussolini · May 26, 1934 · Speech · Rome, Chamber of Deputies

Mussolini gave the Chamber his review of the economic situation and the international outlook, responding in passing to a remark by the deputy Carlo Delcroix about a Nobel prize.

Speech on the economic situation, Chamber of Deputies, 26 May 1934, in Herman Finer, Mussolini's Italy (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1935), p. 175 (English). Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 26: Dal patto a quattro all'inaugurazione della provincia di Littoria (La Fenice, Florence, 1958), p. 259 Source

“With pride we see: One remains free from all criticism — the Führer. That is because each feels and knows: He is always right, and he will always be right. Our National Socialism is anchored in absolute loyalty, in devotion to the Führer that does not question individual cases, in the silent execution of his orders. We believe that the Führer is obeying a higher call to form Germany’s fate! There can be no criticism of this faith.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Rudolf Hess · June 25, 1934 · Speech · Essen, Gau party rally (broadcast)

Delivered five days before the killings of 30 June 1934, at a regional party rally, broadcast on German radio and later reprinted in Hess's collected speeches. In the same speech he told listeners that justified criticism should go through party channels and not be voiced in public.

'Von der Revolution zum Aufbau', speech at the Gau Essen party rally, 25 June 1934, in Rudolf Hess, Reden (Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Munich, 1938), pp. 15-32; English translation by Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University Source

“We front soldiers do not want incompetent diplomacy to lead us once again into catastrophe, whose chief victims would once again be front soldiers. We soldiers on all sides feel free of the responsibility for the last war. We want to fight together to prevent a new catastrophe. We want to join in building together what we together destroyed during the war.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Rudolf Hess · July 8, 1934 · Speech · East Prussia, Gau party rally

Hess addressed First World War veterans in Germany and abroad, saying the leadership of Germany and Italy had known trench warfare and favoured peace. The speech was delivered to a party rally but was meant for an international audience.

'An die Frontkämpfer der Welt', speech to the East Prussia Gau party rally, 8 July 1934, in Rudolf Hess, Reden (Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Munich, 1938), pp. 39-48; English translation by Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University Source

Content note: Justifies extrajudicial killings. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Although only a few days before I had been prepared to exercise clemency, at this hour there was no place for any such consideration. Mutinies are suppressed in accordance with laws of iron which are eternally the same. If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice for conviction of the offenders, then all that I can say to him is this: in this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme Justiciar of the German people!”

English: Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler (OUP for the RIIA, 1942). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · July 13, 1934 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Hitler's public account to the Reichstag of the killings of 30 June to 2 July 1934, in which SA leaders and other people were shot without trial. The German is 'oberster Gerichtsherr', as Baynes notes.

Speech to the Reichstag, 13 July 1934, in Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922 to August 1939, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1942), p. 321 Source

“Education is a weapon the effect of which is determined by the hands which wield it, by who is to be struck down.”

Joseph Stalin · July 23, 1934 · Interview · Moscow

Stalin was replying to H. G. Wells's reference to 'educated people' and the part they play in social change.

Interview with H. G. Wells, 23 July 1934, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 14 (London: Red Star Press, 1978); Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 14 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 24-39 Source

“In addition to this, the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic portrayal should be combined with the ideological remolding and education of the toiling people in the spirit of socialism. This method in belles lettres and literary criticism is what we call the method of socialist realism.”

English: Soviet Writers' Congress 1934 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1977), translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Andrei Zhdanov · August 1934 · Speech · Moscow, First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers

Zhdanov spoke for the Central Committee at the opening of the writers' congress that adopted socialist realism as the method of Soviet literature.

Speech at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, August 1934, in Soviet Writers' Congress 1934 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1977), pp. 15-26 Source

“To be an engineer of human souls means standing with both feet firmly planted on the basis of real life. And this in its turn denotes a rupture with romanticism of the old type, which depicted a non-existent life and non-existent heroes, leading the reader away from the antagonisms and oppression of real life into a world of the impossible, into a world of utopian dreams.”

English: Soviet Writers' Congress 1934 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1977), translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Andrei Zhdanov · August 1934 · Speech · Moscow, First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers

Zhdanov explains the phrase "engineers of human souls", which he attributes to Stalin, to the assembled writers.

Speech at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, August 1934, in Soviet Writers' Congress 1934 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1977), pp. 15-26 Source

“Propaganda is a means to an end. Its purpose is to lead the people to an understanding that will allow it to willingly and without internal resistance devote itself to the tasks and goals of a superior leadership. If propaganda is to succeed, it must know what it wants. It must keep a clear and firm goal in mind, and seek the appropriate means and methods to reach that goal. Propaganda as such is neither good nor evil. Its moral value is determined by the goals it seeks.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · September 1934 · Speech

Speech at the 1934 Nuremberg Party Rally in which Goebbels, as Propaganda Minister, set out his definition of propaganda.

Speech at the Nuremberg Party Rally, 1934, published in Der Kongress zur Nürnberg 1934 (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1934), pp. 130-141; English translation by Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University Source

Content note: Threat against those who break the oath. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“When your older comrades fought and shed their blood in battle in order to achieve victory, you could not yet be among them. Today they welcome you with open heart and with most profound sympathy. In pronouncing your oath you will accomplish one of the most solemn acts of your life. Remember that those who betray the oath will be stricken by the swords of Fascism as traitors. Remember that Fascism promises you neither honors nor jobs nor profits-but only duty and combat.”

English: Associated Press (translator not named), as printed in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 October 1934. Original-language text not found.

Achille Starace · October 7, 1934 · Statement · Rome (read at gatherings across Italy) Verified (secondary source)

About 250,000 men aged 18 to 21 took their oath in Italian cities on the fourth anniversary of the Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento, the Party's organisation for young adults. The wire report says the message was written by Starace and read at each gathering.

Message of the Secretary of the National Fascist Party to the Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento, 7 October 1934, as reported in an Associated Press dispatch from Rome, 7 October 1934, in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 October 1934 (also printed in the Washington Post, 8 October 1934) Source

“Our so-called Society people, [...] instead of going in for sport, persist in holding conversations in their drawing rooms, generally in a foreign tongue. They engage nurse maids, personal maids and governesses of all nationalities except Italian. They play poker and bridge with the accompanying drinks, certainly not Italian brands!”

English: Unnamed (as printed in Time, 5 August 1935). Original-language text not found.

Achille Starace · 1935 · Statement Verified (secondary source)

Time reported that Italian society in general and Party officials in particular had read a Party bulletin in which Starace criticised them. The passage concerns the social habits of wealthy Italians.

Party bulletin issued by the Secretary of the National Fascist Party, summer 1935, quoted in "Italy: Activist on Society", Time, 5 August 1935 Source

“It is time to realise that of all the valuable capital the world possesses, the most valuable and most decisive is people, cadres. It must be realised that under our present conditions "cadres decide everything."”

Joseph Stalin · May 4, 1935 · Speech · Moscow, Kremlin, address to graduates of the Red Army academies

Stalin addressed military-academy graduates on the shift of emphasis from equipment ('technique decides everything') to trained personnel.

Address to the Graduates from the Red Army Academies, Kremlin, 4 May 1935, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 14 (London: Red Star Press, 1978); Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 14 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 58-63 Source

Content note: Justification of a colonial war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“With Ethiopia we have been patient for forty years! It is time to say enough!”

Benito Mussolini · October 2, 1935 · Speech · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Mussolini spoke to crowds gathered in public squares across Italy, broadcast by radio, the day before Italian forces invaded Ethiopia from Eritrea. The League of Nations was considering sanctions.

Speech announcing general mobilisation, Rome, 2 October 1935. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 27: Dall'inaugurazione della provincia di Littoria alla proclamazione dell'impero (La Fenice, Florence, 1959), p. 159. English text: Biblioteca Fascista, "Speech in Rome, October 2, 1935" Source

“Life has improved, comrades. Life has become more joyous. And when life is joyous, work goes well. Hence the high rates of output. Hence the heroes and heroines of labour.”

Joseph Stalin · November 17, 1935 · Speech · Moscow, First All-Union Conference of Stakhanovites

Stalin spoke to delegates of the Stakhanovite movement, a Party-promoted campaign to raise output norms, and gave his reasons for its growth.

Speech at the First All-Union Conference of Stakhanovites, 17 November 1935, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 14 (London: Red Star Press, 1978); Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 14 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 79-92 Source

“Whenever one thinks of the Führer, a deep love surfaces that is sufficient to justify the sentence: “Hitler is Germany — Germany is Hitler!” Never have the hearts of a people been nearer to a man than to him, who began from nothing. He came not from outside our nation, but was born a member of our nation. He sensed its need and lived among it, and if today someone asks for the name of the unknown German front soldier, the whole German nation would answer: Adolf Hitler! He was the conscience of the nation. He expressed the sorrow and the resistance of an enslaved people, and in him the life will of all Germany, in the midst of its deepest need, found its expression. Adolf Hitler never said anything but what the people itself felt in the depths of its soul. He never did anything but what the entirety of the people wanted to do. He was not, is not, and never will be a dictator who forces the people to accept his personal wishes. He is a Führer, and that is the highest thing that can be said of any human being.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Otto Dietrich · 1936 · Book

Essay by Dietrich, then Party Press Chief, in an illustrated book of photographs of Hitler distributed with cigarette-card albums. It describes the relationship between Hitler and the German people.

Otto Dietrich, "Der Führer und das deutsche Volk", in Adolf Hitler. Bilder aus dem Leben des Führers (Hamburg: Cigaretten-Bilderdienst, 1936), pp. 19-26; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“You see, we Marxists believe that a revolution will also take place in other countries. But it will take place only when the revolutionaries in those countries think it possible, or necessary. The export of revolution is nonsense. Every country will make its own revolution if it wants to, and if it does not want to, there will be no revolution. For example, our country wanted to make a revolution and made it, and now we are building a new, classless society.”

Joseph Stalin · March 1, 1936 · Interview · Moscow

Roy Howard, president of the Scripps-Howard newspapers, asked whether the Soviet Union had abandoned plans for world revolution.

Interview between J. Stalin and Roy Howard, 1 March 1936, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 14 (London: Red Star Press, 1978); Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 14 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 103-112 Source

“The Italian people have created an empire with their blood. They will fertilize it with their labour. They will defend it against anyone with their arms.”

Benito Mussolini · May 9, 1936 · Speech · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Mussolini announced the Grand Council's decision that the territories and peoples of the Ethiopian Empire were under the full sovereignty of the Kingdom of Italy and that the King took the title of Emperor of Ethiopia, days after Italian forces entered Addis Ababa.

Proclamation of the Empire, balcony of Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 9 May 1936. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 27: Dall'inaugurazione della provincia di Littoria alla proclamazione dell'impero (La Fenice, Florence, 1959), p. 269. English text: Biblioteca Fascista, "Speech in Rome, May 9, 1936" Source

“I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen two hundred limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of one thousand that went forward forty-eight hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · August 14, 1936 · Speech · Chautauqua, New York

Delivered in the run-up to the 1936 election, on his policy toward the wars in Europe and Africa; Congress had passed neutrality acts in 1935 and 1936.

Address at Chautauqua, N.Y., 14 August 1936, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

Content note: Demands the execution of defendants, calling them mad dogs. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I demand that dogs gone mad should be shot - every one of them!”

English: Official English edition, Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre (People's Commissariat of Justice of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1936); translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Andrey Vyshinsky · August 22, 1936 · Speech · Moscow, Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. (Trial of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre)

Final sentence of the prosecution speech at the first Moscow show trial, where sixteen defendants including Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev were charged with forming a terrorist centre and with the assassination of Sergei Kirov. All sixteen were sentenced to death on 24 August 1936.

Closing speech of the State Prosecutor, morning session of 22 August 1936, in Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre (Moscow: People's Commissariat of Justice of the U.S.S.R., 1936) Source

Content note: Praise of Adolf Hitler. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Chancellor Adolf Hitler is one of the greatest of the many great men I have ever met”

David Lloyd George · September 1936 · Interview Verified (secondary source)

Reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency a few days after Lloyd George's visit to Germany. The agency summarises the interview and quotes this sentence.

Interview with the News Chronicle (London), September 1936, as reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 23 September 1936 Source

Content note: Praise of Adolf Hitler. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“One man has accomplished this miracle. He is a born leader of men. A magnetic, dynamic personality with a single-minded purpose, a resolute will and a dauntless heart.”

David Lloyd George · September 17, 1936 · Article

Lloyd George wrote after a visit to Germany in September 1936, during which he met Hitler at Berchtesgaden. He was then a backbench MP and former Prime Minister.

David Lloyd George, "I Talked to Hitler", Daily Express (London), 17 September 1936, reproduced in German History in Documents and Images Source

“Behind that is a moral philosophy, if anyone is poor it's because something is wrong with them. Give them just as little relief as possible so you won't encourage them. They want these unemployed to walk up timidly and knock on the door, and why should they? They are American citizens like the rest of us. It is no fault of their own that they are out of work, and it is the business of society to take care of them. It shouldn't be done as an act of degradation. I made up my mind early in this game that relief was a matter of right and not a matter of charity.”

Harry Hopkins · September 19, 1936 · Speech · WPA luncheon

Defense of federal work and relief programs by the Works Progress Administration administrator, delivered about six weeks before the 1936 election. He was describing the Elizabethan Poor Law tradition and his own approach to relief.

Address at WPA Luncheon, 19 September 1936, Harry L. Hopkins Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, as printed in the MIT 21H.102 primary source collection "The New Deal" Source

“I am getting sick and tired of these people on the WPA and local relief rolls being called chiselers and cheats. It doesn't do any good to call these people names, because they are just like the rest of us.”

Harry Hopkins · September 19, 1936 · Speech · WPA luncheon

From the same address, answering critics who called people on relief rolls cheats. He argued that investigators in any group of applicants would find about five percent who did not need relief.

Address at WPA Luncheon, 19 September 1936, Harry L. Hopkins Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, as printed in the MIT 21H.102 primary source collection "The New Deal" Source

“Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · October 31, 1936 · Speech · New York City, Madison Square Garden

Final major speech of the 1936 re-election campaign, delivered the Saturday before election day. "These forces" refers to groups he had just listed, which he listed as business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism and war profiteering.

Campaign Address at Madison Square Garden, New York City, 31 October 1936, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“But these understandings which have been consecrated and duly signed—this Berlin-Rome protocol—is not a barrier, but is rather an axis around which all European States animated by the will for collaboration and for peace may collaborate.”

Benito Mussolini · November 1, 1936 · Speech · Milan, Piazza del Duomo

Mussolini described the understandings reached with Germany, after Count Ciano's visit to Berlin in October 1936, in a speech on foreign policy to a crowd in Milan. This is the passage from which the term Rome-Berlin Axis came into use.

Speech at Milan, 1 November 1936. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 28: Dalla proclamazione dell'impero al viaggio in Germania (La Fenice, Florence, 1959), pp. 69-70. English text: Biblioteca Fascista, "Speech in Milan, November 1, 1936" Source

Content note: Order to eliminate those who refuse to disarm; call for no mercy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“‘[Your work] must conclude with the total submission of Shewa and the elimination of all who refuse to disarm, even if every last house must be razed to the soil’ … ‘Remember that every false pity is a crime when dealing with people decidedly against our dominion’ … ‘Conquest is conquest … and its only law is that of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’”

English: Ian L. Campbell (translation based on the quotation in Nicola Labanca, 2008, p. 33, as cited in his note 10). Original-language text not found.

Rodolfo Graziani · 1937 · Statement · Addis Ababa Verified (secondary source)

Campbell summarises the Viceroy's instructions to his field commanders in 1937, during the occupation of Ethiopia and in the months after the attempt on Graziani's life of 19 February 1937. The three quotations are printed in the book as separate fragments joined by ellipses.

Ian L. Campbell, The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame (C. Hurst & Co., London; Oxford University Press, New York, 2017), ch. 7 "Reprisals Should Cease", p. 191 and note 10 (Graziani to Lessona, 13 May 1937, telegram no. 24923, in Stato Maggiore del Governo Generale, Il secondo anno dell'impero, Addis Ababa, 1937-38, pp. 58-9, cited in G. Rochat, 1988, p. 214) Source

Content note: Report of executions of prisoners. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“45 men have been executed on the morning of the 26th and none of them raised his voice in protest against the destiny that awaited them.”

English: Ian L. Campbell, quoting Giorgio Rochat (the book prints it as Rochat's quotation of a Graziani telegram). Original-language text not found.

Rodolfo Graziani · February 1937 · Statement · Addis Ababa Verified (secondary source)

After the attempt on his life on 19 February 1937, Graziani reported to Rome on the summary trials and shootings of Ethiopians in Addis Ababa. Campbell cites this line from a telegram as quoted by the military historian Giorgio Rochat.

Ian L. Campbell, The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame (C. Hurst & Co., London; Oxford University Press, New York, 2017), ch. 9 "Roman Justice", p. 259, quoting G. Rochat, 1988 (note 53) Source

Content note: Denounces political opponents as spies and killers. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Contemporary Trotskyism is not a political trend within the working class, but an unprincipled and intellectually devoid band of wreckers, diversionists, intelligence agents, spies, and killers; a band of sworn enemies of the working class in the hire of the intelligence service organs of foreign states.”

Joseph Stalin · March 3, 1937 · Speech · Moscow, Plenum of the Central Committee of the RKP(b)

Stalin's report to the February-March 1937 plenum came after the January 1937 trial of Pyatakov, Radek and others, and before the mass arrests and executions of 1937-38.

'Defects in Party Work and Measures for Liquidating Trotskyite and Other Double Dealers', report to the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RKP(b), 3 March 1937 (Moscow: Cooperative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR, 1937); Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 14 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 151-173 Source

Content note: Racial hierarchy applied to Indigenous peoples. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say, The American Continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in here. They had not the right, nor had they the power.”

Winston Churchill · March 12, 1937 · Testimony · London Verified (secondary source)

Given in private evidence to the royal commission on Palestine, when Churchill was a backbench MP, in answer to questions about Arab claims to the land and the effect of continued Jewish immigration. The transcript stayed confidential until Martin Gilbert published it.

Testimony of Winston S. Churchill before the Palestine Royal Commission (Peel Commission), 12 March 1937, in Martin Gilbert, ed., The Churchill Documents, vol. 13, The Coming of War 1936-1939 (Hillsdale College Press, 2009), p. 616 Source

“This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”

English: Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler (OUP for the RIIA, 1942). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · May 1, 1937 · Speech · Berlin

May Day address to young people in Berlin. Baynes cites a press report of 3 May 1937 and notes that the claim raised difficulties for the Catholic Church.

Speech to German youth, Berlin, 1 May 1937, in Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922 to August 1939, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1942), p. 549 Source

Content note: Dismisses additional executions as of little importance. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“if during this operation an extra thousand people will be shot, that is not such a big deal.”

English: Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov, in Stalin's Loyal Executioner (Hoover Institution Press, 2002). Original-language text not found.

Nikolai Yezhov · July 1937 · Private-remark · Moscow, NKVD conference of regional heads Verified (secondary source)

Jansen and Petrov report that regional NKVD chiefs, including A. I. Uspensky, later recalled Yezhov giving instructions of this kind at the July 1937 conference before the operation began. Their account is based on testimony given in 1939 to investigators.

Remark reported by NKVD officials who attended the conference of regional NKVD chiefs on the launch of order 00447, July 1937, in Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov, Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940 (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2002), pp. 84-85 (Chapter "The Great Terror") Source

Content note: Orders arrests before evidence is sorted. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Why don’t you arrest them? We are not going to work for you, imprison them, and then sort it out afterward, dropping those against whom there is no evidence. Act more boldly, I have already told you repeatedly.”

English: Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov, in Stalin's Loyal Executioner (Hoover Institution Press, 2002). Original-language text not found.

Nikolai Yezhov · July 1937 · Private-remark · Moscow, NKVD conference of regional heads Verified (secondary source)

Mironov had said the evidence against some of the people arrested in a reported "Rightist-Trotskyist bloc" was unconvincing. Jansen and Petrov add that Yezhov also approved "physical methods of influencing" in some cases.

Yezhov's reply to the Western Siberian NKVD chief Sergei Mironov at the conference on order 00447, July 1937, in Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov, Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940 (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2002), p. 85 Source

“In sending troops to North China, of course, the Government has no other purpose, as was explained in its recent statement, than to preserve the peace of East Asia. I cannot but hope most fervently that reconsideration and self-discipline on the part of the Government and people of China will make speedily possible a fundamental adjustment of Sino-Japanese relations.”

English: Domei English text, as printed in the Japan Advertiser, 28 July 1937, and reproduced in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Fumimaro Konoe · July 27, 1937 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet

Policy address by the newly appointed Prime Minister three weeks after the Marco Polo Bridge incident, when Japanese troops were being sent to North China.

Administrative address to the 71st session of the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 27 July 1937 (Domei English text, extract), in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Japan, 1931-1941, vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943), doc. 250, p. 336 Source

Content note: Order to arrest and shoot people without trial. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The first category includes the most dangerous and most hostile of the above listed elements. They should be immediately arrested and after examination of their cases by troikas are—to be shot.”

Nikolai Yezhov · July 30, 1937 · Statement · Moscow, NKVD operational order no. 00447

Secret order signed by Yezhov, following a Politburo decision of 2 July 1937, setting quotas for arrests and executions across Soviet regions. The order set a first-category quota for execution and a second category for camps; a total of 75,950 executions was the original figure.

NKVD operational order no. 00447, "On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements", 30 July 1937, section II.1(a); English in Paul R. Gregory, Lenin's Brain and Other Tales from the Secret Soviet Archives (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2008), ch. 5, p. 51; Russian text as published by Memorial (memo.ru/history/document/0447.htm) Source

Content note: Order launching a mass arrest and execution campaign. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“In connection with this, I order: to begin in all republics, regions and provinces operations for the repression of former kulaks, active anti-Soviet elements and criminals on August 5, 1937.”

Nikolai Yezhov · July 30, 1937 · Statement · Moscow, NKVD operational order no. 00447

The order's operative sentence, directing NKVD heads in every republic, region and province to start the mass operation on 5 August 1937 (later dates for Central Asia and the Far East). The Russian text is in capitals in the published copy.

NKVD operational order no. 00447, 30 July 1937, operative paragraph; English in Paul R. Gregory, Lenin's Brain and Other Tales from the Secret Soviet Archives (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2008), ch. 5, p. 49; Russian text as published by Memorial (memo.ru/history/document/0447.htm) Source

Content note: Encourages over-arrest. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“better too far than not far enough.”

English: Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov, in Stalin's Loyal Executioner (Hoover Institution Press, 2002). Original-language text not found.

Nikolai Yezhov · October 1937 · Private-remark · Moscow, to the Smolensk NKVD chief A. A. Nasedkin Verified (secondary source)

Jansen and Petrov write that Yezhov told the new Smolensk NKVD chief he could obtain any quota he needed: "Purge your apparatus, and imprison whomever you should". Regions had by then begun to exhaust and exceed their quotas.

Yezhov to A. A. Nasedkin, October 1937, in Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov, Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940 (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2002), p. 89 (quoted also as an epigraph) Source

“It seems to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading. When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · October 5, 1937 · Speech · Chicago, Bridge dedication

Delivered in Chicago at the dedication of a civic improvement project, after Japan's invasion of China and while the Spanish Civil War continued. Congress had passed neutrality legislation in 1935 and 1937.

Address at Chicago (the "Quarantine" speech), 5 October 1937, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“The aim of German policy was to make secure and to preserve the racial community [Volksmasse] and to enlarge it. It was therefore a question of space.”

English: Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, Series D, vol. 1 (US Government Printing Office, 1949). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · November 5, 1937 · Private-remark · Berlin, Reich Chancellery

Hitler addressed the War Minister, the army, navy and air force commanders and the Foreign Minister in a closed meeting, and asked that his statements be treated as his 'last will and testament'. The minutes were written five days later by Colonel Hossbach from memory and notes.

Minutes of the conference in the Reich Chancellery of 5 November 1937 (the Hossbach Memorandum, dated 10 November 1937), in Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, Series D, vol. 1: From Neurath to Ribbentrop (US Government Printing Office, 1949) Source

“Germany's problem could only be solved by means of force and this was never without attendant risk.”

English: Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, Series D, vol. 1 (US Government Printing Office, 1949). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · November 5, 1937 · Private-remark · Berlin, Reich Chancellery

Said in the same closed meeting, after Hitler had described the need for living space. He went on to set out three possible cases for action against Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Minutes of the conference in the Reich Chancellery of 5 November 1937 (the Hossbach Memorandum, dated 10 November 1937), in Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, Series D, vol. 1: From Neurath to Ribbentrop (US Government Printing Office, 1949) Source

Content note: Demands the execution of defendants, calling them dirty dogs and a reptile. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Our whole country, from young to old, is awaiting and demanding one thing: the traitors and spies who were selling our country to the enemy must be shot like dirty dogs! Our people are demanding one thing: crush the accursed reptile!”

Andrey Vyshinsky · March 11, 1938 · Speech · Moscow, Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. (Trial of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites")

Close of the prosecution speech at the third Moscow show trial, where twenty-one defendants including Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov and Genrikh Yagoda were charged with treason, espionage and murder. Eighteen were sentenced to death on 13 March 1938.

Closing speech of the State Prosecutor, morning session of 11 March 1938, in Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites" (Moscow: People's Commissariat of Justice of the U.S.S.R., 1938); Russian: Sudebnyi otchet po delu antisovetskogo "pravo-trotskistskogo bloka" (Moscow: Politizdat, 1938) Source

Content note: Personal abuse of a defendant at a show trial. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Such is Bukharin, this hypocritical, false, wily creature; this piously rapacious and respectfully malicious person, this "damnable cross of a fox and a swine," to use Maxim Gorky's words about one of the heroes from the gallery of "Those Who Once Were People."”

English: Official English edition, Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites" (People's Commissariat of Justice of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1938); translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Andrey Vyshinsky · March 11, 1938 · Speech · Moscow, Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

Part of the prosecution's portrait of Nikolai Bukharin in the 1938 trial. Vyshinsky quotes Maxim Gorky's description of a character in Those Who Once Were People.

Closing speech of the State Prosecutor, 11 March 1938, in Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites" (Moscow: People's Commissariat of Justice of the U.S.S.R., 1938) Source

“Dietrich: I need the telegram urgently. Keppler: Tell the General Field Marshal that Seyss-Inquart agrees. Dietrich: This is marvelous. Thank you. Keppler : Listen to the radio. News will be given. Dietrich: Where? Keppler: From Vienna. Dietrich: So Seyss-Inquart agrees? Keppler : Jawohl !”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 2949-PS. Original-language text not found.

Otto Dietrich · March 11, 1938 · Private-remark · Berlin-Vienna telephone

Telephone call on the evening of 11 March 1938, the day before German troops entered Austria. Dietrich, then Reich Press Chief, asks Keppler in Vienna for a telegram, and is told that Seyss-Inquart agrees. The same document records Göring's earlier calls asking that such a telegram be sent.

Transcript of telephone conversation between Wilhelm Keppler (Vienna) and Otto Dietrich (Berlin), 11 March 1938, 21:54, document 2949-PS (transcripts of telephone calls on the evening of the Anschluss), in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 5 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 640 Source

“As the nation is aware, the Chiang regime is the Government which has dared to destroy the Yellow river embankments and does not care about sacrificing thereby in the muddy flood the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent fellow-nationals. Such an outrageous and cruel act will never be permitted by man or Heaven. There is no reason why such a Government should last.”

English: English text of the statement as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Fumimaro Konoe · July 7, 1938 · Statement · Tokyo

Anniversary statement issued while Japanese forces were advancing on Hankou. It refers to the breaching of the Yellow River dikes in June 1938.

Statement by the Japanese Prime Minister (Prince Konoye), 7 July 1938, first anniversary of the China Incident, in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Japan, 1931-1941, vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943), doc. 323, p. 468 Source

“Once war is begun, even if the actual battlefield may be across the sea, the nation must have the tense feeling that all its land at home is also a battlefield. Not only those who carry guns and bayonets, but also those who till the soil, spin yarn, strike their hammers, or work at their desks—young and old, men and women, in fact, all the nation—must have the realization that they are actual fighters.”

English: English text of the statement as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Fumimaro Konoe · July 7, 1938 · Statement · Tokyo

Call to the whole population to regard itself as engaged in the war, from the same anniversary statement.

Statement by the Japanese Prime Minister (Prince Konoye), 7 July 1938, first anniversary of the China Incident, in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Japan, 1931-1941, vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943), doc. 323, pp. 468-469 Source

Content note: Defence of racial policy against papal criticism. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Fascism allows religious action but not political action. When the Pope took up a stand, in a political sense, against the Fascist racial manifesto, I was the first one to oppose him in my paper. [...] The Pope is wrong when he alleges that the racial problem is a religious question; for Italy it is a political principle and a practical necessity.”

English: Unnamed (as printed in The Jewish Chronicle, 23 September 1938). Original-language text not found.

Roberto Farinacci · September 1938 · Interview Verified (secondary source)

Farinacci, editor of Il Regime Fascista and a Minister of State, gave the interview after attending the Nazi Party congress at Nuremberg. It followed the Fascist "Manifesto of Race" of July 1938 and public criticism of racial policy by the Pope.

Interview with Roberto Farinacci in Das Schwarze Korps (Berlin), September 1938, as translated and quoted in "Racial Paper Proscribed: Farinacci's Violent Outburst", The Jewish Chronicle (London), 23 September 1938 Source

Content note: Announcement of antisemitic policy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It is in relation to imperial conquest; because history teaches us that empires are conquered by arms, but are held by prestige. And for prestige it is necessary to have a clear, severe racial consciousness, that establishes not only the differences, but also very clear superiorities. The Jewish problem is thus only one aspect of this phenomenon. Our position has been determined by these indisputable facts. World Jewry has been, for sixteen years, despite our policy, an irreconcilable enemy of Fascism. In Italy our policy has led, in the Semitic elements, to what can today be called a true rush to board the ship. However, Jews of Italian citizenship who have unquestionable military or civil merit towards Italy and the Regime, will find understanding and justice. As for the others, a policy of separation is what awaits them.”

Benito Mussolini · September 18, 1938 · Speech · Trieste, Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia

Mussolini's only public speech announcing the racial policy, delivered in Trieste during a visit. It followed the Manifesto of Race (July 1938) and the first decrees on schools (September 1938), and preceded the racial laws of November 1938, which removed Jews from public life and barred marriage between Jews and non-Jews.

Speech at Trieste, 18 September 1938. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 29: Dal viaggio in Germania all'intervento (La Fenice, Florence, 1959), p. 146. English text: Biblioteca Fascista, "Speech in Trieste, September 18, 1938" Source

“And now before us stands the last problem that must be solved and will be solved. It is the last territorial claim which I have to make in Europe, but it is the claim from which I will not recede and which, God willing, I will make good.”

English: Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler (OUP for the RIIA, 1942). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · September 26, 1938 · Speech · Berlin, Sportpalast

Delivered during the Sudeten crisis, days before the Munich Agreement of 29-30 September 1938 ceded the Sudetenland to Germany. German troops entered Prague on 15 March 1939 and Bohemia and Moravia became a Protectorate.

Speech in the Sportpalast, Berlin, 26 September 1938, in Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922 to August 1939, vol. 2 (Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1942), p. 1517 Source

“We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.”

Neville Chamberlain · September 30, 1938 · Statement · Heston Aerodrome, near London Verified (secondary source)

Chamberlain read aloud the paper he and Hitler had signed that morning, to a crowd on the airfield on his return from Munich, the day after the Munich Agreement was signed.

Remarks on landing at Heston Aerodrome on return from Munich, 30 September 1938, reading the Anglo-German Declaration; Reuters newsreel transcribed in German History in Documents and Images, "Peace for our Time" (1938) Source

“I believe it is peace for our time.”

Neville Chamberlain · September 30, 1938 · Statement · 10 Downing Street, London Verified (secondary source)

Said to a crowd outside the Prime Minister's residence on the evening of his return from Munich. It follows the sentence "My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour."

Remarks from a window of 10 Downing Street, evening of 30 September 1938; text reprinted in Speakola, Wikipedia and German History in Documents and Images (which notes it is "often misstated as 'Peace in our time'"); Wikipedia cites Faber, Munich Source

“I will, therefore, begin by saying the most unpopular and most unwelcome thing. I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely, that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and that France has suffered even more than we have.”

Winston Churchill · October 5, 1938 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Churchill, then a Conservative backbencher, spoke on the third day of the Commons debate on the Munich Agreement signed on 30 September 1938. Neville Chamberlain's government was defending the settlement.

Speech in the House of Commons debate on the Munich Agreement (Policy of His Majesty's Government), 5 October 1938, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 339, c. 360 Source

Content note: Defends the exclusion of Jews from economic life. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“State and economy constitute a single unit. They must be directed according to the same principles. The best proof of this is given by the most recent development of the Jewish problem in Germany. One cannot exclude the Jews from political life and yet let them live and work in the economic sphere.”

English: Nuremberg trial translation of document 3545-PS (as read into the IMT record). Original-language text not found.

Walther Funk · November 1938 · Speech

Extract from a speech by Funk, then Economics Minister, a few days after the 12 November 1938 decree excluding Jews from German economic life. Reported on page 2 of the Frankfurter Zeitung of 17 November 1938 (document 3545-PS, exhibit USA-659), read by US prosecutor Lt. Meltzer.

Prosecution reading of document 3545-PS (Frankfurter Zeitung, 17 November 1938), in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 5, p. 160 (session of 11 January 1946) Source

“It is China’s cooperation and not conquest that Japan sincerely desires. Japan desires to build up a stabilized Far East by cooperating with the Chinese people who have awakened to the need of self-determination as an Oriental race.”

English: Domei English translation, as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Fumimaro Konoe · November 3, 1938 · Broadcast · Tokyo

Broadcast on the day the Japanese Government issued its statement announcing a "new order in East Asia", after the capture of Canton and the Wuhan cities.

Radio speech, Tokyo, 3 November 1938 (Domei translation), in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Japan, 1931-1941, vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943), doc. 330, p. 479 Source

“Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party.”

Mao Zedong · November 6, 1938 · Speech · Yenan

Part of Mao's concluding speech at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee during the war against Japan, on the role of armed force in the Party's work.

Problems of War and Strategy, 6 November 1938 (part of the concluding speech at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee), in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. 2 (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965) Source

Content note: Order accompanying the November 1938 pogrom, including mass arrests of Jewish men. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“2. Only such measures are to be taken, which do not entail a danger to German life and property (for example: burning of synagogues only if no fire hazard is present in the neighborhood). 3. As soon as the course of events tonight permits the use of the appointed officials for this purpose, as many Jews are to be seized, especially wealthy ones, in all regions as can be accommodated in the prisons at hand. Moreover, only healthy, male Jews of not too great an age are to be seized. After carrying out the seizure, negotiations are to be taken up at once with the proper concentration camps for the quickest accommodation of the Jews.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 374-PS. Original-language text not found.

Reinhard Heydrich · November 10, 1938 · Statement · Munich

Sent in the early hours of 10 November 1938, during the nationwide attacks on Jews, synagogues and Jewish businesses that followed the shooting of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris. Point 1 of the teletype told police chiefs to contact local party leaders about the 'demonstrations'.

Secret teletype to all State Police offices and SD districts, 10 November 1938, 01:20, signed Heydrich, document 374-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 3, p. 278

Content note: Opens a conference on excluding Jews from the economy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Gentlemen, today's meeting is of a decisive nature. I have received a letter written on the Fuehrer's order by the Stabsleiter of the Fuehrer's deputy, Bormann, requesting that the Jewish question be now uniformly comprehended and solved one way or another. And yesterday once again the Fuehrer requested me by phone to take co-ordinated action in the matter.”

English: Nuremberg trial translation of document 1816-PS (English text as read into the IMT record). Original-language text not found.

Hermann Göring · November 12, 1938 · Statement · Berlin, Reich Air Ministry

Opening words of a conference Göring chaired three days after the November 1938 pogrom, on the exclusion of Jews from the economy. Ministers and officials including Funk and Goebbels attended. Stenographic report, document 1816-PS (exhibit USA-261).

Declaration by the US prosecution reading 1816-PS, in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 4, p. 553 (session of 8 January 1946) Source

Content note: Calls Jews "pigs" and threatens them. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I demand that German Jewry as a whole shall, as a punishment for the abominable crimes, et cetera, make a contribution of 1,000,000,000 marks. That will work. The pigs will not commit a second murder so quickly. Incidentally, I would like to say again that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany.”

English: Nuremberg trial translation of document 1816-PS (English text as read into the IMT record). Original-language text not found.

Hermann Göring · November 12, 1938 · Statement · Berlin, Reich Air Ministry

Closing remarks at the 12 November 1938 conference on the Jewish question, after discussion of a collective fine on German Jews of one billion Reichsmarks. Göring signed the decree imposing the fine the same day. Read to Göring in cross-examination by Justice Jackson, who asked whether he said it; Göring answered "That was correct, yes."

Göring cross-examined by Justice Jackson, in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 9, p. 543 (session of 20 March 1946) Source

“The news of the past few days from Germany has deeply shocked public opinion in the United States. Such news from any part of the world would inevitably produce a similar profound reaction among American people in every part of the nation. "I myself could scarcely believe that such things could occur in a twentieth century civilization. "With a view to gaining a first-hand picture of the current situation in Germany I asked the Secretary of State to order our Ambassador in Berlin to return at once for report and consultation.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · November 15, 1938 · Statement · Washington, D.C., press conference

Read to reporters five days after the Kristallnacht pogrom in Germany and Austria; Roosevelt recalled Ambassador Hugh Wilson from Berlin for consultation.

Statement read at the 500th Press Conference, 15 November 1938, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“That is not in contemplation; we have the quota system.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · November 15, 1938 · Interview · Washington, D.C., press conference

Asked at the same conference whether he would recommend relaxing immigration restrictions so that Jewish refugees could be received in the United States. Three days later (18 November 1938) he said he had told the Secretary of Labor that 12,000 to 15,000 German and Austrian visitors in the country should receive six-month extensions of stay.

Answer to a reporter at the 500th Press Conference, 15 November 1938, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“If the true object of Japan in conducting the present vast military campaign be fully understood, it will be plain that what she seeks is neither territory nor indemnity for the costs of military operations. Japan demands only the minimum guarantee needed for the execution by China of her function as a participant in the establishment of the new order.”

English: English text released by the Japanese Foreign Office, as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Fumimaro Konoe · December 22, 1938 · Statement · Tokyo

Statement setting out Japan's basic policy towards China, issued as the war entered its second year.

Statement by the Prime Minister, Tokyo, 22 December 1938 (English text released by the Japanese Foreign Office), in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Japan, 1931-1941, vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943), doc. 332, p. 483 Source

“The Japanese Government are resolved, as has been clearly set forth in their two previous statements issued this year, to carry on the military operations for the complete extermination of the anti-Japanese Kuomintang Government, and at the same time to proceed with the work of establishing a new order in East Asia together with those far-sighted Chinese who share in our ideals and aspirations.”

English: English text as printed in FRUS. Original-language text not found.

Fumimaro Konoe · December 22, 1938 · Statement · Tokyo

Opening sentence of the third statement on policy towards China, issued after the fall of Wuhan and Canton. The statement goes on to set out terms for a settlement with Chinese who would join Japan in an anti-Communist arrangement.

Statement by the Prime Minister, Tokyo, 22 December 1938, in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Japan, 1931-1941, vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943), doc. 332 Source

Content note: Describes purged Red Army officers as a "gang" wiped out. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The trotskyites and their later accomplices, who for quite a long time occupied leading posts in the Party and in the Government, did their utmost to weaken the army cadres, to demoralize them and to turn them into a political tool for their dastardly counterrevolutionary activities, and thereby to disorganize the ranks of our Red Army. Under Stalin’s immediate direction this Trotsky-Bukharin gang and the effects of its machinations were completely wiped out.”

English: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1951; translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Kliment Voroshilov · 1939 · Article

Voroshilov, then People's Commissar for Defence, wrote the article after the 1937-38 purge of senior Red Army officers. The passage refers to the removal of those officers as the destruction of a Trotsky-Bukharin gang.

"Stalin, Builder of the Red Army" (article for Stalin's sixtieth birthday), in K. Voroshilov, Stalin and the Armed Forces of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951), p. 72 Source

Content note: Describes purge victims as enemy agents and traitors. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Invaluable was the service Comrade Stalin rendered to our Motherland when he divined just in time the plans of the enemy agents in our country as represented by the trotskyites, bukharinites, and other traitors, wreckers and emissaries of the bourgeoisie. These enemies of the people attempted to undermine the economic and military might of our country and create a situation favourable to the imperialists in the event of war. Comrade Stalin directed the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet people along the line of defeating their enemies, which was decisive in the question of successfully building Socialism and strengthening the defensive capacity of the U.S.S.R.”

English: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1951; translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Kliment Voroshilov · 1939 · Article

Voroshilov credits Stalin with foreseeing the plans of those condemned in the Moscow trials. The passage follows his account of Stalin's role in the Civil War.

"Stalin, Builder of the Red Army" (article for Stalin's sixtieth birthday), in K. Voroshilov, Stalin and the Armed Forces of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951), pp. 50-51 Source

Content note: Antisemitic threat of annihilation. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“To-day I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!”

Adolf Hitler · January 30, 1939 · Speech · Berlin, Reichstag

Delivered on the sixth anniversary of Hitler becoming Chancellor, in a long speech mostly about foreign and economic policy. The sentences that follow in the speech link 'annihilation' to the effect of German and Italian propaganda; Hitler cited the passage again in speeches in 1941, 1942 and 1943.

Reichstag speech, Berlin, 30 January 1939 (authorized English translation), in Norman H. Baynes (ed.), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922 to August 1939, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1942), pp. 740-741; German as printed on holocaust-chronologie.de from the Reichstag text Source

“If we all make a passionate effort on behalf of peace and write in favor of peace out of a sense of the deepest human responsibility, if the newspaper and press services which you represent publish your appeal, and if you can manage to become the advocate of the peaceful interests of humanity with the same passion, then no government in the world will be able to act against this phalanx of public opinion. I do not know whether you will succeed in getting your newspapers to do this. In any case I should never like to reproach myself with not having called your attention to this matter at a moment of decisive importance for world peace.”

English: Official translation in the Nuremberg Military Tribunal record. Original-language text not found.

Otto Dietrich · February 6, 1939 · Speech Verified (secondary source)

Dietrich quoted his own 1939 address to foreign journalists in Berlin in the final statement at his trial in the Ministries case. He cited it as evidence of peaceful intentions, and recalled that President Roosevelt dismissed it at a press conference.

Appeal to representatives of the world press, 6 February 1939, as quoted by Dietrich in his final statement to Military Tribunal IV, 18 November 1948, in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, vol. XIV (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1952), pp. 283-284 Source

Content note: Order to kill prisoners. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Many Italians also were taken prisoner: anarchist and communist. I informed the Duce about it, and he ordered that they all be shot, adding, “Dead men tell no tales.””

Galeazzo Ciano · February 22, 1939 · Diary · Rome

Ciano records General Gambara's report on the Spanish Civil War, in which Italian forces were fighting for Franco, and reports Mussolini's order about Italian anarchist and communist volunteers captured on the Republican side.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 22 February 1939, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

“To be cautious and not allow our country to be drawn into conflicts by warmongers who are accustomed to have others pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them;”

Joseph Stalin · March 10, 1939 · Speech · Moscow, Eighteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.)

Stalin's report to the congress surveyed international relations since 1934 and then set out the Party's tasks in foreign policy.

Report on the Work of the Central Committee to the Eighteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.), 10 March 1939, in J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 14 (London: Red Star Press, 1978); Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 14 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 290-341 Source

““You are shining Germany’s boots.””

Italo Balbo · March 21, 1939 · Private-remark · Rome

At a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council held after Germany's occupation of Prague, Mussolini argued for uncompromising loyalty to the Axis. Ciano records Balbo and Emilio De Bono as critics of that line, and quotes this remark.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 21 March 1939, recording the words of Italo Balbo, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

Content note: Attributed statement that Germany wanted war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“"Well, Ribbentrop," I asked him while we were walking in the garden, "What do you want? The Corridor or Danzig?" "Not any longer" — and he fixed on me those cold Musee Grevin eyes of his — "We want war."”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 2987-PS (entries from the diary of Count Galeazzo Ciano). Original-language text not found.

Joachim von Ribbentrop · August 11, 1939 · Private-remark · Fuschl, near Salzburg Disputed

Ciano's account of a conversation with Ribbentrop while walking in the garden at Ribbentrop's residence on the eve of the Salzburg talks with Hitler, three weeks before the invasion of Poland. Only the two replies "Not any longer" and "We want war" are attributed to Ribbentrop; the rest is Ciano's narration and question. Ribbentrop denied the remark under oath on 1 April 1946.

Introduction to the diary of Count Galeazzo Ciano (Italian Foreign Minister), account of his meeting with Ribbentrop at Fuschl, 11 August 1939, document 2987-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 5 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 688 Source

Disputed: this is Ciano's record in his diary introduction, written afterwards, of what Ribbentrop said, not a verbatim record by Ribbentrop or a stenographic text. Ribbentrop testified that it was "absolutely untrue" (see ribbentrop-1946-04-01-denies-we-want-war). The Italian original of the diary was not checked.

“I return to Rome completely disgusted with the Germans, with their leader, with their way of doing things. They have betrayed us and lied to us. Now they are dragging us into an adventure which we have not wanted and which might compromise the regime and the country as a whole.”

Galeazzo Ciano · August 13, 1939 · Diary · Rome

Ciano had met Ribbentrop at Fuschl and Hitler at the Berghof on 11 to 13 August 1939, where he was told that Germany had decided on war with Poland. He wrote this on his return, after reporting to Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 13 August 1939, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

“I shall give a propagandists cause for starting the war — never mind whether it be plausible or not. The victor shall not be asked, later on, whether we told the truth or not. In starting and making a war, not the Right is what matters but Victory.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 1014-PS. Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · August 22, 1939 · Speech · Obersalzberg

Hitler addressed the Wehrmacht commanders-in-chief and army group and army commanders at the Obersalzberg on 22 August 1939, nine days before the invasion of Poland. The text is a participant's record, offered at Nuremberg with two others from the same day.

'Second speech by the Fuehrer on 22 Aug 1939', document 1014-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 3, p. 665

Content note: Order to kill civilians; reference to the Armenian genocide. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Our strength is in our quickness and our brutality. Ghengis Khan had millions of women and children killed by his own will and with a gay heart. History sees only in him a great state builder. What weak Western European civilization thinks about me does not matter. I have given the order and will have every one shot, who utters even one word of criticism that the aim of the war is not to attain certain lines, but consists in the physical destruction of the opponent. Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my "Death's Head Units" with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians ?”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of document L-3. Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · August 22, 1939 · Speech · Obersalzberg Disputed

Version of Hitler's address of 22 August 1939 to military commanders, passed by a source to the American journalist Louis Lochner and put before the Nuremberg tribunal as L-3. The tribunal did not admit it into evidence.

'Contents of Hitler's talk to the Supreme Commander and Commanding Generals, Obersalzberg, 22-8-39', document L-3 (Louis Lochner's version), in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 7, pp. 752-754

Disputed. The Nuremberg tribunal admitted 798-PS and 1014-PS but not L-3. Neither 798-PS nor 1014-PS contains an Armenians sentence; 1014-PS has 'Destruction of Poland in the foreground. The aim is elimination of living forces' and 'Have no pity. Brutal attitude.' Historians differ on how far the L-3 wording reproduces what was said. The spelling 'Ghengis' and the space before the question mark are as printed.

Content note: Toast to the health of Adolf Hitler. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I know how much the German nation loves its Führer; I should therefore like to drink to his health.”

English: U.S. Department of State, translation of the German Foreign Ministry record, in Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941: Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Office, ed. Raymond J. Sontag and James S. Beddie (Washington, 1948). Original-language text not found.

Joseph Stalin · August 23, 1939 · Private-remark · Moscow, conversation after the signing of the German-Soviet non-aggression treaty

Late on the night of the signing of the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact, Stalin proposed a toast during the conversation with Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. The record is a German memorandum.

Memorandum of a Conversation Held on the Night of August 23d to 24th, Between the Reich Foreign Minister, on the One Hand, and Herr Stalin and the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Molotov, on the Other Hand, item 8 (toasts), in Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941 (Washington: Department of State, 1948) Source

“How happy and thankful we have to be to you that we are allowed to see these overwhelmingly great and world-shaking times and be able to cooperate in the mighty events of these days. The information transmitted to me by Field Marshal Goering that you, my Fuehrer, have in principal approved last night the measures prepared by me for the financing of the war and for the shaping of wage and price conditions, and of the carrying out of an emergency sacrifice has made me extremely happy. Herewith I report most obediently that by the careful forethought of the last few months I succeeded in making the German Reichsbank so strong internally, so unassailable from the outside, that even the heaviest shocks of the international finance and credit system cannot touch us in any way. Meanwhile, I have quite inconspicuously transferred into gold all assets in any way available of the Reich Bank and the whole Germany economy abroad. Through the suggestions I have worked out to keep down ruthlessly any non-vital consumption and any public expenses and tasks of no importance to the war. We will be in a position to satisfy all demands to be made on the finances and economy without any serious shocks.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 699-PS. Original-language text not found.

Walther Funk · August 25, 1939 · Letter · Berlin

Letter written on 25 August 1939, a week before the invasion of Poland, thanking Hitler for birthday wishes and reporting on the financial and economic preparations for war made by Funk as Economics Minister and Plenipotentiary General for Economics.

Letter from Reich Minister Walther Funk to Hitler, Berlin, 25 August 1939, document 699-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 3 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 508 Source

“This night for the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our territory. Since 5.45 A.M. we have been returning the fire, and from now on bombs will be met by bombs.”

Adolf Hitler · September 1, 1939 · Speech · Berlin, Kroll Opera House (Reichstag)

Delivered to the Reichstag on the morning German forces invaded Poland. The 'Polish attacks' on German territory that the speech cites were staged by the SS, as documented at Nuremberg and in later research.

Address to the Reichstag, 1 September 1939, Avalon Project text; German from the DNB text in Max Domarus, Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen, vol. 3, as reproduced at emersonkent.com Source

Content note: Authorises the killing of disabled and sick people. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M.D. are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 630-PS. Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · September 1, 1939 · Statement · Berlin

Short authorisation signed by Hitler and addressed to the head of his Chancellery (Philipp Bouhler) and his physician (Karl Brandt). It was the written basis for the 'Aktion T4' programme, under which about 70,000 psychiatric patients and disabled people were killed in 1940-41.

Letter on Hitler's private letterhead dated 1 September 1939 (signed in October 1939 and dated back to the first day of the war), document 630-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 3, p. 451

“His action shows convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force.”

Neville Chamberlain · September 3, 1939 · Broadcast · Cabinet Room, 10 Downing Street, London

Broadcast to the nation after the German government had not replied to the British ultimatum over the invasion of Poland, announcing that Britain was at war with Germany.

Radio broadcast, 3 September 1939, as printed by the Avalon Project (Yale Law School), "Radio Address by Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister, September 3, 1939" Source

Content note: Order to concentrate Jews as a step towards an undefined 'ultimate goal'. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I refer to the conference held in Berlin today, and again point out that the planned joint measures (i.e. the ultimate goal) are to be kept strictly secret. Distinction must be made between (1) the ultimate goal (which requires a prolonged period of time) and (2) the sectors leading to fulfillment of the ultimate goal, (each of which will be carried out in a short term). [...] The first prerequisite for the ultimate goal is first of all, the concentration of the Jews from the country to the larger cities. This is to be carried out speedily.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 3363-PS. Original-language text not found.

Reinhard Heydrich · September 21, 1939 · Statement · Berlin

Written after a conference in Berlin on 21 September 1939, three weeks into the occupation of Poland. It told Einsatzgruppen commanders to concentrate Jews in larger towns and to set up Jewish Councils of Elders.

Special delivery letter of the Chief of the Security Police to the chiefs of all Einsatzgruppen, 'The Jewish problem in the occupied zone', Berlin, 21 September 1939, document 3363-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 6, p. 97

Content note: Celebrates the destruction of the Polish state. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“However, one swift blow to Poland, first by the German Army and then by the Red Army, and nothing was left of this ugly offspring of the Versailles Treaty which had existed by oppressing non-Polish nationalities.”

Vyacheslav Molotov · October 31, 1939 · Speech · Moscow, Extraordinary Fifth Session of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

Molotov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, reported on the changes in international relations since the August 1939 German-Soviet pact. Soviet troops had entered eastern Poland on 17 September 1939.

Report on foreign policy, 31 October 1939, in V. M. Molotov, Soviet Peace Policy (London: Lawrence & Wishart for the Anglo-Russian News Bulletin, 1941); Russian: Kommunisticheskii International, 1939, nos. 8-9, as printed in V. M. Molotov, 'O vneshnei politike Sovetskogo Soyuza' (fragments), reproduced at wwii.rhga.ru Source

Content note: Argues against a war to destroy Nazi ideology, during the German-Soviet pact. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“One may accept or reject the ideology of Hitlerism as well as any other ideological system, that is a matter of political views. But everybody should understand that an ideology cannot be destroyed by force, that it cannot be eliminated by war. It is, therefore, not only senseless but criminal to wage such a war as a war for the ‘destruction of Hitlerism’ camouflaged as a fight for ‘democracy’.”

Vyacheslav Molotov · October 31, 1939 · Speech · Moscow, Extraordinary Fifth Session of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

The report discussed the British and French declaration of war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, and the stated British aim of destroying Hitlerism.

Report on foreign policy, 31 October 1939, in V. M. Molotov, Soviet Peace Policy (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1941); Russian: Pravda, no. 303, 1 November 1939 Source

Content note: Order and justification of mass shootings of Polish civilians. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Very frequently the member of the Waffen-SS thinks about the deportation of this people here. These thoughts came to me today when watching the very difficult work out there performed by the Security Police, supported by your men, who help them a great deal. Exactly the same thing happened in Poland in weather 40 degrees below zero, where we had to haul away thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands; where we had to have the toughness— you should hear this but also forget it again immediately — to shoot thousands of leading Poles, where we had to have the toughness, otherwise it would have taken revenge on us later.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 1918-PS. Original-language text not found.

Heinrich Himmler · 1940 · Speech · Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (officers)

Speech to Leibstandarte officers referring in the past tense to the winter of 1939-40 in Poland and, in the present, to ongoing deportations. The Nuremberg document gives no date; the prosecution said it was delivered some time after Poland had been overrun.

Address to officers of the SS-Leibstandarte 'Adolf Hitler' on the 'Day of Metz' (presentation of the historical Nazi flag), document 1918-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 4, p. 553

Content note: Boasts of purging the secret police. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I purged 14,000 Chekists, but my enormous guilt lies in the fact that I purged so few of them.”

Nikolai Yezhov · February 2, 1940 · Testimony · Moscow, Sukhanovka prison, closed session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court

Yezhov addressed the court after denying the charge of espionage and conspiracy and saying his earlier confessions had been obtained under torture. He was sentenced to death. Jansen and Petrov place his execution that night; other sources give 4 February.

Yezhov's closing statement at his trial, 2 February 1940 (abridged), in Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov, Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940 (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2002), pp. 187-188; Russian as printed in the Rodina article "Nikolai Ezhov: Proshu ne repressirovat moikh rodstvennikov" (rodina-history.ru, 5 June 2017), which prints the abridged statement Source

““Just whistle,” he says, “and I’ll come to your aid.””

Italo Balbo · February 14, 1940 · Private-remark · Rome

Ciano records that after a meeting of the Supreme Defence Commission, at which Minister Riccardi and General Graziani spoke about the financial cost of the armaments programme, Balbo walked with him to the Palazzo Chigi and said that he approved of Ciano's action.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 14 February 1940, recording the words of Italo Balbo, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

Content note: Introduces a proposal to shoot some 25,000 prisoners. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“In view of the fact that all are hardened and uncompromising enemies of Soviet authority, the USSR NKVD considers it necessary:”

Lavrentiy Beria · March 5, 1940 · Statement · Moscow, NKVD note to the Politburo Verified (secondary source)

Beria proposed that the NKVD try the cases of Polish prisoners of war in three camps and of prisoners in western Ukraine and Belarus; the Politburo, signing below, approved it the same day. The executions that followed in spring 1940 include those at Katyn.

Note of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L. Beria to the Politburo, 5 March 1940 (Politburo decision P13/144 of the same date), English in Tadeusz Piotrowski, Poland's Holocaust (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1998), p. 269 Source

Content note: Proposal to shoot prisoners of war and prisoners without trial. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“(1) To instruct the USSR NKVD that it should try them before special tribunals: (a) the cases of the 14,700 former Polish officers, government officials, land owners, police officers, intelligence officers, gendarmes, settlers in the border regions and prison guards being held in prisoner-of-war camps; (b) together with the cases of 11,000 members of various counter-revolutionary organizations of spies and saboteurs, former land owners, factory owners, former Polish officers, government officials, and escapees who have been arrested and are being held in the western provinces of the Ukraine and Belarus and apply to them the supreme penalty: shooting.”

Lavrentiy Beria · March 5, 1940 · Statement · Moscow, NKVD note to the Politburo Verified (secondary source)

Beria proposed that the NKVD try the cases of Polish prisoners of war in three camps and of prisoners in western Ukraine and Belarus; the Politburo, signing below, approved it the same day. The executions that followed in spring 1940 include those at Katyn.

Note of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L. Beria to the Politburo, 5 March 1940 (Politburo decision P13/144 of the same date), English in Tadeusz Piotrowski, Poland's Holocaust (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1998), p. 269 Source

“The planned preparation of the administration for the possibility of a war has already been carried out during peacetime. For this purpose the Fuehrer appointed a Plenipotentiary General for the Reich Administration and a Plenipotentiary General for War Economy.”

English: Nuremberg trial translation of document 2608-PS (as read into the IMT record). Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm Frick · March 7, 1940 · Speech · Freiburg, University

Speech by Frick, as Reich Minister of the Interior and General Plenipotentiary for the Reich Administration, at the University of Freiburg in the winter after the invasion of Poland. Read into the record by the US prosecution as document 2608-PS, exhibit USA-714.

Prosecution reading of document 2608-PS, in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 5, p. 360 (session of 16 January 1946) Source

“Somehow or other we must get into the Government men who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory.”

Leo Amery · May 7, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Amery, a Conservative backbencher, spoke on the first day of the Norway debate, after the Allied failure in Norway. He had been out of office since 1929. Three days later Chamberlain resigned, and Amery became Secretary of State for India and Burma in Churchill's government on 13 May 1940.

Speech in the Norway debate ("Conduct of the War"), House of Commons, 7 May 1940 (HC Deb vol. 360, c. 1150) Source

“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”

Leo Amery · May 7, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Amery, a Conservative backbencher, spoke on the first day of the Norway debate, after the Allied failure in Norway. He had been out of office since 1929. Three days later Chamberlain resigned, and Amery became Secretary of State for India and Burma in Churchill's government on 13 May 1940. The words are Cromwell's, which Amery introduced as words that he thought applicable to the present situation, and which he described as said to the Long Parliament.

Speech in the Norway debate ("Conduct of the War"), House of Commons, 7 May 1940 (HC Deb vol. 360, c. 1150) Source

“It is not a question of who are the Prime Minister's friends. It is a far bigger issue. The Prime Minister must remember that he has met this formidable foe of ours in peace and in war. He has always been worsted. He is not in a position to appeal on the ground of friendship. He has appealed for sacrifice. The nation is prepared for every sacrifice so long as it has leadership, so long as the Government show clearly what they are aiming at and so long as the nation is confident that those who are leading it are doing their best. I say solemnly that the Prime Minister should give an example of sacrifice, because there is nothing which can contribute more to victory in this war than that he should sacrifice the seals of office.”

David Lloyd George · May 8, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Lloyd George, then 77 and a backbencher, spoke on the second day of the debate that preceded Neville Chamberlain's resignation, answering Chamberlain's appeal to his friends.

Speech in the Norway debate on the conduct of the war, House of Commons, 8 May 1940, HC Deb vol. 360, c. 1283 Source

“I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.”

Winston Churchill · May 13, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Churchill's first statement to the Commons as Prime Minister, three days after the German invasion of the Low Countries and France began, seeking a vote of confidence in his coalition government.

Statement on the formation of the new Government, House of Commons, 13 May 1940, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 360, c. 1502 Source

“You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.”

Winston Churchill · May 13, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

From the same first statement as Prime Minister; this passage defines the government's policy for the House before the confidence vote.

Statement on the formation of the new Government, House of Commons, 13 May 1940, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 360, c. 1502 Source

“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”

Winston Churchill · May 13, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Churchill's first statement to the Commons as Prime Minister, immediately after the policy sentence in churchill-1940-05-13-our-policy-war.

Statement on the formation of the new Government, House of Commons, 13 May 1940, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 360, c. 1502 Source

“I believe that at this critical time the vast majority of the people of this country will willingly give their services to the country, and will do all that is asked of them. We introduce this Bill not because we have any doubt of the willingness of the people, but because in a difficult emergency like this there must be the necessary power in the Government.”

Clement Attlee · May 22, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Attlee, then Lord Privy Seal, moved the second reading of the Emergency Powers (Defence) Bill, which gave the Government power to require persons and property to be placed at its disposal.

House of Commons, 22 May 1940, HC Deb vol. 361, c154 Source

“Some establishments will be controlled altogether right away. Others may be controlled later. They will, in effect, be working on Government account. Wages and profits will be under Government control. The Excess Profits Tax will be at the rate of 100 per cent. There will be no profit out of the national emergency. Other establishments may be ordered to carry on and they may perhaps be ordered to carry on at a loss, but there must be power to carry on essential services and if people are put in a position where they are making a loss, they must have adequate remuneration in order to do their job effectively. The essential thing is that over a wide field—how wide one cannot say at the moment—industry will be carried on for the community in fact, and not for private profit.”

Clement Attlee · May 22, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

In the same second-reading speech, Attlee described the control over property that Defence Regulations under the Bill might impose, including on firms, profits and the banks.

House of Commons, 22 May 1940, HC Deb vol. 361, c156 Source

Content note: Plans to erase Jewish identity and for population division and forced labour in the East. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I hope that the concept of Jews will be completely extinguished through the possibility of large-scale emigration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony. [...] Cruel and tragic as every individual case may be, this method is the mildest and best if, out of inner conviction, we reject the Bolshevist method of physical destruction of a people as un-Germanic and impossible.”

English: English as excerpted by the Jewish Virtual Library from Yad Vashem documentation (translator not named). Original-language text not found.

Heinrich Himmler · May 25, 1940 · Statement Verified (secondary source)

Secret memorandum on policy towards the non-German populations of occupied Poland, drawn up as Germany attacked in the West. It was handed to Hitler, who is reported to have approved it.

Memorandum 'Einige Gedanken über die Behandlung der Fremdvölkischen im Osten', Himmler to Hitler, 25 May 1940, document NO-1880 (Nuremberg Military Tribunals), as excerpted at the Jewish Virtual Library (source given as Yad Vashem) Source

“As this war becomes more intensified, as it does become from hour to hour, so are the duties of the Ministry of Information evermore important, because our duties are not only to present the news but also to guide as well as to inform opinion both at home and abroad.”

Duff Cooper · May 28, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Duff Cooper had been Minister of Information since 12 May 1940 and was presenting the Ministry's estimates to the Commons for the first time.

Speech on the Civil Estimates (Ministry of Information), House of Commons, 28 May 1940 (HC Deb vol. 361, c. 451) Source

“Of course, the Press are free to publish what they like, subject to the censorship which is under the control of the Ministry of Information. We are keeping in the closest touch with the Press, who are most anxious to collaborate and to give us all the assistance they can.”

Duff Cooper · May 28, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

In the same speech Duff Cooper described the relation between the Ministry, which controlled the censorship, and the newspapers.

Speech on the Civil Estimates (Ministry of Information), House of Commons, 28 May 1940 (HC Deb vol. 361, c. 454) Source

Content note: Refusal to let food reach an enemy population. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The principal purpose of the Ministry of Economic Warfare is to deny to the enemy all goods and services, including foreign exchange, which may assist him in the conduct of the war. I cannot, therefore, give any such undertaking as the hon. Member desires.”

Hugh Dalton · May 28, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Dalton had been Minister of Economic Warfare since 14 May 1940. A Member asked whether food would be allowed to go into Germany; the answer was given to the Commons in an ordinary question session.

Oral answer to a question on food supplies to Germany, House of Commons, 28 May 1940 (HC Deb vol. 361, cc. 420-1) Source

“Your Excellency, you know perfectly well that we are absolutely unprepared—you have received complete reports every week. We have about twenty divisions with 70 per cent. of the necessary equipment and training; and about another twenty divisions with 50 per cent. We have no tanks. The Air Force, as you know from General Pricolo’s reports, is grounded. This is to say nothing of stores—we have not even sufficient shirts for the army. In such a state of affairs how is it possible to declare war? Our colonies lack everything. Our merchant shipping is on the high seas.”

English: Muriel Currey, in Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War: Memories and Documents (Oxford University Press, London, 1948). Original-language text not found.

Pietro Badoglio · May 28, 1940 · Private-remark · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Badoglio, Chief of the General Staff, recounts a meeting with Mussolini at which Mussolini said he intended to declare war on Britain and France after 5 June 1940. The words are Badoglio's own reply as he reported it in his 1946 memoir (Italian original: L'Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale, Mondadori, 1946).

Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War: Memories and Documents, trans. Muriel Currey (OUP, 1948), ch. 2, "Mussolini decides on Intervention", pp. 14-15 (Badoglio's account of his reply to Mussolini on 28 May 1940) Source

“We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the new world, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

Winston Churchill · June 4, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Delivered to the Commons at the close of the Dunkirk evacuation, in a statement that also warned against treating the evacuation as a victory.

Statement on the war situation, House of Commons, 4 June 1940, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 361, c. 796 Source

“The hour destined by fate is sounding for us. The hour of irrevocable decision has come. A declaration of war already has been handed to the Ambassadors of Great Britain and France. We take the field against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies who always, have blocked the march and frequently plotted against the existence of the Italian people.”

Benito Mussolini · June 10, 1940 · Speech · Rome, Palazzo Venezia

Mussolini announced Italy's entry into the Second World War against Britain and France to a crowd in Rome as German forces advanced in France.

Speech from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 10 June 1940, English in Vital Speeches of the Day, vol. 6, p. 516 ("Italy Enters the War"). Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 29: Dal viaggio in Germania all'intervento (La Fenice, Florence, 1959), p. 403 Source

“Mussolini speaks from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia. The news of the war does not surprise anyone and does not arouse very much enthusiasm. I am sad, very sad. The adventure begins. May God help Italy!”

Galeazzo Ciano · June 10, 1940 · Diary · Rome

Ciano, Foreign Minister, had that afternoon handed the declarations of war on Britain and France to their ambassadors. He wrote this after Mussolini's speech announcing the declaration from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 10 June 1940, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

“Believe me, I who speak to you with knowledge of the facts and tell you that nothing is lost for France.”

Charles de Gaulle · June 18, 1940 · Broadcast · London, BBC Verified (secondary source)

Broadcast from London by Brigadier General de Gaulle, then recently arrived from France, the day after Marshal Pétain asked Germany for an armistice. No recording of the 18 June broadcast is known.

Appeal of 18 June 1940, text posted by the Élysée, "18 juin 1940 - Déclaration" Source

“Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail then the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years men will still say, "This was their finest hour."”

Winston Churchill · June 18, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Delivered to the Commons the day after the French government asked Germany for armistice terms.

Statement on the war situation, House of Commons, 18 June 1940, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 361, cc. 60-61 Source

“The answers to the first two parts of the Question are in the affirmative. As regards the last part, I understand that a number of United States citizens of Italian origin have already voiced their criticism of the action of the Italian Government, but I do not think it would be desirable to enlist the services of United States citizens in the manner suggested.”

Duff Cooper · June 19, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Nine days after Italy entered the war, a Member asked whether the Ministry had enlisted Italian anti-Fascists in exile to carry out propaganda among the Italian people, and whether it would use Italian-American citizens.

Oral answer on anti-Fascist propaganda, House of Commons, 19 June 1940 (HC Deb vol. 362, c. 166) Source

“I need hardly say that the French ships were fought, albeit in this unnatural cause, with the characteristic courage of the French Navy, and every allowance must be made for Admiral Gensoul and his officers who felt themselves obliged to obey the orders they received from their Government and could not look behind that Government to see the German dictation. I fear the loss of life among the French and in the harbour must have been heavy, as we were compelled to use a severe measure of force and several immense explosions were heard.”

Winston Churchill · July 4, 1940 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Report to the Commons the day after the Royal Navy attacked French warships at Mers-el-Kebir (Oran), following the French armistice with Germany.

Statement on the French Fleet, House of Commons, 4 July 1940, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 362, c. 1049 Source

Content note: Explains the withholding of news of a ship sinking. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The reasons for holding the news of the bombing and sinking of the steamship "Lancastria" were the following. This ship was engaged on a military operation, and it was evident from the German wireless announcement that the enemy were totally unaware of the identity of the ship which had been sunk. Further, it is contrary to the general policy of His Majesty's Government to announce the loss of individual merchant ships. The number and the total tonnage of merchant ships lost is given in a weekly statement. The tonnage of the steamship "Lancastria" was included in the statement issued on 2nd July. This policy is well known, and I cannot, therefore, understand why on this occasion bewilderment should have been caused in Liverpool and shipping circles.”

Duff Cooper · July 31, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

The troopship Lancastria was bombed and sunk off St Nazaire on 17 June 1940. Members asked why the news was not published in Britain until after it appeared in the American press, about five weeks later.

Oral answer on the sinking of the Lancastria, House of Commons, 31 July 1940 (HC Deb vol. 363, c. 1219) Source

“This is not spying. This is a method which newspapers and commercial firms have been following in this country for the last 30 years in order to ascertain public opinion. There is nothing new about it, nor is it underhand or in any way connected with spying.”

Duff Cooper · July 31, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Members asked why Ministry-funded interviewers were canvassing householders, a practice the press called spying. Duff Cooper replied that the Ministry used the opinion-survey methods of newspapers and commercial firms.

Oral answer on the War-time Social Survey, House of Commons, 31 July 1940 (HC Deb vol. 363, c. 1216) Source

““for a man who knows Africa means that he must suffer from softening of the brain, or, what is worse, from bad faith.” “The water supply is entirely insufficient. We move toward a defeat which, in the desert, must inevitably develop into a rapid and total disaster.””

Rodolfo Graziani · August 8, 1940 · Private-remark · Rome

Graziani, commander of the Italian forces in Libya, told Ciano that the planned offensive against Egypt was badly prepared and criticised Badoglio for not restraining Mussolini. Ciano passed the remarks to Mussolini the same day. The words are Graziani's as reported by Ciano.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 8 August 1940, recording a conversation with Graziani, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Winston Churchill · August 20, 1940 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Spoken to the Commons during the Battle of Britain, in a review of the war that praised the Royal Air Force fighter and bomber crews.

Statement on the war situation, House of Commons, 20 August 1940, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 364, c. 1167 Source

“If I am told to fight regardless of the consequences, I shall run wild considerably for the first six months or a year, but I have utterly no confidence for the second and third years.”

English: As rendered from the Memoirs of Prince Konoye in Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. 3, p. 46 (cited by Parker). Original-language text not found.

Isoroku Yamamoto · September 1940 · Private-remark · Tokyo, conversation with Prince Fumimaro Konoe Verified (secondary source)

Reply to Konoe, then Prime Minister, who had asked what the Navy could do if war with the United States came, around the time of the Tripartite Pact. Yamamoto went on to say he hoped efforts would be made to avoid war with the United States.

Yamamoto to Prince Konoe, 1940, from the Memoirs of Prince Konoye, as quoted in the epigraph of Frederick D. Parker, A Priceless Advantage: U.S. Navy Communications Intelligence and the Battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and the Aleutians (Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 1993), citing Morison, vol. 3, p. 46 Source

“To enhance justice on earth and make of the world one household is the great injunction, bequeathed by our [Imperial] Ancestors and which we lay to heart day and night. In the stupendous crisis now confronting the world, it appears that endless will be the aggravation of war and confusion, and incalculable the disasters to be inflicted upon mankind. We fervently hope that the cessation of the disturbances and the restoration of peace will be realized as swiftly as possible.”

Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) · September 27, 1940 · Statement · Tokyo

Rescript issued on the day Japan, Germany and Italy signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. The first paragraph is quoted; the rescript goes on to call on the nation to meet the emergency.

Imperial Rescript on the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Germany and Italy, 27 September 1940, countersigned by Prime Minister Konoe and Army Minister Tojo; English text in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: Japan, 1931-1941, vol. 2 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943) Source

“The Act was passed by Democratic votes but it was over the opposition of the Republican leaders. And just to name a few, the following Republican leaders, among many others, voted against the Act: Senators McNary, Vandenberg, Nye and Johnson; now wait, a perfectly beautiful rhythm—Congressmen Martin, Barton and Fish.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · October 28, 1940 · Speech · New York City, Madison Square Garden

Campaign speech against Republican leaders in Congress on the repeal of the arms embargo in 1939.

Campaign Address at Madison Square Garden, New York City, 28 October 1940, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · October 30, 1940 · Speech · Boston, Massachusetts

Speech in the closing week of the 1940 campaign for a third term, in which he was running against Wendell Willkie. The Selective Training and Service Act had been enacted in September 1940. The United States entered the war after the Japanese attack of 7 December 1941.

Campaign Address at Boston, Massachusetts, 30 October 1940, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

““There is no doubt that Jacomoni and Visconti Prasca have a large share of the responsibility in the Albanian affair, but the real blame must be sought elsewhere. It lies entirely in the Duce’s command. This is a command that he, the Duce, cannot hold. Let him leave everything to us, and when things go wrong let him punish those responsible.””

Pietro Badoglio · November 22, 1940 · Private-remark · Rome

After the Italian setbacks in Greece and Albania, Alessandro Pavolini, Minister of Popular Culture, told Ciano what Badoglio had said to him about responsibility for the campaign. Pavolini passed it to Mussolini, who called Badoglio an "enemy of the regime" and a "traitor".

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 22 November 1940, recording the words of Pietro Badoglio (as reported to Ciano by Alessandro Pavolini), in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

“in order to keep the flag flying on that fortress at least”

Rodolfo Graziani · December 13, 1940 · Statement · Libya Verified (secondary source)

After the British offensive in Egypt and Cyrenaica (Operation Compass), Graziani telegraphed Mussolini from Libya that he was thinking of withdrawing to Tripoli. Ciano quotes two fragments of the telegram in his diary entry.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 13 December 1940 (the Gibson edition places it under 12 December), quoting a telegram from Graziani to Mussolini, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

“The Imperial Diet functions as before despite the new national structure, President Nobufumi Ito of the Cabinet Information Board said in his first interview with foreign correspondents. The difference between the new structure in Japan and the political structures of Germany and Italy lies in the fundamental conception of the State, he said.”

English: English chronology entry in the Domei-based digest 'International Gleanings from Japan'. Original-language text not found.

Nobufumi Ito · December 16, 1940 · Interview · Tokyo, interview with foreign correspondents Verified (secondary source)

Ito had become the first President of the newly created Cabinet Information Board on 6 December 1940. He spoke to foreign correspondents about the 'new national structure' movement and the Imperial Rule Assistance Association.

'International Gleanings from Japan', chronology for December 1940, entry for 16 December (Nobufumi Ito, President of the Cabinet Information Board, first interview with foreign correspondents), in 'Clippings and mimeographed material: China-Japan War, 1932-1942, Folder 7' (Internet Archive scan) Source

“Suppose my neighbor's home catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help him to put out his fire. Now, what do I do? I don't say to him before that operation, "Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it." What is the transaction that goes on? I don't want $15—I want my garden hose back after the fire is over. All right. If it goes through the fire all right, intact, without any damage to it, he gives it back to me and thanks me very much for the use of it. But suppose it gets smashed up—holes in it—during the fire; we don't have to have too much formality about it, but I say to him, "I was glad to lend you that hose; I see I can't use it any more, it's all smashed up." He says, "How many feet of it were there?" I tell him, "There were 150 feet of it."”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 17, 1940 · Interview · Washington, D.C., press conference

Roosevelt explained to reporters the idea behind what became the Lend-Lease Act (March 1941), at a time when British dollar reserves were running low and the Johnson Act and Neutrality Act restricted loans and cash sales.

Press Conference, 17 December 1940, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 29, 1940 · Broadcast · Washington, D.C., fireside chat

Radio address to the nation on aid to Britain and defense production, delivered while the United States was formally neutral.

Fireside Chat on National Security ("Arsenal of Democracy"), 29 December 1940, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

Content note: Order for executions of Soviet prisoners of war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Those Soviet Russians who are definitely found to be untrustworthy are to be forthwith reported — as designated in the directives of the 17th July 1941. Following the introduction of the execution authorization, further fulfillment of the designated measures are to begin without further delay. A further custody in the camps in question are to be avoided for various reasons. Finally I reemphasize that under no circumstances are the executions to be carried out either in the Camp or in the near vicinity. It is self-understood that these executions are not public. It is a matter of principle not to admit spectators.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 078-PS. Original-language text not found.

Reinhard Heydrich · 1941 · Statement

Supplement to directives of 28 June 1941 and 17 July 1941 on screening Soviet prisoners of war in German camps. The directives named categories of prisoners (among them officials, political commissars and Jews) to be 'segregated' and 'specially handled'.

Supplement to the directives for the Security Police and SD commands assigned to prisoner-of-war camps, signed Heydrich, document 078-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 3, p. 126

“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · January 6, 1941 · Speech · Washington, D.C., Congress

Delivered to a joint session of Congress, months before the Lend-Lease Act, as the war in Europe continued and the United States remained out of it.

Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union (the "Four Freedoms" speech), 6 January 1941, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

Content note: Instruction against surrender. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“If alive, do not suffer the disgrace of becoming a prisoner; in death, do not leave behind a name soiled by misdeeds.”

Hideki Tōjō · January 8, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo

Code of conduct for the Imperial Japanese Army issued over the War Minister's name and distributed to troops. Tojo was Army Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Konoe at the time.

Field Service Code (Senjinkun), Army Order No. 1, issued 8 January 1941 by War Minister Tojo, section 8 "Honour"; English translation by the Tokyo Gazette Publishing House, 1941, reproduced on rikukaigun.org Source

“The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · January 12, 1941 · Article

Weekly lead article in which Goebbels accuses the British government of misreporting ship losses and air raids. It is the nearest verified Goebbels text to the "big lie" sayings often credited to him.

"Aus Churchills Lügenfabrik" (From Churchill's Lie Factory), Das Reich, 12 January 1941, reprinted in Die Zeit ohne Beispiel (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1941), pp. 364-369; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“I suppose you wish to know what I am going to say to President Roosevelt on my return. Well, I'm going to quote you one verse from that Book of Books in the truth of which Mr. Johnston's mother and my own Scottish mother were brought up: 'Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.'”

Harry Hopkins · January 17, 1941 · Speech · Glasgow, dinner hosted by Tom Johnston with Winston Churchill Verified (secondary source)

Hopkins was in Britain on his first mission as Roosevelt's personal envoy, before Lend-Lease was passed. The article says Churchill was seen in tears at the remarks.

Harry Hopkins, after-dinner remarks, Glasgow, 17 January 1941, as quoted in "Roosevelt's Bracken: Harry Hopkins 'Lord Root of the Matter'," Finest Hour 146 (International Churchill Society), citing Martin Gilbert Source

“Our country is firmly determined to set up a Greater East Asian order by eliminating those who continue their resistance against us and by collaborating with those who make common cause with us.”

English: English text as published in Tokyo Gazette, March 1941, via ibiblio.org (Hyperwar). Original-language text not found.

Fumimaro Konoe · January 21, 1941 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet

Prime Minister's policy address four months after the Tripartite Pact. The sentence follows a passage about British and American aid to the Chongqing government.

Address to the 76th session of the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 21 January 1941, English text in Tokyo Gazette, March 1941, via ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

“The British Broadcasting Corporation give, I believe, considerable latitude to expressions of opinion which are not injurious to the war effort, and I should be very sorry to think that Ministers were in any way to be held responsible for all statements by the B.B.C.”

Winston Churchill · January 21, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Reply to a question asking whether ministers were responsible for the BBC's output. The answer that followed in the same exchange said the Minister of Information had effective control in matters of high consequence.

Oral answer by the Prime Minister on the BBC charter, House of Commons, 21 January 1941, Hansard, HC Deb vol. 368, cc. 25-26 Source

“The United States has evinced no adequate understanding of the fact that the establishment of a sphere of common prosperity throughout greater East Asia is truly a matter of vital concern to Japan. She apparently entertains an idea that her own first line of national defence lies along the mid-Atlantic to the East, but westward not only along the eastern Pacific-but even as far as China and the South Seas. If the United States assumes such an attitude, it would be, to say the least, a very one-sided contention on her part, to cast reflections on our superiority in the Western Pacific, by suggesting that it betokens ambitious designs. I, for one, believe that such a position assumed on the part of the United States would not be calculated to contribute toward the promotion of world peace. Speaking frankly, I should extremely regret such an attitude of the United States for the sake of Japanese-American friendship, for the sake of peace in the Pacific and, also, for the sake of the peace of the world in general.”

English: Contemporary Japan, February 1941 (English text of the address), as reproduced on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar). Original-language text not found.

Yosuke Matsuoka · January 21, 1941 · Speech · Tokyo, 76th Imperial Diet

Foreign-policy address at the reopening of the Diet, four months after the Tripartite Pact. It describes the 'sphere of common prosperity' in greater East Asia and Japanese-American relations.

Address by Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka at the 76th session of the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 21 January 1941, Contemporary Japan, February 1941, as reproduced on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

“This action has been taken not because of any recent change or development in the character of these publications, nor because of the appearance therein of some particular article or articles, but because it is and has been for a long period the settled and continuous policy of these papers to try to create in their readers a state of mind in which they will refrain from co-operating in the national war effort and may become ready to hinder that effort. It is my firm conviction that freedom of the Press should be maintained even at the risk that it may sometimes be abused. If in newspapers which share the national determination to win the war there is occasionally published matter which, though not intended to be harmful to the national interest, may nevertheless have a prejudicial effect, I recognise that the inestimable advantage of maintaining a free Press far outweighs the risks which such freedom may sometimes entail.”

Herbert Morrison · January 22, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Statement in reply to William Gallacher MP on the suppression of the Daily Worker and The Week under Defence Regulation 2D. Morrison was Home Secretary.

House of Commons, statement by Private Notice question, 22 January 1941, HC Deb vol. 368, c186 Source

“Any step which has even the appearance of a departure from our traditional policy of allowing freedom for the expression of minority opinions must be a matter for regret. The policy of the Government is to make the minimum use, even in time of war, of methods of repression, and to confine such action to those forces, all of them agents or allies of reaction, which would consciously or unconsciously place impediments in the way of our war effort and thus help the enemy.”

Herbert Morrison · January 22, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Closing passage of the same statement on the suppression of the Daily Worker and The Week.

House of Commons, statement by Private Notice question, 22 January 1941, HC Deb vol. 368, c187 Source

“No, Sir. To broadcast the addresses in question in the manner proposed by my hon. Friend would suggest to listeners abroad that they possessed an official character. This, as explained by the Prime Minister on 28th January, is not the case.”

Duff Cooper · February 5, 1941 · Speech · London, House of Commons

A Member asked whether the six addresses broadcast by Sir Robert Vansittart, the Foreign Office's chief diplomatic adviser, would be translated and broadcast in other languages. The question was headed "Black Record", the title of Vansittart's book.

Oral answer on Sir Robert Vansittart's broadcasts, House of Commons, 5 February 1941 (HC Deb vol. 368, c. 923) Source

Content note: Call for hatred of the enemy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The events during these months exasperate our will and must accentuate against the enemy that cold, conscious, implacable hate, hate in every home, which is indispensable for victory.”

Benito Mussolini · February 23, 1941 · Speech · Rome, Teatro Adriano

Mussolini spoke about eight months after Italy entered the war, with Italian forces engaged in Greece and North Africa, reviewing the war's course.

Speech to the Fascist officials of Rome ("Camicie nere dell'Urbe"), Teatro Adriano, Rome, 23 February 1941, English in the New York Times, 24 February 1941. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 30: Dall'intervento dell'Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale (La Fenice, Florence, 1960), p. 54 Source

Content note: Antisemitic claim about the United States. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Let me say now that what is occurring in the United States is one of the most colossal mystifications in all history. Illusion and lying are the basis of American interventionism-illusion that the United States is still a democracy, when instead it is a political and financial oligarchy dominated by Jews, through a personal form of dictatorship. The lie is that the Axis powers, after they finish Great Britain, want to attack America.”

Benito Mussolini · February 23, 1941 · Speech · Rome, Teatro Adriano

Speaking about eight months after Italy entered the war and nine months before it declared war on the United States, Mussolini addressed American public opinion on the debate over US intervention.

Speech to the Fascist officials of Rome ("Camicie nere dell'Urbe"), Teatro Adriano, Rome, 23 February 1941, English in the New York Times, 24 February 1941. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 30: Dall'intervento dell'Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale (La Fenice, Florence, 1960), pp. 57-58 Source

“I do not want to suppress opinion for the sake of suppressing it, but it is my duty to take any action necessary for the furtherance of the security of the country and the success of the war. My hon. Friend must take it from me that I shall do anything necessary for that purpose.”

Herbert Morrison · March 27, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Reply to Aneurin Bevan MP after Sir Waldron Smithers MP asked the Home Secretary to act against pamphlets succeeding the suppressed Daily Worker.

House of Commons, oral answers, 27 March 1941, HC Deb vol. 370, c688 Source

Content note: Describes a plan to deceive Britain before a surprise attack. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“In this connection, Matsuoka pointed out, that he was doing everything to reassure the English about Singapore. He acted as if Japan had no intention at all regarding this key position of England in the East. Therefore it might be possible, that his attitude toward the British would appear to be friendly in words and in acts. However, Germany should not be deceived by that. He assumed this attitude not only in order to reassure the British, but also in order to fool the pro-British and pro-American elements so long, until one day he would suddenly open the attack on Singapore.”

English: English translation of the German memorandum, as printed in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 4 (US Government Printing Office, 1946), and reproduced by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translation of the German interpreter's report, Document 1877-PS). Original-language text not found.

Yosuke Matsuoka · March 29, 1941 · Private-remark · Berlin, conversation with Joachim von Ribbentrop

Private talks during Matsuoka's visit to Berlin, recorded by the German side, on a possible Japanese attack on Singapore. The memorandum is a German record in reported speech, not a stenographic transcript of Matsuoka's own words.

Report on the conversation between the Reich Foreign Minister and Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka in Berlin on 29 March 1941 (Berlin, 31 March 1941), Document 1877-PS, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 4 Source

Content note: War of annihilation against the Soviet Union and Communists. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Struggle of two ideologies. Scathing condemnation of Bolshevism: equals social criminality; Communism immense danger to the future. We must distance ourselves from the idea of soldierly good fellowship. A communist is not a comrade, neither before nor afterwards. It is a matter of a struggle of annihilation. If we do not see it this way, then we will still defeat the enemy, but the Communist enemy will confront us again in thirty years. We are not waging war in order to preserve the enemy.”

English: Mary Fran Gilbert, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations (Bolchazy-Carducci). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · March 30, 1941 · Speech · Berlin, Reich Chancellery

Hitler spoke for about two and a half hours to senior officers about the planned invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941. The words survive in the notes of the Chief of the Army General Staff, General Halder.

Hitler's address to generals and commanders, 30 March 1941, as noted in Franz Halder's diary entry of that day, quoted in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945, vol. 4 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004), p. 2393

Content note: Argues for striking the United States first. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“As regards Japanese-American relationship, Matsuoka explained further that he has always declared in his country, that sooner or later a war with the United States would be unavoidable, if Japan continued to drift along as at present. In his opinion this conflict would happen rather sooner than later. His argument went on, why should Japan, therefore, not decisively strike at the right moment and take the risk upon herself of a fight against America? Just thus would she perhaps avoid a war for generations, particularly if she gained predominance in the South Seas. There are, to be sure, in Japan many who hesitate to follow those trends of thought. Matsuoka was considered in those circles a dangerous man with dangerous thoughts. He, however, stated that, if Japan continued to walk along her present path, one day she would have to fight anyway and that this would then be under less favorable circumstances than at present.”

English: English translation of the German memorandum, as printed in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 4 (US Government Printing Office, 1946), and reproduced by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translation of Schmidt's memorandum, Document 1881-PS). Original-language text not found.

Yosuke Matsuoka · April 4, 1941 · Private-remark · Berlin, conversation with Adolf Hitler

Matsuoka's account to Hitler, with Ribbentrop and Meissner present, of his view of the likely course of Japanese-American relations. The memorandum is a German record in reported speech.

Memorandum on the discussion between the Fuehrer and Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka, Berlin, 4 April 1941, Document 1881-PS, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 4 Source

“It takes the Navy three years to build a new ship. It will take three hundred years to build a new tradition. The evacuation [i.e., rescue] will continue.”

Andrew Cunningham · May 1941 · Statement · Alexandria Verified (secondary source)

When the Army on Crete was in danger of being left behind, Cunningham decided that the Navy would continue to take men off the island despite heavy losses from air attack. Churchill quotes his words in describing the decision, at the end of May 1941, to continue the rescue.

Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 3, The Grand Alliance (Reprint Society, London, 1952, by arrangement with Cassell), p. 239 Source

Content note: Order for ruthless action against civilians and guerrillas in the invasion of the USSR. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“This is possible only if the troops take ruthless action themselves against any threat from the enemy population. For these reasons I herewith issue the following order effective for the area "Barbarossa" (area of operations, army rear area, and area of political administration) : I. Treatment of offenses committed by enemy civilians : 1. Until further notice the military courts and the courts martial will not be competent for crimes committed by enemy civilians. 2. Guerillas should be disposed of ruthlessly by the military, whether they are fighting or in flight. 3. Likewise all other attacks by enemy civilians on the Armed Forces, its members and employees, are to be suppressed at once by the military, using the most extreme methods, until the assailants are destroyed.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document C-50. Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm Keitel · May 13, 1941 · Statement · Fuehrer's Headquarters

Order issued about six weeks before the invasion of the Soviet Union, removing offences by enemy civilians from the jurisdiction of military courts and instructing troops how to deal with resistance. Hitler is the issuing authority; the OKW chief signed and distributed it.

Order concerning the exercise of martial jurisdiction in the area "Barbarossa", issued by Hitler on 13 May 1941 and circulated "By order" by the Chief of the OKW over Keitel's signature, document C-50, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 6 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 872 Source

“Their Lordships may rest assured that determining factor in operating in Aegean is not fear of sustaining losses, but need to avoid loss which, without commensurate advantage to ourselves, will cripple Fleet out here.”

Andrew Cunningham · May 26, 1941 · Statement · Alexandria (signal to the Admiralty) Verified (secondary source)

During the German attack on Crete the Admiralty pressed Cunningham, commanding the Mediterranean Fleet, to keep his ships operating in the Aegean against German sea reinforcement. This is his reply to the Admiralty's message of 23 May.

Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 3, The Grand Alliance (Reprint Society, London, 1952, by arrangement with Cassell), p. 235, quoting the signal from C.-in-C. Mediterranean to the Admiralty of 26 May 1941 Source

“I agree with Lord Trenchard's main thesis that the most vulnerable point in the German nation at war is the morale of her civilian population under air attack, and that until this morale has been broken it will not be possible to launch an army on the mainland of Europe with any prospect of success.”

Charles Portal · June 2, 1941 · Statement · London, Air Ministry

Written for the Chiefs of Staff Committee in reply to a memorandum of 19 May 1941 by Marshal of the RAF Lord Trenchard on the air war. Portal, who had been Chief of the Air Staff since October 1940, initialled the note.

Note by Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, on Lord Trenchard's memorandum, 2 June 1941, in Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany 1939-1945, vol. 4, Annexes and Appendices (HMSO, 1961), Appendix 10 (iv), p. 200 Source

Content note: Bombing aimed so that misses fall on civilians. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I also agree that to exploit this weakness the main weight of our air attack should be directed against objectives in Germany, so situated that bombs which miss their target will directly affect the morale of the German civilian population.”

Charles Portal · June 2, 1941 · Statement · London, Air Ministry

Written for the Chiefs of Staff Committee in reply to a memorandum of 19 May 1941 by Marshal of the RAF Lord Trenchard on the air war. Portal, who had been Chief of the Air Staff since October 1940, initialled the note.

Note by Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, on Lord Trenchard's memorandum, 2 June 1941, in Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany 1939-1945, vol. 4, Annexes and Appendices (HMSO, 1961), Appendix 10 (iv), p. 200 Source

“The morale effect of bombing depends largely on the enemy's knowledge of our ability to inflict very severe material damage. Small scale raids will therefore be of little value unless there are also many heavy raids. Furthermore morale is apt to recover quickly and the maximum effect can only be achieved by repeated attacks on the same place.”

Charles Portal · June 2, 1941 · Statement · London, Air Ministry

Written for the Chiefs of Staff Committee in reply to a memorandum of 19 May 1941 by Marshal of the RAF Lord Trenchard on the air war. Portal, who had been Chief of the Air Staff since October 1940, initialled the note.

Note by Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, on Lord Trenchard's memorandum, 2 June 1941, in Sir Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany 1939-1945, vol. 4, Annexes and Appendices (HMSO, 1961), Appendix 10 (iv), p. 200 Source

Content note: Declares Christianity incompatible with National Socialism; antisemitic claim about Christian origins. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“National Socialist and Christian concepts are irreconcilable. Christian churches build on uncertainty of human beings and attempt to preserve the uncertainty of as wide segments of the population as possible, for only in this way can Christian churches keep their power. As opposed to that, National Socialism is based on scientific fundamentals. [...] Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the concepts of Christianity, which in their essential points have been taken over from Jewry. For this reason also we do not need Christianity.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document D-75. Original-language text not found.

Martin Bormann · June 6, 1941 · Statement

Party Chancellery decree sent to the regional party leaders (Gauleiters). A copy found on a priest in Aachen reached the Gestapo, whose report to Berlin, printed in the same document, identifies it as a secret decree signed by Bormann.

Secret decree 'Relationship of National Socialism and Christianity' of the Party Chancellery, signed M. Bormann, 6 June 1941 (circular letter 8/41, sent to all Gauleiters on 7 June 1941), document D-75, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 6, pp. 1036-1037

“Strategy, without information upon which it can rely, is helpless. Likewise, information is useless unless it is intelligently directed to the strategic purpose.”

William J. Donovan · June 10, 1941 · Statement

Opening of Donovan's proposal to President Roosevelt for a central intelligence organization under a Coordinator of Strategic Information. Roosevelt created the Office of the Coordinator of Information, with Donovan as head, in July 1941.

William J. Donovan, Memorandum of Establishment of Service of Strategic Information, to President Roosevelt, 10 June 1941 (CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP57-00384R000100150074-6, pp. 1-6) Source

“Thus there is another element in modern warfare, and that is the psychological attack against the moral and spiritual defenses of a nation. In this attack, the most powerful weapon is radio. The use of radio as a weapon, though effectively employed by Germany, is still to be perfected. But this perfection can be realized only by planning, and planning is dependent upon accurate information.”

William J. Donovan · June 10, 1941 · Statement

Passage of the same memorandum on psychological warfare, written six months before the United States entered the war. It argued that radio propaganda needed the same central intelligence as the other tools of war.

William J. Donovan, Memorandum of Establishment of Service of Strategic Information, to President Roosevelt, 10 June 1941 (CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP57-00384R000100150074-6, pp. 1-6) Source

“The object of this Regulation is to provide in time of war a power to detain on grounds of national security persons of hostile origin or associations and persons whose dangerous activities cannot be dealt with by criminal proceedings.”

Herbert Morrison · June 12, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Reply to Walter Loftus MP, who asked how many people detained under Defence Regulation 18B had been brought to trial.

House of Commons, oral answers, 12 June 1941, HC Deb vol. 372, c318 Source

Content note: Antisemitic characterisation of the enemy. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Therefore, the hour has now come in which it has become necessary to oppose this conspiracy of the Jewish-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and likewise the Jewish ruling powers in the Bolshevik control station at Moscow.”

English: Mary Fran Gilbert, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations (Bolchazy-Carducci). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · June 22, 1941 · Statement · Berlin

Public proclamation issued on the day German forces invaded the Soviet Union, setting out Hitler's reasons for ending the German-Soviet pact of 1939.

Proclamation to the German People, 22 June 1941, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945, vol. 4 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004), p. 2451

“The government calls upon you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally still more closely around our glorious Bolshevist party, around our Soviet Government, around our great leader and comrade, Stalin. Ours is a righteous cause. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours.”

Vyacheslav Molotov · June 22, 1941 · Broadcast · Moscow, radio address

Molotov announced the German attack on the Soviet Union on the radio at midday, speaking on behalf of the Soviet Government. Stalin's own first address followed on 3 July 1941.

Radio address by V. M. Molotov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, 22 June 1941; Russian as cited at ru.wikisource.org from E. Kul'kov, M. Myagkov and O. Rzheshevskii, Voina 1941-1945 (Moscow: OLMA-Press) Source

Content note: Dehumanising language about German soldiers ('Hun', 'crawling locusts'). The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last twenty-five years. I will unsay no words that I've spoken about it. But all this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding. The past, with its crimes, its follies and its tragedies, flashes away. I see the Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields which their fathers have tilled from time immemorial. I see them guarding their homes; their mothers and wives pray, ah yes, for there are times when all pray for the safety of their loved ones, for the return of the breadwinner, of the champion, of their protectors. I see the 10,000 villages of Russia, where the means of existence was wrung so hardly from the soil, but where there are still primordial human joys, where maidens laugh and children play I see advancing upon all this, in hideous onslaught, the Nazi war machine, with its clanking, heel-clicking, dandified Prussian officers, its crafty expert agents, fresh from the cowing and tying down of a dozen countries. I see also the dull, drilled, docile brutish masses of the Hun soldiery, plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts.”

Winston Churchill · June 22, 1941 · Broadcast · London (BBC broadcast) Verified (secondary source)

Broadcast on the evening of the German attack on the USSR, announcing that Britain would give Russia all the help it could. Churchill had been a prominent opponent of Bolshevism since 1917.

Broadcast on the German invasion of the Soviet Union, BBC, 22 June 1941, transcript published by America's National Churchill Museum Source

Content note: Suggests letting Germany and the Soviet Union kill as many of each other as possible. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.”

Harry S. Truman · June 24, 1941 · Interview · Washington, D.C., remark to reporters (reported 24 June 1941) Verified (secondary source)

Said as a Missouri senator two days after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and before the United States entered the war. The remark was later cited in discussions of whether the United States should have aided either side.

Senator Harry S. Truman, remark on the German invasion of the Soviet Union, reported in the New York Times, 24 June 1941, p. 7, and quoted in Time, "National Affairs: Anniversary Remembrance" Source

“I do hereby reaffirm the policy of the United States that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and I do hereby declare that it is the duty of employers and of labor organizations, in furtherance of said policy and of this Order, to provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin;”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · June 25, 1941 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Signed days before a planned march on Washington by Black labour leaders, including A. Philip Randolph, protesting exclusion from defense jobs. It created the Committee on Fair Employment Practice. The armed forces remained racially segregated throughout the war.

Executive Order 8802, 25 June 1941, operative paragraph, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“Inadvisable at this present time. Let the Jewish writers work for Moscow newspapers.”

English: Laura Esther Wolfson, in Stalin's Secret Pogrom (Yale University Press, 2001). Original-language text not found.

Aleksandr Shcherbakov · July 1941 · Private-remark · Moscow, handwritten note on a petition to the Sovinformburo Verified (secondary source)

Markish, Bergelson, Kvitko and other Yiddish writers wrote to the Sovinformburo on 18 July 1941. Rubenstein says Shcherbakov, then director of the bureau, dismissed the idea; he accepted a similar proposal in September 1941 and the newspaper Eynikayt began to appear in 1942.

Shcherbakov's handwritten note on the letter of 18 July 1941 from Yiddish writers asking the Sovinformburo to establish a Yiddish newspaper, quoted in Joshua Rubenstein, "Introduction", in Joshua Rubenstein and Vladimir P. Naumov (eds.), Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, trans. Laura Esther Wolfson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 11 Source

“What did we gain by concluding the non-aggression pact with Germany? We secured our country peace for a year and a half and the opportunity of preparing our forces to repulse fascist Germany should she risk an attack on our country despite the pact. This was a definite advantage for us and a disadvantage for fascist Germany.”

Joseph Stalin · July 3, 1941 · Broadcast · Moscow, radio address

Stalin's first public address after the German invasion of 22 June 1941. He explained why the Soviet Government had concluded the 1939 non-aggression pact with Germany.

Radio broadcast, 3 July 1941; Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 15 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 56-61 Source

“Comrades, citizens, brothers and sisters, men of our Army and Navy! My words are addressed to you, dear friends!”

Joseph Stalin · July 3, 1941 · Broadcast · Moscow, radio address Verified (secondary source)

Stalin's first public address after the German invasion of 22 June 1941, broadcast to the Soviet population. Later in the same speech he orders that, in a forced retreat, nothing be left for the enemy.

Radio broadcast, 3 July 1941; Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 15 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 56-61 Source

“I am not aware of that statement, and I should have thought that everybody realised that no convention made with the present rulers of Germany would be acceptable.”

Clement Attlee · July 24, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Answering a question from Richard Stokes MP, who had asked whether a convention with Germany ending night-bombing and the bombing of cities could be sought. Attlee was then Lord Privy Seal.

House of Commons, oral answers, 24 July 1941, HC Deb vol. 373, cc1051-1052 Source

“I told Mr. Stalin that I came as personal representative of the President. The President considered Hitler the enemy of mankind and that he therefore wished to aid the Soviet Union in its fight against Germany.”

Harry Hopkins · July 30, 1941 · Private-remark · Moscow, Kremlin, meeting with Joseph Stalin

Hopkins visited Moscow as President Roosevelt's personal representative five weeks after Germany invaded the Soviet Union and before Lend-Lease aid to the USSR was approved. The memorandum is his own written account of what he told Stalin.

Memorandum by Harry L. Hopkins, 5 September 1941, of his conference with Stalin at the Kremlin on 30 July 1941, in Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1941, General, The Soviet Union, vol. I, document 751, pp. 802-803 Source

Content note: Order to prepare a "complete solution of the Jewish question" in German-controlled Europe. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Complementing the task that was assigned to you on 24 January 1939, which dealt with arriving at-through furtherance of emigration and evacuation-a solution of the Jewish problem as favorable as possible, I hereby charge you with making all necessary preparations in regard to organizational and financial matters for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe. [...] I charge you furthermore, to send me before long an overall plan concerning the organizational, factual, and material measures necessary for the accomplishment of the desired final solution of the Jewish question.”

English: Nuremberg trial translation of document 710-PS (as read into the IMT record). Original-language text not found.

Hermann Göring · July 31, 1941 · Letter · Berlin

Written order from Göring, as Reich Marshal and head of the Four Year Plan, to Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Security Police and SD. It refers to Heydrich's earlier task of 24 January 1939 on Jewish emigration. Document 710-PS, exhibit USA-509; Göring was questioned on it on 20 March 1946.

Prosecution reading of 710-PS, in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 4, p. 278 (session of 2 January 1946) Source

Content note: Refusal to relax a blockade during famine. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I share my hon. Friend's concern at the suffering of the Greek people under the enemy's yoke—suffering as bravely endured as it is wantonly imposed. But His Majesty's Government must continue to insist that both the legal and the moral responsibility for feeding the populations of enemy occupied territories rests upon the enemy, and that to relax the blockade of any part of enemy occupied Europe must strengthen the enemy and prolong the war. There are, according to the admissions of the German authorities themselves, large reserves of wheat and flour under their control, and part of these supplies could, if the Germans chose, be used to feed the Greeks.”

Hugh Dalton · August 5, 1941 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Greece was under German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation and short of food. The British blockade of occupied Europe was in force; Dalton answered a question asking for wheat and flour to be imported.

Oral answer on food for Greece, House of Commons, 5 August 1941 (HC Deb vol. 373, cc. 1770-1) Source

“The aggressor is surprised, startled, staggered. For the first time in his experience mass murder has become unprofitable. He retaliates by the most frightful cruelties. As his armies advance, whole districts are being exterminated. Scores of thousands, literally scores of thousands of executions in cold blood are being perpetrated by the German police troops upon the Russian patriots who defend their native soil. Since the Mongol invasions of Europe in the sixteenth century there has never been methodical, merciless butchery on such a scale or approaching such a scale. And this is but the beginning. Famine and pestilence have yet to follow in the bloody ruts of Hitler's tanks. We are in the presence of a crime without a name.”

Winston Churchill · August 24, 1941 · Broadcast · London (BBC broadcast)

Broadcast after the Atlantic Conference, describing the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which had begun two months earlier. It is the passage in which Churchill refers to mass executions behind the German lines.

Broadcast to the world on his meeting with President Roosevelt (the Atlantic Charter), London, 24 August 1941, transcript at the Pearl Harbor History Associates archive (ibiblio.org) Source

“Is evidenced by the previous explanation delivered by Premier Konoye and in view of the present urgent situation, especially of the gradual decrease in the potentiality of our national strength, it is my firm conviction that the time has come for the Empire to decide on peace or war.”

English: English text of Japanese Monograph No. 147 (Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East). Original-language text not found.

Hajime Sugiyama · September 6, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial Conference in the presence of Hirohito Verified (secondary source)

Army Chief of Staff's explanation to the Imperial Conference that adopted the 'Outline for the Execution of the Empire's National Policy'. He spoke after Navy Chief of Staff Nagano, whose explanation he said the Army fully shared.

Explanation by Chief of Army General Staff Sugiyama at the Imperial Conference of 6 September 1941, Japanese Monograph No. 147, Political Strategy Prior to the Outbreak of War, Part III (Military History Section, Headquarters, Army Forces Far East), Appendix 4, p. A4-i, as published on ibiblio.org Source

Content note: Argues for opening hostilities. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“If we should play into the hands of the United States and Great Britain by being driven into the prolonging of diplomatic negotiations at a time when the situation is urgent, the potentiality of the Empire's national defense strength would gradually decrease while at the same time the armament of the United States, and Britain would gradually increase. Such a situation would make our military operations more difficult and place us in a position where we would be forced to lose the advantage of surmounting the obstacles created by the United States and Britain. Therefore, we must open hostilities against the United States and Britain while we have confidence in waging war against them.”

English: English text of Japanese Monograph No. 147 (Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East). Original-language text not found.

Hajime Sugiyama · September 6, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial Conference in the presence of Hirohito Verified (secondary source)

From the same explanation, on the relationship between preparations for war and diplomatic negotiations.

Explanation by Chief of Army General Staff Sugiyama at the Imperial Conference of 6 September 1941, Japanese Monograph No. 147, Political Strategy Prior to the Outbreak of War, Part III (Military History Section, Headquarters, Army Forces Far East), Appendix 4, p. A4-i, as published on ibiblio.org Source

“In conclusion, I want to emphasize that if the situation should result in a war in the south, the Empire should immediately disclose her intention to Germany and Italy and tighten the agreement with those two countries so that Japan, Germany and Italy can cooperate closely to achieve the common objectives of the war. The most important item in the direction of war is to prevent Germany and Italy from concluding a separate peace with the United States and Britain.”

English: English text of Japanese Monograph No. 147 (Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East). Original-language text not found.

Hajime Sugiyama · September 6, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial Conference in the presence of Hirohito Verified (secondary source)

Closing passage of the same explanation, on relations with Germany and Italy if war in the south came.

Explanation by Chief of Army General Staff Sugiyama at the Imperial Conference of 6 September 1941, Japanese Monograph No. 147, Political Strategy Prior to the Outbreak of War, Part III (Military History Section, Headquarters, Army Forces Far East), Appendix 4, p. A4-iii, as published on ibiblio.org Source

“However, even when the Empire gains a victory in this decisive battle, such a victory alone would not end the war. In all probability, the opponent will then switch to a prolonged war based on the strength of his superiority in industrial power and resources. Our Empire has not means by which to subjugate the enemy by invasion operations or to break his will to fight. Moreover, a long war is what we least desire because of the meagerness of our domestic resources.”

English: English text of Japanese Monograph No. 147 (Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East). Original-language text not found.

Osami Nagano · September 6, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial Conference in the presence of Hirohito Verified (secondary source)

Navy Chief of Staff's explanation of the operational outlook to the Imperial Conference that adopted the 'Outline for the Execution of the Empire's National Policy', which set a timetable for war preparations alongside diplomacy.

Explanation by Chief of Naval General Staff Nagano at the Imperial Conference of 6 September 1941, Japanese Monograph No. 147, Political Strategy Prior to the Outbreak of War, Part III (Military History Section, Headquarters, Army Forces Far East), Appendix 3, p. A3-ii, as published on ibiblio.org Source

“By the latter half of next year, military preparations of the United States will have made such rapid strides that we will find it difficult to oppose them. Therefore, wasting time now can prove disastrous for the Empire.”

English: English text of Japanese Monograph No. 147 (Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East). Original-language text not found.

Osami Nagano · September 6, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial Conference in the presence of Hirohito Verified (secondary source)

From the same explanation, on the growth of American, British and other military preparations in the Far East.

Explanation by Chief of Naval General Staff Nagano at the Imperial Conference of 6 September 1941, Japanese Monograph No. 147, Political Strategy Prior to the Outbreak of War, Part III (Military History Section, Headquarters, Army Forces Far East), Appendix 3, p. A3-i, as published on ibiblio.org Source

“We must avoid any war which can be avoided. But at the same time, for the future interest of our Empire we must not be forced into a position where we would have to fight under extremely disadvantageous conditions.”

English: English text of Japanese Monograph No. 147 (Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East). Original-language text not found.

Osami Nagano · September 6, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial Conference in the presence of Hirohito Verified (secondary source)

Closing words of the same explanation, qualifying the military timetable.

Explanation by Chief of Naval General Staff Nagano at the Imperial Conference of 6 September 1941, Japanese Monograph No. 147, Political Strategy Prior to the Outbreak of War, Part III (Military History Section, Headquarters, Army Forces Far East), Appendix 3, p. A3-iv, as published on ibiblio.org Source

“She was then and there attacked by a submarine. Germany admits that it was a German submarine. The submarine deliberately fired a torpedo at the Greer, followed later by another torpedo attack. In spite of what Hitler's propaganda bureau has invented, and in spite of what any American obstructionist organization may prefer to believe, I tell you the blunt fact that the German submarine fired first upon this American destroyer without warning, and with deliberate design to sink her.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · September 11, 1941 · Broadcast · Washington, D.C., fireside chat

Radio address a week after a German submarine fired torpedoes at the USS Greer in the North Atlantic; in it he announced that American ships and aircraft would act against Axis vessels in waters vital to American defense.

Fireside Chat on the Greer incident, 11 September 1941, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

Content note: Compares enemy forces to snakes. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“But when you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him. These Nazi submarines and raiders are the rattlesnakes of the Atlantic.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · September 11, 1941 · Broadcast · Washington, D.C., fireside chat

From the same address: Roosevelt compared German submarines and raiders to rattlesnakes in explaining the policy that American naval forces would no longer wait to be attacked first in defended waters.

Fireside Chat on the Greer incident, 11 September 1941, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“War Minister TOJO visited me after his retirement from the presence of the Emperor to report on the result of his investigation into the preparation of war against the U.S.A.”

English: IMTFE prosecution translation of the Kido diary (International Prosecution Section, 1946). Original-language text not found.

Koichi Kido · September 11, 1941 · Diary · Tokyo

Entry five days after the Imperial Conference of 6 September 1941 that set a timetable for war preparations alongside diplomacy.

Diary of Koichi Kido, entry for 11 September 1941, in 'Extracts from Kido's Diary' (Tojo, Hideki section), IMTFE prosecution translation, Tavenner Papers, University of Virginia, reproduced as page images on famous-trials.com (Kido's Diary: Tojo Notes) Source

Content note: Order to execute 50 to 100 Communists for each German soldier killed. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“In this connection it should be remembered that a human life in unsettled countries frequently counts for nothing and a deterrent effect can be attained only by unusual severity. The death penalty for 50-100 Communists should generally be regarded in these cases as suitable atonement for one German soldier's life. The way in which sentence is carried out should still further increase the deterrent effect. The reverse course of action, that of imposing relatively lenient penalties, and of being content, for purposes of deterrence, with the threat of more severe measures, does not accord with these principles and should therefore not be followed.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document C-148. Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm Keitel · September 16, 1941 · Statement · Fuehrer's Headquarters

Secret order to military commanders in the occupied areas, issued after the start of the war against the Soviet Union, on how to respond to resistance. It states that the Fuehrer had ordered action with "the most drastic means".

Order "Communist Insurrection in occupied territories", Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (signed Keitel), 16 September 1941, document C-148, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 6 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), pp. 960-962 (quoted passage on p. 961) Source

Content note: Press instruction to portray Jews as harmful and justify the yellow star. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“With reference to the marking of Jewry, the opportunity is offered to handle this theme in the most varied ways, in order to make clear to the German people the necessity for these measures, and especially to indicate the noxiousness of the Jews. From tomorrow on the special delivery service will provide material to be used as proof of the injuries which Jewry has inflicted upon Germany, and the destiny it has envisaged for her, past and present. This material is recommended.”

English: Official translation in the Nuremberg Military Tribunal record (document NG-4701). Original-language text not found.

Otto Dietrich · September 26, 1941 · Statement

Daily instruction to the German press issued from the Reich Press Chief's office, shortly after Jews in Germany were ordered to wear the yellow star. The Tribunal treated the Tagesparole as Dietrich's directive.

Secret information in the Tagesparole (daily press directive) of the Reich Press Chief, 26 September 1941, document NG-4701, Prosecution Exhibit 1261, as quoted in the judgment of Military Tribunal IV (Ministries case), in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, vol. XIV (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1952), p. 571 Source

Content note: Refusal to allow food through a blockade to occupied peoples. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“As there has been considerable misapprehension about this matter, I welcome this opportunity of making it clear that recent arrangements regarding Greece do not involve any departure from the general policy of His Majesty's Government. We do not allow foodstuffs to be shipped through the blockade, but subject to suitable conditions we have no objection to the purchase by our Allies of foodstuffs inside the blockade area for the relief of their peoples. These principles are, of course, impartially applied and certain other occupied territories have already benefited by their application. His Majesty's Government maintain their view that it is the responsibility of the enemy to feed the peoples he has enslaved, and they remain convinced that it would not be possible to allow foodstuffs to reach those territories through the blockade without defeating the objects of economic warfare.”

Hugh Dalton · October 14, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons (written answer)

The question referred to the despatch of 50,000 tons of food and medical supplies to Greece and asked whether similar arrangements could be made for other occupied Allied countries before winter.

Written answer on food supplies to enemy-occupied territories, House of Commons, 14 October 1941 (HC Deb vol. 374, c. 1264W) Source

“I asserted that the most important things were the revision of the decision of the last council in the Imperial presence and the unity of opinion between the Army and the Navy. I offered the TOJO cabinet as a solution of these problems.”

English: IMTFE prosecution translation of the Kido diary (International Prosecution Section, 1946). Original-language text not found.

Koichi Kido · October 17, 1941 · Diary · Tokyo

Entry for the day Kido, as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, presided over a conference of former prime ministers (jushin) after the Konoe cabinet resigned. Tojo was ordered to form a cabinet the same day.

Diary of Koichi Kido, entry for 17 October 1941, in 'Extracts from Kido's Diary' (Tojo, Hideki section), IMTFE prosecution translation, Tavenner Papers, University of Virginia, reproduced as page images on famous-trials.com (Kido's Diary: Tojo Notes) Source

“I delivered to them in an ante-room the Imperial wish as follows: Deep consideration and careful attitude and freedom from the decision of the council on the 6th of September were things wished for in the establishment of the fundamental policy of this country.”

English: IMTFE prosecution translation of the Kido diary (International Prosecution Section, 1946). Original-language text not found.

Koichi Kido · October 17, 1941 · Diary · Tokyo

From the same entry, recording a message Kido says he delivered, in an ante-room at the Palace, after the order to Tojo to form a cabinet and a visit by Navy Minister Oikawa. The 6 September decision was the Imperial Conference decision on war preparations and diplomacy.

Diary of Koichi Kido, entry for 17 October 1941, in 'Extracts from Kido's Diary' (Tojo, Hideki section), IMTFE prosecution translation, Tavenner Papers, University of Virginia, reproduced as page images on famous-trials.com (Kido's Diary: Tojo Notes) Source

Content note: Insult to Mussolini and a reference to disease, quoted by Bottai from Balbo. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“My friendship for Balbo was always an argumentative friendship, since our ideas were frequently different. As time goes on I must confess that he was right. I remember that he called Mussolini ‘a product of syphilis,’ and that I used to object to his words. I wonder now if this judgment on Mussolini wasn’t correct, or at least very close to the truth. The Duce has decayed intellectually and physically. He doesn’t attract me any more.”

Giuseppe Bottai · October 21, 1941 · Private-remark · Rome

Ciano records a conversation with Bottai, then Minister of National Education, about Mussolini, in the year after the death of Italo Balbo. Bottai quotes an earlier remark by Balbo.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 21 October 1941, recording the words of Giuseppe Bottai, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

“For example, I have in my possession a secret map made in Germany by Hitler's Government—by the planners of the new world order. It is a map of South America and a part of Central America, as Hitler proposes to reorganize it. Today in this area there are fourteen separate countries. But the geographical experts of Berlin have ruthlessly obliterated all existing boundary lines; they have divided South America into five vassal states, bringing the whole continent under their domination. And they have also so arranged it that the territory of one of these new puppet states includes the Republic of Panama and our great life line—the Panama Canal. That is his plan. It will never go into effect. This map, my friends, makes clear the Nazi design not only against South America but against the United States as well.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · October 27, 1941 · Broadcast · Washington, D.C., Navy and Total Defense Day dinner

Broadcast address delivered after the attack on the USS Kearny and weeks before the United States entered the war.

Address for Navy and Total Defense Day, 27 October 1941, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“We’ll definitely hold Moscow. But we’ll need at least two more armies and another two hundred tanks.”

English: Progress Publishers translation (Moscow, 1985); chapters 14-23 translated by N. Burova, R. Daglish, P. Garb, G. Kozlov, S. Sossinsky and M. Sydney. Original-language text not found.

Georgy Zhukov · November 1941 · Private-remark · Telephone call with Stalin, Moscow

Zhukov, commanding the Western Front, recalls Stalin telephoning to ask whether Moscow could be held, after a German breakthrough on the Kalinin Front. Stalin's question, as Zhukov gives it, was: "Are you sure we’ll be able to hold Moscow? It hurts me to ask you this. Answer me truthfully, as a Communist."

Zhukov's reply to Stalin's telephone question, mid-November 1941, in G. K. Zhukov, Reminiscences and Reflections, vol. 2 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1985; translated from Vospominaniya i razmyshleniya, Moscow: APN, 1974), ch. 15, p. 35 Source

Content note: Military order for a war of conquest in the Southwest Pacific. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“1. In the east the United States Fleet will be destroyed and United States lines of operation and supply lines extending toward the Far East will be cut. 2. In the west, British Malaya will be invaded and the Burma route, British lines of operations and supply lines extending toward the east will be cut. 3. The enemy forces in the Orient will be destroyed and enemy bases of operations and areas rich in natural resources will be captured. 4. A structure for sustained warfare will be established by capturing and exploiting strategic points and by strengthening defense. 5. The enemy forces will be intercepted and crushed. 6. Battle successes will be exploited, thereby destroying the morale of the enemy.”

English: English text of Japanese Monograph No. 152 (Military History Section, HQ Army Forces Far East). Original-language text not found.

Isoroku Yamamoto · November 5, 1941 · Statement · Saeki Bay, flagship Nagato Verified (secondary source)

Outline of the Combined Fleet's operations in the event of war with the United States, Britain and the Netherlands. The monograph adds that the plan to destroy the US Fleet in the east meant operations in the Hawaiian area.

Top Secret Combined Fleet Operation Order No. 1, 5 November 1941, Chapter I (Outline of Operations), Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, CinC Combined Fleet, Japanese Monograph No. 152, Appendix No. 1 (Military History Section, Headquarters, Army Forces Far East), as published on ibiblio.org Source

Content note: Military order preparing for war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Because it is feared that war with the UNITED STATES, GREAT BRITAIN and the NETHERLANDS is inevitable, it has been decided that for the sake of the Empire's defense general operational preparations will be completed by the first part of December.”

English: Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific (1945), as printed in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13. Original-language text not found.

Osami Nagano · November 5, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial General Headquarters Verified (secondary source)

Order to the Combined Fleet issued the day of the Imperial Conference that approved preparations for war with the United States, Britain and the Netherlands. It directed that operational preparations be completed by early December.

Imperial Headquarters Navy Staff Section Order 1 (essentials), 5 November 1941, Chief of the Naval General Staff Nagano to CinC Combined Fleet Yamamoto; Reply to a Questionnaire Concerning the Pearl Harbor Attack, Doc. #1032 (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific, 17-20 October 1945), enclosed in GHQ SCAP letter AG 350.05 of 1 November 1945, Joint Committee Exhibit No. 8, in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13 (US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 415 Source

Content note: Calls for killing every German soldier on Soviet territory. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The German invaders want a war of extermination with the peoples of the U.S.S.R. Well, if the Germans want to have a war of extermination, they will get it. (Loud and prolonged applause.) From now on our task, the task of the peoples of the U.S.S.R., the task of the fighters, commanders and the political workers of our Army and our Navy will be to exterminate every single German who has set his invading foot on the territory of our Fatherland.”

Joseph Stalin · November 6, 1941 · Speech · Moscow, celebration meeting of the Moscow Soviet on the eve of the October Revolution anniversary

Stalin spoke while German forces were advancing on Moscow, shortly after quoting passages he attributed to Hitler and the German command calling for the killing of Soviet people.

Speech at the Celebration Meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Working People's Deputies and Moscow Party and Public Organizations, 6 November 1941; Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 15 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 71-83 Source

Content note: Order to shoot hostages (Mussolini, quoted by Ciano). The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

““I, too, will adopt the method of hostages,” he said. “I have given orders that for every one of our men who is wounded, two of theirs must be shot, and for every one of our dead, twenty of theirs.” But he knows that he won’t do it.”

Galeazzo Ciano · November 11, 1941 · Diary · Rome

Ciano reports Mussolini's anger at attacks on Italian soldiers by Croats at Spalato (Split) in Italian-occupied Dalmatia. The speaker is Mussolini; the closing sentence is Ciano's own comment.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 11 November 1941, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

Content note: Antisemitic accusation; refers to the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The historic responsibility of world Jewry for the outbreak and widening of this war has been proven so clearly that it does not need to be talked about any further. The Jews wanted war, and now they have it. But the Führer’s prophecy of 30 January 1939 to the German Reichstag is also being fulfilled: If international finance Jewry should succeed in plunging the world into war once again, the result will be not the Bolshevization of the world and thereby the victory of the Jews, but rather the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe. We are seeing the fulfillment of the prophecy. The Jews are receiving a penalty that is certainly hard, but more than deserved. World Jewry erred in adding up the forces available to it for this war, and now is gradually experiencing the destruction that it planned for us, and would have carried out without a second thought if it had possessed the ability. It is perishing according its own law: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.””

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · November 16, 1941 · Article

Lead article in Das Reich, written shortly after Jews in Germany were required to wear the yellow star. It was also read over the radio. It invokes Hitler's Reichstag speech of 30 January 1939.

"Die Juden sind schuld!" (The Jews Are Guilty!), Das Reich, 16 November 1941, reprinted in Das eherne Herz (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1943), pp. 85-91; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

Content note: Defends the compulsory yellow star in antisemitic terms. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“One of these measures is the institution of the yellow star that each Jew must wear. We wanted to make them visible as Jews, particularly if they made even the least attempt to harm the German community. It is a remarkably humane measure on our part, a hygienic and prophylactic measure to be sure that the Jew cannot infiltrate our ranks unseen to sow discord.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · November 16, 1941 · Article

From the same Das Reich article, on the requirement that Jews in Germany wear a yellow star.

"Die Juden sind schuld!" (The Jews Are Guilty!), Das Reich, 16 November 1941, reprinted in Das eherne Herz (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1943), pp. 85-91; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“It is extremely deplorable, however, that malicious propaganda should be let loose by some third powers representing Japan as harboring aggressive designs toward those regions. I have not the slightest doubt that the peoples of East Asia, understanding the real intentions of Japan, will cooperate with our country for the establishment of a new order in East Asia.”

English: English text as published in the New York Times, 18 November 1941, reproduced on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar). Original-language text not found.

Shigenori Togo · November 17, 1941 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet

First major foreign-policy address after Togo took office in the Tojo cabinet, delivered while the Japanese-American talks continued and three weeks before the attacks of 7-8 December 1941.

Address by Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo to the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 17 November 1941, New York Times, 18 November 1941, as reproduced on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

“Should an occasion arise such as might menace the very existence of the empire or compromise the prestige of Japan as a great power, it goes without saying that Japan must face it with a firm and resolute attitude. For my part, I am taking charge of negotiations with a firm resolve regarding this point.”

English: English text as published in the New York Times, 18 November 1941, reproduced on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar). Original-language text not found.

Shigenori Togo · November 17, 1941 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet

From the same address, in a passage on the state of the talks with the United States.

Address by Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo to the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 17 November 1941, New York Times, 18 November 1941, as reproduced on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

Content note: Military order for a surprise attack on a naval base. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The Task Force will move out from HITOKAPPU-WAN and proceed to the HAWAII area, maintaining the greatest secrecy as to its movements and a close watch against submarine or air attacks. At the opening of hostilities the Task Force will attack the main strength of the UNITED STATES Fleet in the HAWAII area and inflict crippling damage on it.”

English: Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific (1945), as printed in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13. Original-language text not found.

Isoroku Yamamoto · November 22, 1941 · Statement · Hiroshima Bay, flagship Nagato Verified (secondary source)

Order to the Pearl Harbor Task Force assembled in the Kurile Islands. A second paragraph ordered the Task Force to return to Japan at once if an agreement was reached in the negotiations with the United States.

Combined Fleet Ultrasecret Operation Order (essentials), 22 November 1941, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, CinC Combined Fleet; Reply to a Questionnaire Concerning the Pearl Harbor Attack, Doc. #1032 (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific, 17-20 October 1945), enclosed in GHQ SCAP letter AG 350.05 of 1 November 1945, Joint Committee Exhibit No. 8, in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13 (US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 418 Source

Content note: Warns of automatic action after a deadline. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It is awfully hard for us to consider changing the date we set in my #736. You should know this, however, I know you are working hard. Stick to our fixed policy and do your very best. Spare no efforts and try to bring about the solution we desire. There are reasons beyond your ability to guess why we wanted to settle Japanese-American relations by the 25th, but if within the next three or four days you can finish your conversations with the Americans; if the signing can be completed by the 29th, (let me write it out for you — twenty ninth); if the pertinent notes can be exchanged; if we can get an understanding with Great Britain and the Netherlands; and in short if everything can be finished, we have decided to wait until that date. This time we mean it, that the deadline absolutely cannot be changed. After that things are automatically going to happen. Please take this into your careful consideration and work harder than you ever have before.”

English: Translation by the US Army and Navy signal intelligence services (intercepted Purple/'Magic' message), printed as Joint Committee Exhibit No. 1 in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 12 (US Government Printing Office, 1946). Original-language text not found.

Shigenori Togo · November 22, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo to Washington (cable #812 to Ambassadors Nomura and Kurusu)

Cable to the two ambassadors in Washington moving the deadline for a Japanese-American agreement from 25 November to 29 November 1941. It was intercepted and read by US codebreakers.

Tokyo to Washington, 22 November 1941, #812, Purple, Army translation 25138, in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 12 (Joint Committee Exhibit No. 1), p. 165 Source

“There the President, instead of bringing up the Victory Parade, brought up entirely the relations with the Japanese. He brought up the event that we were likely to be attacked perhaps (as soon as) next Monday, for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning, and the question was what we should do. The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves. It was a difficult proposition.”

Henry L. Stimson · November 25, 1941 · Diary · Washington, White House meeting

Stimson's diary entry for a White House meeting of the President, Hull, Knox, Marshall, Stark and Stimson twelve days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Congressional investigators read the entry to witnesses in 1945-46 and asked what it meant.

Stimson diary, 25 November 1941, as read into the record in Pearl Harbor Attack: Hearings before the Joint Committee, 79th Cong., Part 11, p. 5226 (testimony of Admiral Stark; the same entry is read at p. 5188 in General Marshall's testimony) Source

“I have washed my hands of it and it is now in the hands of you and Knox — the Army and the Navy.”

Cordell Hull · November 27, 1941 · Private-remark

The day after the State Department delivered its reply to Japan's proposals, Stimson telephoned Hull to learn the outcome of the talks and recorded Hull's answer in his diary. The entry was read into the record of the 1945-46 Joint Congressional Committee on the Pearl Harbor attack.

Remark by telephone to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, 27 November 1941, as recorded in Stimson's diary (entry of Thursday, 27 November 1941), printed in Pearl Harbor Attack: Hearings before the Joint Committee, 79th Cong., Part 11, pp. 5434-5435 Source

Content note: Military order opening hostilities. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It has been decided that JAPAN will commence hostilities with the UNITED STATES, ENGLAND and the NETHERLANDS in the first part of December.”

English: Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific (1945), as printed in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13. Original-language text not found.

Osami Nagano · December 1, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial General Headquarters Verified (secondary source)

Order issued after the Imperial Conference of 1 December 1941 approved the decision for war. Paragraph A of the order; later paragraphs direct operations against enemy forces and bases.

Imperial Headquarters Navy Staff Section Order 9 (essentials), 1 December 1941, Chief of the Naval General Staff Nagano to CinC Combined Fleet Yamamoto; Reply to a Questionnaire Concerning the Pearl Harbor Attack, Doc. #1032 (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific, 17-20 October 1945), enclosed in GHQ SCAP letter AG 350.05 of 1 November 1945, Joint Committee Exhibit No. 8, in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13 (US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 416 Source

Content note: Confidential warning of imminent war. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Say to them that lately England and the United States have taken a provocative attitude, both of them. Say that they are planning to move military forces into various places in East Asia and that we will inevitably have to counter by also moving troops. Say very secretly to them that there is extreme danger that war may suddenly break out between the Anglo-Saxon nations and Japan through some clash of arms and add that the time of the breaking out of this war may come quicker than anyone dreams.”

English: Translation by the US Army and Navy signal intelligence services (intercepted Purple/'Magic' message), printed as Joint Committee Exhibit No. 1 in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 12 (US Government Printing Office, 1946). Original-language text not found.

Shigenori Togo · December 1, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo to Berlin (cable #985 to Ambassador Oshima)

Instruction to the Japanese ambassador in Berlin to inform Hitler and Ribbentrop in confidence that war with Britain and the United States might come very soon. Sent after the Imperial Conference of 1 December 1941 and read by US codebreakers.

Tokyo to Berlin, 1 December 1941, #985 (part 1 of 3), Purple, Army 25552, in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 12 (Joint Committee Exhibit No. 1), p. 204 Source

Content note: Describes misleading public statements before the attack. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The date set in my message #812 has come and gone, and the situation continues to be increasingly critical. However, to prevent the United States from becoming unduly suspicious we have been advising the press and others that though there are some wide differences between Japan and the United States, the negotiations are continuing.”

English: Translation by the US Army and Navy signal intelligence services (intercepted Purple/'Magic' message), printed as Joint Committee Exhibit No. 1 in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 12 (US Government Printing Office, 1946). Original-language text not found.

Shigenori Togo · December 1, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo to Washington (cable #865 to the embassy)

Internal cable to the embassy, six days before the attack, describing what the Foreign Ministry was telling the press about the talks. Read by US codebreakers.

Tokyo to Washington, 1 December 1941, #865, Purple, in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 12 (Joint Committee Exhibit No. 1), p. 208 Source

Content note: Military order setting the date for attack. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“X-Day will be 8 December.”

English: Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific (1945), as printed in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13. Original-language text not found.

Isoroku Yamamoto · December 2, 1941 · Statement · Combined Fleet dispatch (at sea and in Japan) Verified (secondary source)

Dispatch fixing the date of the attack on the American fleet in Hawaii and the opening of other operations.

Combined Fleet Dispatch Operation Order (essentials), time of origin about 1730 hours, 2 December 1941; Reply to a Questionnaire Concerning the Pearl Harbor Attack, Doc. #1032 (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific, 17-20 October 1945), enclosed in GHQ SCAP letter AG 350.05 of 1 November 1945, Joint Committee Exhibit No. 8, in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13 (US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 418 Source

Content note: Military order setting the date for attack. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Beginning 8 December, the Commander in Chief Combined Fleet will start using military power in accordance with Imperial Headquarters Navy Staff Section Order 9.”

English: Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific (1945), as printed in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13. Original-language text not found.

Osami Nagano · December 2, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo, Imperial General Headquarters Verified (secondary source)

Order fixing 8 December 1941 (Tokyo time) as the day the Combined Fleet would begin using military force. The same day a verbal directive allowed for recall of the fleet if a Japanese-American agreement was reached before hostilities began.

Imperial Headquarters Navy Staff Section Directive 12 (essentials), 2 December 1941, Chief of the Naval General Staff Nagano to CinC Combined Fleet Yamamoto; Reply to a Questionnaire Concerning the Pearl Harbor Attack, Doc. #1032 (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, US Army Forces Pacific, 17-20 October 1945), enclosed in GHQ SCAP letter AG 350.05 of 1 November 1945, Joint Committee Exhibit No. 8, in Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings, Part 13 (US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 417 Source

“The Ministry of Information has no power to stop films except on grounds of military security. If, however, the hon. Member will give me a list of the films he has in mind, I will have inquiries made about them.”

Brendan Bracken · December 3, 1941 · Speech · London, House of Commons

A Member asked the Minister of Information to stop the exhibition of films he described as slanderous to the Soviet Union, which had been Britain's ally since June 1941.

Oral answer on anti-Soviet films, House of Commons, 3 December 1941 (HC Deb vol. 376, c. 1115) Source

“I must say that in all my conversations with you (the Japanese Ambassador) during the last nine months I have never uttered one word of untruth. This is borne out absolutely by the record. In all my fifty years of public service I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions—infamous falsehoods and distortions on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any Government on this planet was capable of uttering them.”

Cordell Hull · December 7, 1941 · Statement · Washington, State Department, to Ambassador Nomura and Special Envoy Kurusu

Hull received the Japanese ambassadors in the afternoon of 7 December 1941 and read the Japanese government's reply document, which they handed him. He spoke these words to them when he had finished reading it.

Memorandum of conversation by Joseph W. Ballantine, 7 December 1941, Foreign Relations of the United States: Japan, 1931-1941, vol. II, doc. 419, p. 787 Source

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 8, 1941 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

Delivered to a joint session the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor; Congress declared war on Japan the same day.

Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War with Japan, 8 December 1941, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 8, 1941 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

The operative request that closes the 8 December 1941 address, delivered the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Congress declared war on Japan the same day.

Address to a joint session of Congress, 8 December 1941, transcript of the reading copy (SEN 77A-H1, Records of the United States Senate, RG 46), National Archives milestone document Source

“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 8, 1941 · Speech · Washington, D.C., joint session of Congress

Said in the 8 December 1941 address to Congress, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor and before the declaration of war.

Address to a joint session of Congress, 8 December 1941, transcript of the reading copy (SEN 77A-H1, Records of the United States Senate, RG 46), National Archives milestone document Source

“We hereby declare war on the United States of America and the British Empire. The men and officers of Our army and navy shall do their utmost in prosecuting the war, Our public servants of various departments shall perform faithfully and diligently their appointed tasks, and all other subjects of Ours shall pursue their respective duties; the entire nation with a united will shall mobilize their total strength so that nothing will miscarry in the attainment of our war aims.”

Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) · December 8, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo

Rescript dated 8 December 1941 (Tokyo time), the day of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Malaya, countersigned by Prime Minister Tojo and ministers. This is the operative declaration; the rescript then gives the government's reasons.

Imperial Rescript declaring war on the United States and the British Empire, 8 December 1941; English text in Japan Times & Advertiser, 8 December 1941, p. 1, as reproduced in "The World and Japan" Database (GRIPS / University of Tokyo) Source

“This trend of affairs would, if left unchecked, not only nullify Our Empire's efforts of many years for the sake of the stabilization of East Asia, but also endanger the very existence of Our nation. The situation being such as it is, Our Empire for its existence and self-defense has no other recourse but to appeal to arms and to crush every obstacle in its path.”

Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) · December 8, 1941 · Statement · Tokyo

Closing passage of the reasons given in the declaration of war, which cites the economic measures taken against Japan and the unresolved war in China.

Imperial Rescript declaring war on the United States and the British Empire, 8 December 1941; English text in Japan Times & Advertiser, 8 December 1941, p. 1, as reproduced in "The World and Japan" Database (GRIPS / University of Tokyo) Source

“I would like to say that, after all, I regard a married woman as playing just as great a part as a citizen as if she were in any other avocation. We have had a system which has never paid her for her services, I admit, but, on the other hand, as a trade union official, I argued for years when I had to calculate wages and payments in industry that industry has had the services not only of men but of women, who kept the men fit to work, a service for which they had never been paid in the whole of their lives. I say that quite advisedly, but it does not mean that the State must not recognise the important work as a citizen that the wife is doing. I cannot, however, deal with that in this Bill. I yield to none, not even the most extreme feminists, with regard to the work I have done for women in this country through the trade union effort, in lifting them out of the sordid sweated industries on to a better basis; it is work on which I look back with pride. That was at a time when we did not get very much assistance. Therefore, I am sure there will be no dispute about the fact that we do not propose to enrol married women or women with children of their own.”

Ernest Bevin · December 9, 1941 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Speaking on the second reading of the National Service Bill, which provided for the call-up of women. Bevin was Minister of Labour and National Service.

House of Commons, 9 December 1941, HC Deb vol. 376, c1419 Source

“If you feel that your Government is not disclosing enough of the truth, you have every right to say so. But—in the absence of all the facts, as revealed by official sources—you have no right in the ethics of patriotism to deal out unconfirmed reports in such a way as to make people believe that they are gospel truth.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 9, 1941 · Broadcast · Washington, D.C., fireside chat

Radio address the day after the declaration of war on Japan, in which he asked press and radio to report only confirmed information from official sources.

Fireside Chat on the war with Japan, 9 December 1941 (passage addressed to newspapers and radio stations), text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“I do not think that it is in the public interest to discuss reasons for action taken by the Political Warfare Executive.”

Brendan Bracken · December 10, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons (written answer)

A Member asked why free Italian, German, Danish, Austrian and Spanish movements were being discouraged by the Department of Political Warfare, and whether British policy matched Russian policy.

Written answer on the Political Warfare Executive, House of Commons, 10 December 1941 (HC Deb vol. 376, c. 1541W) Source

Content note: Order to make civilians disappear in order to intimidate populations. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It is the carefully considered will of the Fuehrer that now measures should be conceived in order to counteract attacks against the German State or the occupying power in the occupied territories. The Fuehrer is of the following opinion. If these offences are punished with imprisonment, even with hard labor for life, this will be looked upon as a sign of weakness. Efficient and enduring intimidation can only be achieved either by capital punishment or by measures by which the relatives of the criminal and the population do not know the fate of the criminal. This aim is achieved when the criminal is transferred to Germany.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document L-90. Original-language text not found.

Wilhelm Keitel · December 12, 1941 · Statement

Covering letter to the Night and Fog directives, under which civilians suspected of offences against the occupation in the western occupied territories were to be taken to Germany without any information given on their fate.

Communication of the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (signed Keitel), 12 December 1941, covering the directives of 7 December 1941 ("Night and Fog" decree), document L-90, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 7 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 872 Source

“All Americans abhor censorship, just as they abhor war. But the experience of this and of all other Nations has demonstrated that some degree of censorship is essential in wartime, and we are at war.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 19, 1941 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Issued when he created the Office of Censorship under Byron Price, twelve days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the war.

Statement on the Executive Order Establishing the Office of Censorship, 19 December 1941, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“This is a people’s war, and to win it the people should know as much about it as they can. This office will do its best to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, both at home and abroad. Military information that would aid the enemy must be withheld; but within that limitation we shall try to give the people a clear, complete, and accurate picture.”

Elmer Davis · 1942 · Statement · Washington, press conference Verified (secondary source)

Davis had been named head of the new Office of War Information in June 1942, which combined several information agencies. He described his aims to reporters soon after taking up the post.

Elmer Davis, remarks at a press conference as Director of the Office of War Information, quoted in The American Observer, vol. 11, no. 44, 20 July 1942 Source

“(2) The purpose of the Japanese expedition is nothing but emancipating you from the oppressive domination of the U. S. A., letting you to establish "the Philippines for the Filipinos" as a member of the Co-Prosperity Sphere in the Greater East Asia and making you enjoy your own prosperity and culture.”

Masaharu Homma · January 3, 1942 · Statement · Manila Verified (secondary source)

Paragraph 2 of the proclamation placing Japanese-occupied districts of the Philippines under military administration, issued the day after the Japanese entered Manila.

Proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Forces in the Philippines, 'Military Administration Over Occupied Districts', Manila, 3 January 1942, Official Gazette (Manila, Bureau of Printing), vol. 1, 1942, p. 8, as transcribed on Wikisource Source

Content note: Threatens death under martial law. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“(5) The Army recognizes the freedom of your religion and residence and has a regard for your usual customs, so far as the Military Administration permits. Accordingly, all the people in the Commonwealth are requested to comprehend the real intentions of the Army and never be deceived by propagandas of the U. S. A. and Great Britain, and you should never disturb public peace in any way, warning yourselves against rushness and refraining from spreading fabulous, wild rumors. Their actions shall be regarded as hostile operations and offenders shall be severely punished, the gravest among them shall be put to death, according to martial law.”

Masaharu Homma · January 3, 1942 · Statement · Manila Verified (secondary source)

Paragraph 5 of the same proclamation, on religion, customs, propaganda and rumours.

Proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Forces in the Philippines, 'Military Administration Over Occupied Districts', Manila, 3 January 1942, Official Gazette (Manila, Bureau of Printing), vol. 1, 1942, p. 8, as transcribed on Wikisource Source

Content note: Call to exterminate a population (Vidussoni, quoted by Ciano); period racial term in the editor's gloss. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Vidussoni comes to see me. After having spoken about a few casual things, he makes some political allusions and announces savage plans against the Slovenes. He wants to kill them all. I take the liberty of observing that there are a million of them. “That does not matter,” he answers firmly; “we must imitate the Ascari [Negro soldiers from Italian colonies] and exterminate them!””

Galeazzo Ciano · January 5, 1942 · Diary · Rome

Ciano records a visit from Aldo Vidussoni, then secretary of the National Fascist Party, concerning policy towards the Slovenes in Italian-annexed territory. The speaker quoted is Vidussoni; the bracketed gloss is the edition's.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 5 January 1942, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

Content note: Minutes of a meeting planning the deportation and killing of European Jews. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes. The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as a the seed of a new Jewish revival (see the experience of history.)”

English: English translation as published by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named on the page). Original-language text not found.

Reinhard Heydrich · January 20, 1942 · Private-remark · Berlin-Wannsee

Heydrich chaired a meeting of state secretaries and SS officials at which he reported that the Reich Marshal had appointed him to prepare the 'final solution of the Jewish question in Europe'. The minutes were drawn up by Adolf Eichmann and record about 11 million Jews as the target population.

Minutes of the meeting on the 'final solution of the Jewish question', Berlin-Wannsee, 20 January 1942 (the Wannsee Protocol, 16th of 30 copies), Avalon Project text Source

““I don’t know how I was able to disguise myself as a Fascist for twenty years.””

Dino Grandi · January 22, 1942 · Private-remark · Rome

Ciano records Grandi, then president of the Chamber of Fasci and Corporations, speaking freely about his position. Ciano adds that Arpinati told him Grandi presented himself in Bologna as a liberal and royalist critic.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 22 January 1942, recording the words of Dino Grandi, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

Content note: Public statement announcing the annihilation of the Jews. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We are fully aware that this war can end either in the extermination of the Aryan people or in the disappearance of Jewry from Europe. I said as much before the German Reichstag on September 1, 1939. I wish to avoid making hasty prophesies, but this war will not end as the Jews imagine, namely, in the extermination of the European-Aryan people; instead, the result of this war will be the annihilation of Jewry. For the first time, the old, truly Jewish rule of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” will obtain.”

English: Mary Fran Gilbert, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations (Bolchazy-Carducci). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · January 30, 1942 · Speech · Berlin, Sportpalast

Delivered ten days after the Wannsee Conference and seven weeks after the German declaration of war on the United States, at a time when mass killings of Jews were under way in occupied Soviet territory and at Chelmno.

Speech in the Sportpalast on the ninth anniversary of the seizure of power, 30 January 1942, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945, vol. 4 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004), p. 2574

Content note: Racial generalisation about US citizens The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The view that second generation Japanese [Nisei] can only be evacuated either as part of a total evacuation, giving access to the areas only by permits, or by frankly trying to put them out on the ground that their racial characteristics are such that we cannot understand or trust even the citizen Japanese. This latter is the fact but I am afraid it will make a tremendous hole in our constitutional system to apply it.”

Henry L. Stimson · February 10, 1942 · Diary Verified (secondary source)

Written nine days before Executive Order 9066, while the War and Justice Departments were arguing over whether American-born people of Japanese descent could be excluded from the West Coast. Stimson was the cabinet officer to whom the Order gave authority.

Stimson diary, 10 February 1942, as quoted in Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Personal Justice Denied (Washington, 1982), ch. 2, "Executive Order 9066" (fn. 166) Source

“As regards the third part of the Question, the general aim of German policy in occupied Europe has been to reduce the population to a bare subsistence ration, substantially less than that available for the German people themselves. Exportable surpluses are removed to Germany, though in certain industrial areas which are naturally deficient in food production and contain factories which are harnessed to the German war machine, some foodstuffs have been imported. It is therefore broadly true to say that the urban population throughout the occupied territorities are living at a level which is below, and in some areas substantially below, peace-time standards. But much worse conditions prevail in Greece, in some parts of Poland, and in German-occupied Russia, where it becomes clearer every day that famine is an instrument of German policy.”

Hugh Dalton · February 10, 1942 · Speech · London, House of Commons

A Member asked about the food situation in German-occupied areas. Dalton was Minister of Economic Warfare until 22 February 1942, when he became President of the Board of Trade.

Oral answer on food in German-occupied Europe, House of Commons, 10 February 1942 (HC Deb vol. 377, cc. 1366-7) Source

Content note: Order that built-up areas be the aiming points. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Ref the new bombing directive: I suppose it is clear that the aiming points are to be the built-up areas, not, for instance, the dockyards or aircraft factories where these are mentioned in Appendix A.

This must be made quite clear if it is not already understood.”

Charles Portal · February 15, 1942 · Private-remark · London, Air Ministry

The day after the Air Ministry's directive of 14 February 1942 (signed by Bottomley, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff) told Bomber Command to focus on the morale of enemy civilians, especially industrial workers, Portal sent this minute. Bomber Command recorded the point so that Arthur Harris would have it when he took over on 22 February.

Minute from Sir Charles Portal to Air Vice-Marshal N. H. Bottomley, 15 February 1942, quoted in Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany 1939-1945, vol. 1, Preparation (HMSO, 1961), p. 324 Source

“It is extremely dangerous for the columnists, acting as "Armchair Strategists and Junior G-Men," to suggest that an attack on the West Coast and planned sabotage is imminent when the military authorities and the F.B.I. have indicated that this is not the fact. It comes close to shouting FIRE! in the theater; and if race riots occur, these writers will bear a heavy responsibility.”

Francis Biddle · February 17, 1942 · Statement Verified (secondary source)

Two days before Executive Order 9066, Biddle sent the President a note arguing that the Justice Department saw no evidence of imminent attack or planned sabotage on the West Coast and criticising newspaper columnists who called for mass evacuation. The same memorandum said the Constitution made about 60,000 of the 93,000 Japanese in California American citizens.

Attorney General Biddle, memorandum to President Roosevelt (briefing paper for a press conference), 17 February 1942, as printed in Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Personal Justice Denied (Washington, 1982), ch. 2, "Executive Order 9066", pp. 83-84 (fn. 165) Source

“As I stated last week, the worst conditions in German-controlled Europe prevail in Greece, in some parts of Poland, and in occupied Russia. While I should not be prepared to say what proportion of the death rate is due to lack of food, there can be no doubt that deaths from starvation are occurring in these territories. In other occupied countries, reports do not indicate any deaths directly attributable to food shortage, though in Belgium and Occupied France, some part of the increase in the mortality of certain diseases, notably pneumonia, is probably due to insufficient nutrition. In Norway, the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia the diet, though well below pre-war standards, has not been so inadequate as to cause any marked increase in the death-rate.”

Hugh Dalton · February 17, 1942 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Dalton gave the Commons the Ministry of Economic Warfare's assessment of conditions in occupied territories five days before he left the Ministry.

Oral answer on deaths from starvation in German-controlled Europe, House of Commons, 17 February 1942 (HC Deb vol. 377, c. 1626) Source

“Biddle, McCloy and Gullion had done a good piece of work in breaking down the issues between the Departments the night before, and a draft of a presidential executive order had been drawn by Biddle based upon that conference and the preceding conference I had had yesterday. We went over them. I made a few suggestions and then approved it. This marks a long step forward towards a solution of a very dangerous and vexing problem. But I have no illusions as to the magnitude of the task that lies before us and the wails which will go up in relation to some of the actions which will be taken under it.”

Henry L. Stimson · February 18, 1942 · Diary Verified (secondary source)

Stimson recorded a meeting of War and Justice Department officials to settle the text of the presidential order that became Executive Order 9066. President Roosevelt signed it the following day.

Stimson diary, 18 February 1942, as quoted in Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Personal Justice Denied (Washington, 1982), ch. 2, "Executive Order 9066" (fn. 168) Source

Content note: Order authorising mass exclusion and, in practice, incarceration of Japanese Americans. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such actions necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commanders may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with such respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · February 19, 1942 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Signed about ten weeks after Pearl Harbor. The order does not name any group of people; it was carried out through military exclusion orders on the West Coast under which about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of them United States citizens, were removed and held in camps.

Executive Order 9066, 19 February 1942 (7 Fed. Reg. 1407), operative paragraph, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“The Red Army has not and cannot have such idiotic aims. The Red Army’s aim is to drive the German occupants from our country and liberate Soviet soil from the German-fascist invaders. It is very likely that the war for the liberation of Soviet soil will lead to the exile or destruction of Hitler’s clique. We would welcome such an outcome. But it would be ludicrous to identify Hitler’s clique with the German people, with the German state. The experience of history indicates that Hitlers come and go, but the German people and the German state remain.”

Joseph Stalin · February 23, 1942 · Statement · Moscow, Order of the Day No. 55

Order marking the 24th anniversary of the Red Army. It answered foreign press reports that the Red Army aimed to destroy the German people and state.

Order of the Day No. 55, People's Commissar for Defence of the U.S.S.R., 23 February 1942; Russian: Sochineniya, vol. 15 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 93-98 Source

Content note: Order creating the agency that ran the Japanese American incarceration camps. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“2. The Director of the War Relocation Authority is authorized and directed to formulate and effectuate a program for the removal, from the areas designated from time to time by the Secretary of War or appropriate military commander under the authority of Executive Order No. 9066 of February 19, 1942, of the persons or classes of persons designated under such Executive Order, and for their relocation, maintenance, and supervision.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · March 18, 1942 · Statement · Washington, D.C.

Signed a month after Executive Order 9066, creating the War Relocation Authority to carry out removal and relocation of the people designated under that order. The Authority ran the ten camps in which Japanese Americans were held.

Executive Order 9102, 18 March 1942, section 2, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“The cartoon in question is only one example, but a particularly evil example, of the policy and methods of a newspaper which, intent on exploiting an appetite for sensation and with a reckless indifference to the national interest and to the prejudicial effect on the war effort, has repeatedly published scurrilous misrepresentations, distorted and exaggerated statements and irresponsible generalisations.”

Herbert Morrison · March 19, 1942 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Reply to a Private Notice question from Sir Edward Spens MP about a Daily Mirror cartoon, in which Morrison announced that the Government had warned the paper under Defence Regulation 2D.

House of Commons, statement by Private Notice question, 19 March 1942, HC Deb vol. 378, c1665 Source

“So I begin this discussion, as we must begin any discussion of censorship, with a recognition of certain basic truths. The first of these is that you will never like censorship. Everything the censor does, from opening private letters to keeping Page One stories out of print, is contrary to all we have been taught to regard as right and proper. Because you are Americans you resent this sort of interference.”

Byron Price · April 16, 1942 · Speech · Address prepared for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Blue Network

Price, appointed Director of Censorship in December 1941, addressed newspaper editors four months after the United States entered the war about the voluntary Code of Wartime Practices issued in January 1942.

Byron Price, "Censorship and the Press," address prepared 16 April 1942 for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and for broadcast over the Blue Network, printed in Wartime Censorship of Press and Radio, ed. Robert E. Summers (The Reference Shelf, vol. 16, no. 1; New York: H. W. Wilson, 1943), p. 29 Source

“The Code of Wartime Practices for the American Press was a pioneering venture. It was far from perfect, and even now is undergoing a revision in the light of experience. But it had this underlying quality which I believe deserves to endure: It put newspapers and other publications on their honor. It enlisted every writer and every editor in the army of the republic.”

Byron Price · April 16, 1942 · Speech · Address prepared for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Blue Network

Price describes the voluntary press code and its purpose to the editors who were asked to apply it themselves, under a code that was voluntary.

Byron Price, "Censorship and the Press," address prepared 16 April 1942 for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and for broadcast over the Blue Network, printed in Wartime Censorship of Press and Radio, ed. Robert E. Summers (The Reference Shelf, vol. 16, no. 1; New York: H. W. Wilson, 1943), p. 30 Source

“You are all aware that we are in the midst of psychological as well as physical warfare. Rumor and misinformation march to battle under the same command with tanks and planes. [...] Irresponsible journalism is reprehensible anytime, anywhere; in wartime it may easily become a crime against national security.”

Byron Price · April 16, 1942 · Speech · Address prepared for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Blue Network

Price presses editors on accuracy and responsibility, saying that some editors were forgetting that the country was at war. The press code had no legal force; editors were asked to comply.

Byron Price, "Censorship and the Press," address prepared 16 April 1942 for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and for broadcast over the Blue Network, printed in Wartime Censorship of Press and Radio, ed. Robert E. Summers (The Reference Shelf, vol. 16, no. 1; New York: H. W. Wilson, 1943), p. 32 Source

“The purpose of our meeting today is precisely to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component part, that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy, and that they help the people fight the enemy with one heart and one mind.”

Mao Zedong · May 2, 1942 · Speech · Yenan

Opening remarks at a forum of writers and artists in the Communist base area at Yenan, held during the Rectification Movement. The talks became the Party's basic statement on the function of literature and art.

Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art, introduction of 2 May 1942, in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. 3 (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965) Source

“Some have spoken of the "American Century." I say that the century on which we are entering—the century which will come out of this war—can be and must be the century of the common man.”

Henry A. Wallace · May 8, 1942 · Speech · New York City, Hotel Commodore, dinner of the Free World Association

Broadcast by CBS five months after the United States entered the war. It answered the publisher Henry Luce's 1941 call for an "American Century" and set out a postwar aim of raising living standards worldwide.

"The Price of Free World Victory" (the "Century of the Common Man" speech), address of 8 May 1942, Vital Speeches of the Day, vol. 7, pp. 482-485 Source

“America and Britain are undergoing a continuous change due to defeats suffered in this war and are carrying out vicious propaganda by constantly accusing our country of brutal acts.”

English: Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission (US monitoring-service translation of the Tokyo broadcast). Original-language text not found.

Hideki Tōjō · May 27, 1942 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet

Address by the Prime Minister to the Diet two weeks after the Battle of the Coral Sea, referring to Allied accounts of Japanese conduct in the occupied territories.

Address at the opening of the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 27 May 1942, English translation by the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission, as published on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

“Australia has become the orphan of the Pacific Ocean. Especially only recently in the Coral Sea battle carried out on the northern tip of Australia the American and British sea power has been crushed, and now there is no one before us to defend Australia.”

English: Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission (US monitoring-service translation of the Tokyo broadcast). Original-language text not found.

Hideki Tōjō · May 27, 1942 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet

From the same address, in a section on the southwestern Pacific that goes on to refer to a statement to Australia's leaders made at an earlier Diet session.

Address at the opening of the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 27 May 1942, English translation by the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission, as published on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

Content note: States that Indian civilians would be exposed to military destruction. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“As long as there remains British and American military facilities in India, Japan is strongly determined to completely destroy them. As a result, it is truly unavoidable that the people of India are exposed to such a misfortune. At this time the people should be inspired with courage and destroy, wipe out the British and American forces.”

English: Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission (US monitoring-service translation of the Tokyo broadcast). Original-language text not found.

Hideki Tōjō · May 27, 1942 · Speech · Tokyo, Imperial Diet

From the Prime Minister's remarks on India after the failure of the Cripps mission, as Japanese forces were in Burma.

Address at the opening of the Imperial Diet, Tokyo, 27 May 1942, English translation by the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission, as published on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

Content note: Reprisal bombing of villages discussed. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“There would not be enough German villages to go round. My hon. and gallant Friend may rest assured that our bombing effort against Germany will be directed at the most effective points.”

Clement Attlee · June 18, 1942 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Answering a question from Sir Thomas Moore MP, who proposed warning the German Government that a German village would be destroyed for every innocent person murdered in occupied countries. The question followed the reprisals after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. Attlee was then Deputy Prime Minister.

House of Commons, oral answers, 18 June 1942, HC Deb vol. 380, c1673 Source

Content note: Reprisal bombing of villages discussed. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We are not talking about an eye for an eye but a village for a village, which involves the question of the most effective use of the Royal Air Force.”

Clement Attlee · June 18, 1942 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Attlee's reply to a follow-up from Sir Thomas Moore MP, who had asked for an "eye for an eye" response to Nazi killings of civilians in occupied countries.

House of Commons, oral answers, 18 June 1942, HC Deb vol. 380, c1673 Source

“Security reasons prevent me from saying very much about the policy of the Political Warfare Executive, but in general its main tasks are to try to break down the morale of the enemy and to sustain the morale and resistance of our Allies in enemy-occupied countries.”

Brendan Bracken · July 7, 1942 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Bracken, Minister of Information since July 1941, replied to a Commons debate on propaganda to enemy and occupied countries. The Political Warfare Executive, formed in August 1941, set the policy for foreign-language broadcasts and leaflets.

Speech on the Ministry of Information and Political Warfare Executive estimates, House of Commons, 7 July 1942 (HC Deb vol. 381, c. 734) Source

“In view of the many demands for a policy of steady veracity in all our propaganda, I wish to assure the Committee that the Political Warfare Executive attach the greatest importance to giving facts whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. Obviously it is impossible to build up and hold a listener audience abroad without first establishing a reputation for honesty.”

Brendan Bracken · July 7, 1942 · Speech · London, House of Commons

In the same speech Bracken answered Members who had called for propaganda to the enemy to be truthful and for its leaflets and scripts to be made public.

Speech on the Ministry of Information and Political Warfare Executive estimates, House of Commons, 7 July 1942 (HC Deb vol. 381, c. 734) Source

“However, in order to establish a structure of a united people literally, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association was formed and was followed by the organization of the Imperial Rule Assistance Political Society.”

English: Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission (US monitoring-service translation of the Tokyo broadcast). Original-language text not found.

Hideki Tōjō · July 27, 1942 · Broadcast · Osaka

Radio address on organising the population for the war effort, describing the creation of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (1940) and the Imperial Rule Assistance Political Society (1942).

Broadcast on the consolidation of the nation's total effort in the prosecution of the Greater East Asia War, Osaka, 27 July 1942, English translation by the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission, as published on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

“The primary requisite of public service behind the home front is truly the support given by the people to the men and officers of the Imperial army, and the spirit of the people behind the home front must be equivalent to the spirit of the armed forces carrying out military operations and overwhelming the enemy.”

English: Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission (US monitoring-service translation of the Tokyo broadcast). Original-language text not found.

Hideki Tōjō · July 27, 1942 · Broadcast · Osaka

From the same broadcast, on what the government expected of the civilian population.

Broadcast on the consolidation of the nation's total effort in the prosecution of the Greater East Asia War, Osaka, 27 July 1942, English translation by the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission, as published on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

“In order to destroy and eradicate American and British power of domination from the face of the earth, military strength must be increased without mention but we must utilize every material available to crush the remaining power of British and American and must consolidate the entire strength of the nation concentrated on the ultimate objective of the war.”

English: Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission (US monitoring-service translation of the Tokyo broadcast). Original-language text not found.

Hideki Tōjō · July 27, 1942 · Broadcast · Osaka

From the same broadcast, in the passage preceding the Prime Minister's list of what the government expected of the people.

Broadcast on the consolidation of the nation's total effort in the prosecution of the Greater East Asia War, Osaka, 27 July 1942, English translation by the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, Federal Communications Commission, as published on ibiblio.org (Hyperwar) Source

Content note: Order to kill soldiers who panic or retreat. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The panic-mongers and cowards should be exterminated in place.”

Joseph Stalin · July 28, 1942 · Statement · Moscow, Order No. 227

The order, issued as German forces advanced towards Stalingrad and the Caucasus, is known by its slogan 'Not one step back'.

Order of the People's Commissar of Defence of the U.S.S.R. No. 227, 28 July 1942; Russian: J. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 15 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 110-114 Source

Content note: Order to shoot soldiers on the spot. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“b) Form within the limits of each army 3 to 5 well-armed defensive squads (up to 200 persons in each), and put them directly behind unstable divisions and require them in case of panic and scattered withdrawals of elements of the divisions to shoot in place panic-mongers and cowards and thus help the honest soldiers of the division execute their duty to the Motherland;”

Joseph Stalin · July 28, 1942 · Statement · Moscow, Order No. 227

Paragraph (b) of the operative section of Order No. 227, addressed to army commanders and military councils.

Order of the People's Commissar of Defence of the U.S.S.R. No. 227, 28 July 1942; Russian: J. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 15 (Moscow: Pisatel', 1997), pp. 110-114 Source

Content note: States intent to plunder occupied territories. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“It seemed to me to be a relatively simple matter in former days. It used to be called plundering. It was up to the party in question to carry off what had been conquered. But today things have become more humane. In spite of that, I intend to plunder and to do it thoroughly.”

English: Translation of document USSR-170 as read into the IMT record. Original-language text not found.

Hermann Göring · August 6, 1942 · Speech · Berlin

Göring addressed a conference of Reich Commissioners for the occupied territories and military commanders on food deliveries from occupied areas. Read to him in cross-examination by Soviet prosecutor Rudenko; Göring answered that "that was exactly what I said at that conference."

Cross-examination of Göring by General Rudenko, reading document USSR-170, in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 9, p. 632 (session of 21 March 1946) Source

Content note: Threat against a named official. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

““That rascal,” he said, “is preparing himself to become the Italian Petain and would like to kill us all. But we shall bump him off first.””

Dino Grandi · August 10, 1942 · Private-remark · Rome

Ciano records Grandi on General Ugo Cavallero, Chief of the Supreme General Staff, whom Grandi detested. Grandi had told Ciano that for the first time in twenty years he had asked for carabinieri protection at his villa.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 10 August 1942, recording the words of Dino Grandi, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

“As always, victory finds a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”

Galeazzo Ciano · September 9, 1942 · Diary · Rome

Ciano notes Mussolini's anger at Rommel and the quarrelling over responsibility in Libya, after the failure of the Axis offensive at Alam Halfa.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 9 September 1942, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; Rizzoli edition text as reproduced in the 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

Content note: Hostile remark about Indians and their religion, as reported by a colleague. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.”

Winston Churchill · September 9, 1942 · Private-remark · London Verified (secondary source)

Recorded by Amery, Churchill's Secretary of State for India, during wartime discussions about Indian self-government and the Congress party. The words are Amery's note of what Churchill said, not a text signed by Churchill.

Remark by Churchill recorded in the diary of Leo Amery, Secretary of State for India, 9 September 1942, in The Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries 1929-1945, ed. John Barnes and David Nicholson (London: Hutchinson, 1988), as quoted by the Hillsdale College Churchill Project Source

Content note: Order not to rescue survivors of sunk ships. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“1. No attempt of any kind must be made at rescuing members of ships sunk and this includes picking up persons in the water and putting them in lifeboats, righting capsized lifeboats and handing over food and water. Rescue runs counter to the rudimentary demands of warfare for the destruction of enemy ships and crews. 2. Orders for bringing in Captains and Chief Engineers still apply. 3. Rescue shipwrecked only if their statements will be of importance for your boat. 4. Be harsh, having in mind that the enemy takes no regard of women and children in his bombing attacks on German cities.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document D-630. Original-language text not found.

Karl Dönitz · September 17, 1942 · Statement

Signal sent by Dönitz, as Commander of Submarines, five days after the sinking of the liner Laconia, which carried Italian prisoners of war, and while rescue efforts for its survivors were under way. It was read into the record during Dönitz's examination on 9 May 1946 and was the subject of the charge of ordering the killing of shipwrecked crews.

Radio signal "Triton Null" to all U-boat commanding officers, 17 September 1942, from the war diary of the Commander of Submarines (B.d.U.), document D-630, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 7 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 99 Source

Content note: Public statement threatening and predicting the destruction of Jews. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“At the Reichstag session of September 1, 1939, I said two things: First, since this war was forced on us, neither the power of arms nor time will defeat us. Second, should Jewry instigate an international world war in order to exterminate the Aryan people of Europe, then not the Aryan people will be exterminated, but the Jews.” The wire-pullers of this insane man in the White House have managed to pull one nation after another into this war. Correspondingly, however, a wave of anti-Semitism swept over one nation after another. And it will continue to do so, taking hold of one state after another. Every state that enters this war will one day emerge from it as an anti-Semitic state. The Jews once laughed about my prophecies in Germany. I do not know whether they are still laughing today or whether they no longer feel like laughing. Today, too, I can assure you of one thing: they will soon not feel like laughing anymore anywhere. My prophecies will prove correct here, too.”

English: Mary Fran Gilbert, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations (Bolchazy-Carducci). Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · September 30, 1942 · Speech · Berlin, Sportpalast

Public speech opening the Winter Relief campaign, delivered during the German offensive towards Stalingrad and the Caucasus, while deportations of Jews to extermination camps were under way. Hitler here refers back to his earlier public statements about Jews.

Speech in the Sportpalast opening the Winter Relief Campaign, 30 September 1942, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945, vol. 4 (Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004), pp. 2678-2680

Content note: Refusal to disclose where a detained leader is held. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I have received no such representations. Mr. Nehru is permitted to correspond with his family on family matters. I am not prepared to disclose his present whereabouts.”

Leo Amery · October 1, 1942 · Speech · London, House of Commons

After the Indian National Congress passed the Quit India resolution on 8 August 1942, the Government of India arrested its leaders. A Member asked about communication with the prisoners and where Jawaharlal Nehru was held.

Oral answer on Congress prisoners, House of Commons, 1 October 1942 (HC Deb vol. 383, c. 906) Source

Content note: Official statement on machine-gunning of crowds from the air. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Mobs were machine-gunned from the air on 15th, 16th, 21st and 22nd August and 6th September. Information regarding casualties is not available, but they are believed to be slight and on two out of the five occasions were probably nil. One Blenheim aircraft crashed in Bihar on 18th August. One member of the crew was killed in the crash; the remaining two were murdered. A second Blenheim with a crew of three on reconnaissance duty over Bihar on 30th August failed to return and so far there has been no trace of the aircraft or crew. Reports so far available show that the total number of persons killed during the disturbances was 846 and the number wounded 2,024. Of these 60 were Government servants (including military and police) killed and 648 wounded. So far as is known no European British subject (apart from the small number of military and Air Force casualties) was killed in the disturbances, though a considerable number mostly officials, received injuries. In Madras one domiciled European, an Assistant Salt Inspector, was murdered.”

Leo Amery · October 8, 1942 · Speech · London, House of Commons

A Member asked on which dates Indian crowds were machine-gunned from the air and how many were killed, after the disturbances that followed the arrest of Congress leaders in August 1942.

Oral answer on disturbances in India, House of Commons, 8 October 1942 (HC Deb vol. 383, c. 1342) Source

Content note: Defence of machine-gunning crowds from the air. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“There are conditions of violence and danger to life when that may be the only method.”

Leo Amery · October 8, 1942 · Speech · London, House of Commons

Shinwell had asked whether it was not possible to deal with mobs without machine-gunning, and whether this was in conformity with British practice.

Supplementary answer on disturbances in India, House of Commons, 8 October 1942 (HC Deb vol. 383, c. 1342) Source

Content note: Order to kill captured soldiers. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“From now on all enemies on so-called Commando missions in Europe or Africa challenged by German troops, even if they are to all appearances soldiers in uniform or demolition troops, whether armed or unarmed, in battle or in flight, are to be slaughtered to the last man.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 498-PS. Original-language text not found.

Adolf Hitler · October 18, 1942 · Statement · Fuehrer Headquarters

Secret order issued after Allied raiding parties operated in occupied Europe, distributed in twelve copies to the armed forces. It directed that captured commandos be killed rather than treated as prisoners of war.

Fuehrer order no. 003830/42 g.Kdos. OKW/WFSt of 18 October 1942 (the Commando Order), document 498-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 3, p. 416

Content note: Recommends sending workers to concentration-camp factories to deter absenteeism. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the sick list decreases to one-fourth or one-fifth in factories where doctors are on the staff who examine the sick men. There is nothing to be said against SS and Police taking drastic steps and putting those known to be slackers into concentration camp factories. There is no alternative. Let it happen several times, and the news will soon get around.”

English: Nuremberg trial translation of the Central Planning Board minutes (as read into the IMT record). Original-language text not found.

Albert Speer · October 30, 1942 · Statement · Berlin, Central Planning Board

Remark attributed to Speer in the minutes of the Central Planning Board, which allocated raw materials and labour. Justice Jackson read it in cross-examination on 21 June 1946; Speer answered "Correct" and described it as one of the remarks one can make in wartime when upset.

Cross-examination of Speer by Justice Jackson, in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 16, p. 515 (session of 21 June 1946) Source

Content note: Projected civilian deaths and homelessness from bombing. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Assuming that the results attained per ton of bombs equal those realised during the German attacks of 1940-41, the results would include:

(a) the destruction of 6 million German dwellings, with a proportionate destruction of industrial buildings, sources of power, means of transportation and public utilities;

(b) 25 million Germans rendered homeless;

(c) an additional 60 million 'incidents' of bomb damage to houses;

(d) civilian casualties estimated at about 900,000 killed and 1,000,000 seriously injured.”

Charles Portal · November 3, 1942 · Statement · London

Portal circulated the note at the Chiefs of Staff Committee's request of 5 October 1942, to support the Air Staff's case for a combined heavy bomber force of 4,000 to 6,000 aircraft by 1944. The estimate scaled the results of the German raids on Britain in 1940 and 1941 to the planned tonnage.

Note by the Chief of the Air Staff for the Chiefs of Staff on an Estimate of the Effects of an Anglo-American Bomber Offensive Against Germany, 3 November 1942, Summary para (iv), in Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany 1939-1945, vol. 4 (HMSO, 1961), Appendix 20, pp. 263-264 Source

“And Churchill concludes: "How long will all this last?" I reply in the most solemn and categoric manner: It will last until victory, and beyond!”

Benito Mussolini · December 2, 1942 · Speech · Rome, Chamber of Fasces and Corporations

Mussolini answered a radio address to the Italian people by Winston Churchill on 29 November 1942, after the Allied landings in French North Africa and the retreat from El Alamein.

Speech to the Chamber of Fasci and Corporations, Rome, 2 December 1942, English translation by the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, Federal Communications Commission. Italian text: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, ed. Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, vol. 31: Dal discorso al Direttorio nazionale del P.N.F. (La Fenice, Florence, 1960), p. 129 Source

“No, Sir, I will do no such thing. The hon. Member has got hold of a secret document which was given him by somebody who has betrayed his public duty. If I were to publish ah the Regulations made by the censorship, I would give hon. Members more reading than the Beveridge Report supplies.”

Brendan Bracken · December 2, 1942 · Speech · London, House of Commons

A Member asked that a censorship instruction on outgoing messages based on proceedings in Parliament be published in the Official Report. Bracken had told the House that messages accurately reporting Parliament were not censored.

Oral answer on censorship of Parliamentary criticism, House of Commons, 2 December 1942 (HC Deb vol. 385, c. 1146) Source

Content note: Concerns the mass killing of Jews in Europe. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Yes, Sir, I regret to have to inform the House that reliable reports have recently reached His Majesty's Government regarding the barbarous and inhuman treatment to which Jews are being subjected in. German-occupied Europe. They Have in particular received a note from the Polish Government, which was also communicated to other United Nations and which has received wide publicity in the Press. His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom have as a result been in consultation with the United States and Soviet Governments and with the other Allied Governments directly concerned, and I should like to take this opportunity to communicate to the House the text of the following declaration which is being made public to-day at this hour in London, Moscow and Washington:”

Anthony Eden · December 17, 1942 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Replying to a Private Notice question from Sydney Silverman MP, Eden told the House of reliable reports of the treatment of Jews in German-occupied Europe and of a Polish Government note, before reading an agreed declaration of the Allied governments.

House of Commons, statement by Private Notice question, 17 December 1942, HC Deb vol. 385, cc2082-2083 Source

Content note: Concerns the mass killing of Jews in Europe. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The attention of the Governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxemberg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Yugoslavia, and of the French National Committee has been drawn to numerous reports from Europe that the German authorities, not content with denying to persons of Jewish race in all the territories over which their barbarous rule has been extended the most elementary human rights, are now carrying into effect Hitler's oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe. From all the occupied countries Jews are being transported, in conditions of appalling horror and brutality, to Eastern Europe. In Poland, which has been made the principal Nazi slaughterhouse, the ghettoes established by the German invaders are being systematically emptied of all Jews except a few highly skilled workers required for war industries. None of those taken away are ever heard of again. The able-bodied are slowly worked to death in labour camps. The infirm are left to die of exposure and starvation or are deliberately massacred in mass executions. The number of victims of these bloody cruelties is reckoned in many hundreds of thousands of entirely innocent men, women and children.

The above mentioned Governments and the French National Committee condemn in the strongest possible terms this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination. They declare that such events can only strengthen the resolve of all freedom loving peoples to overthrow the barbarous Hitlerite tyranny. They re-affirm their solemn resolution to ensure that those responsible for these crimes shall not escape retribution, and to press on with the necessary practical measures to this end.”

Anthony Eden · December 17, 1942 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Text of the declaration issued the same day in London, Moscow and Washington by eleven governments and the French National Committee, read to the House by Eden. The quoted text is the joint declaration, not Eden's own composition.

House of Commons, statement by Private Notice question, 17 December 1942, HC Deb vol. 385, c2083 Source

“Mekhlis is coming off the list. He's a general; let him go on fighting. Ehrenburg is coming off the list. He writes well and writes every day. Impossible to send him. Markish is coming off the list. He's muddle-headed and hysterical; he doesn't know what's going to come out of his mouth two minutes from now. And then there is Epshteyn.”

English: Laura Esther Wolfson, in Stalin's Secret Pogrom (Yale University Press, 2001). Original-language text not found.

Aleksandr Shcherbakov · 1943 · Private-remark · Moscow, telephone call to Lozovsky in Kuibyshev Verified (secondary source)

Lozovsky told the court that Shcherbakov went through the list of candidates for a Soviet delegation to the United States of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. The delegation of Mikhoels and Fefer travelled in 1943. Lozovsky was testifying at his own trial.

Shcherbakov's words on a telephone call to Solomon Lozovsky, early 1943, as recounted by Lozovsky in his testimony of May 1952, in Joshua Rubenstein and Vladimir P. Naumov (eds.), Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, trans. Laura Esther Wolfson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 253 Source

“We absolutely have to have one person in the delegation who isn't a party member.”

English: Laura Esther Wolfson, in Stalin's Secret Pogrom (Yale University Press, 2001). Original-language text not found.

Aleksandr Shcherbakov · 1943 · Private-remark · Moscow, telephone call to Lozovsky in Kuibyshev Verified (secondary source)

Said, according to Lozovsky, when the delegation list for the United States was being decided. Mikhoels, the theatre director, was then chosen as the delegate who was not a party member.

Shcherbakov's words on a telephone call to Solomon Lozovsky, early 1943, as recounted by Lozovsky in his testimony of May 1952, in Joshua Rubenstein and Vladimir P. Naumov (eds.), Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, trans. Laura Esther Wolfson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 253 Source

“But propaganda is an instrument; it may employ truth instead of falsehood in its operation (as Wilson did, and as this Office intends to do); and it may be directed to worthy instead of unworthy purposes. To condemn the instrument, because the wrong people use it for the wrong purposes, is like condemning the automobile because criminals use it for a getaway.”

Elmer Davis · 1943 · Statement

Davis, discussing precedents for the Office of War Information, cites Benjamin Franklin and Woodrow Wilson, and notes Hitler's praise of Allied propaganda in Mein Kampf. The statement was first made to a House committee in autumn 1942.

Elmer Davis, "OWI Has a Job," Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1943), pp. 5-10 (a revision of Davis's statement to the House Committee on Appropriations, autumn 1942), p. 7 Source

“It may be objected that such surveys would be propaganda, directed against the American people and not against our enemies. Well, propaganda is an instrument which may use truth or falsehood as its material, which may be directed toward worthy or unworthy ends. We are going to use the truth, and we are going to use it toward the end of winning the war; for we know what would happen to the American people if we lose it. “Propaganda” is a word in bad odor in this country, but there is no public hostility to the idea of education as such, and we regard this part of our job as education.”

Elmer Davis · 1943 · Statement

Davis answers the objection that OWI's planned surveys of the war situation for the American public were propaganda aimed at citizens.

Elmer Davis, "OWI Has a Job," Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1943), pp. 5-10 (a revision of Davis's statement to the House Committee on Appropriations, autumn 1942), p. 9 Source

“One of the most important divisions of our domestic branch is a news service which will take this news from enemy sources and set it in its proper relation to the facts of what is going on, with the background and any necessary correctives; so that the antidote comes along with the poison. To keep this news out of the country would be impossible and in my opinion unwise; all this service is going to do is to enable the people to recognize that news or so-called news for what it is—a weapon of war which the enemy uses just as he uses air bombs on people who are closer to him than we are.”

Elmer Davis · 1943 · Statement

Davis describes OWI's plan to circulate enemy radio news in the United States with commentary on how it related to the facts, rather than to bar it.

Elmer Davis, "OWI Has a Job," Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1943), pp. 5-10 (a revision of Davis's statement to the House Committee on Appropriations, autumn 1942), p. 9 Source

Content note: Statement on antisemitic legislation. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The second measure related to the Jews. It was not possible at that moment to abrogate publicly all the racial laws without coming into violent conflict with the Germans, or, to be more accurate, with Hitler. He had not only inspired this legislation, he had actually forced it on Mussolini, who only a few months earlier had declared in the Senate that there was no Jewish problem in Italy. I sent for representative Jews and told them that, though it was not possible at the moment to revoke the laws, they would not be carried out.”

English: Muriel Currey, in Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War: Memories and Documents (Oxford University Press, London, 1948). Original-language text not found.

Pietro Badoglio · 1943 · Book

Badoglio, Head of Government after Mussolini's dismissal on 25 July 1943, describes in his memoir how his government handled the 1938 racial laws in the weeks before the armistice of 8 September 1943.

Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War: Memories and Documents, trans. Muriel Currey (OUP, 1948), ch. 7, pp. 62-63 (Badoglio's account of his government's measures after 25 July 1943) Source

““After all it is another goal that has been reached. In 1911 Mussolini uttered his ‘away from Libya.’ After thirty-two years he has kept his word.””

Giuseppe Bottai · January 8, 1943 · Private-remark · Rome

Ciano lunched with Bottai and Roberto Farinacci after the loss of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica to the Allied advance, and quotes Bottai on Mussolini's 1911 opposition to the Italian conquest of Libya.

Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 8 January 1943, recording the words of Giuseppe Bottai, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) Source

Content note: Concerns the mass killing of Jews in Europe. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“His Majesty's Government's intention, in associating themselves with the Allied Governments' declaration of 17th December on the German policy of exterminating the Jews in Europe, was to help in arresting this policy. They are, at the same time, conscious of the fact that the only real remedy for the consistent Nazi policy of racial and religious persecution lies in an Allied victory; every resource of all the Allied nations must be bent towards this supreme object.”

Clement Attlee · January 19, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Answer to three questions on the relief of Jewish refugees, a month after the Allied declaration of 17 December 1942 on the German policy of exterminating the Jews. Attlee was Deputy Prime Minister.

House of Commons, oral answers, 19 January 1943, HC Deb vol. 386, c32 Source

“The code was in the form of a request to newspapers and all other publications to refrain from publishing information on a given list of subjects, such as the movements of troops and ships, exact war production statistics, and the development of new military models, unless such information was given out officially.”

Byron Price · January 21, 1943 · Letter

Price's report to the Vice President and the Speaker on the first year of the Office of Censorship, describing the Code of Wartime Practices issued on 15 January 1942.

Byron Price, Director of Censorship, letter of 21 January 1943 to Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the objectives and methods of the Office of Censorship, printed in the Congressional Record (Senate), vol. 89, 15 February 1943, pp. 938-941 Source

“In dealing with press and radio, the Office of Censorship has confined its request strictly to the field of information. In no case has it sought to control editorial or other opinion, or criticism.”

Byron Price · January 21, 1943 · Letter

From the same report to Congress, stating the limits the Office set on its requests to newspapers and broadcasters.

Byron Price, Director of Censorship, letter of 21 January 1943 to Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the objectives and methods of the Office of Censorship, printed in the Congressional Record (Senate), vol. 89, 15 February 1943, pp. 938-941 Source

“Censorship in all its forms is so repugnant to a free people, so un-American in its concepts and its operations, that public uneasiness and widespread criticism would normally be expected. Instead, with very few exceptions, the public has been patient and understanding, quick to realize that censorship is a necessary evil and annoyance in wartime, and conscious that the staff is doing the best that human endeavor can do to administer censorship fairly and evenly and with no motive but to serve the national good.”

Byron Price · January 21, 1943 · Letter

Price's assessment of public reaction to wartime censorship of the mails, cables and the press, with the Office then employing 14,377 people.

Byron Price, Director of Censorship, letter of 21 January 1943 to Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the objectives and methods of the Office of Censorship, printed in the Congressional Record (Senate), vol. 89, 15 February 1943, pp. 938-941 Source

“Another point. I think we have all had it in our hearts and our heads before, but I don't think that it has ever been put down on paper by the Prime Minister and myself, and that is the determination that peace can come to the world only by the total elimination of German and Japanese war power. Some of you Britishers know the old story—we had a General called U.S. Grant. His name was Ulysses Simpson Grant, but in my, and the Prime Minister's, early days he was called "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. The elimination of German, Japanese, and Italian war power means the unconditional surrender by Germany, Italy, and Japan. That means a reasonable assurance of future world peace. It does not mean the destruction of the population of Germany, Italy, or Japan, but it does mean the destruction of the philosophies in those countries which are based on conquest and the subjugation of other people.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · January 24, 1943 · Interview · Casablanca, press conference with Winston Churchill

Statement to reporters at the close of the Casablanca Conference. It set unconditional surrender by Germany, Italy and Japan as the Allied war aim.

Joint Press Conference with Prime Minister Churchill at Casablanca, 24 January 1943, text in the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) Source

“No loyal citizen of the United States should be denied the democratic right to exercise the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless of his ancestry. The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry. A good American is one who is loyal to this country and to our creed of liberty and democracy. Every loyal American citizen should be given the opportunity to serve this country wherever his skills will make the greatest contribution — whether it be in the ranks of our armed forces, war production, agriculture, government service, or other work essential to the war effort.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · February 1, 1943 · Letter · Washington, D.C., letter to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson

Approved the War Department proposal to form a combat team of Japanese American citizens, about a year after Executive Order 9066. It became the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Most Japanese Americans on the West Coast were still held in the camps.

Letter, President Roosevelt to Secretary of War Stimson, 1 February 1943, as released in War Department Bureau of Public Relations press release of 3 February 1943 (National Archives RG 107, Box 51, Folder 4, Item 8) Source

“Fourth: The English maintain that the German people is resisting the government’s total war measures. It does not want total war, but capitulation! (Shouts: Never! Never! Never!) I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · February 18, 1943 · Speech · Berlin, Sportpalast

Speech to an invited audience after the surrender at Stalingrad, calling for total war, with a series of questions put to the crowd. The text is the printed version, which differs in places from the spoken one.

Speech "Nun, Volk, steh auf, und Sturm, brich los!" in the Berlin Sportpalast, 18 February 1943, printed in Der steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944), pp. 167-204; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

Content note: Antisemitic claim that Jews stand behind Bolshevism. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Behind the oncoming Soviet divisions we see the Jewish liquidation commandos, and behind them terror, the specter of mass starvation and complete anarchy. International Jewry is the devilish ferment of decomposition that finds cynical satisfaction in plunging the world into the deepest chaos and destroying ancient cultures that it played no role in building.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · February 18, 1943 · Speech · Berlin, Sportpalast

From the same Sportpalast speech, in the part describing the danger of a Soviet advance into Europe. Bytwerk notes that in the spoken version Goebbels begins to say "extermination" of the Jews and breaks off mid-word.

Speech "Nun, Volk, steh auf, und Sturm, brich los!" in the Berlin Sportpalast, 18 February 1943, printed in Der steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944), pp. 167-204; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“I ask you: Is your confidence in the Führer greater, more faithful and more unshakable than ever before? Are you absolutely and completely ready to follow him wherever he goes and do all that is necessary to bring the war to a victorious end?”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · February 18, 1943 · Speech · Berlin, Sportpalast

Fifth of the ten questions put to the Sportpalast audience after the surrender at Stalingrad, following the 'total war' question. It is preceded in the printed text by the claim that the English say the German people have lost faith in the Führer.

Speech "Nun, Volk, steh auf, und Sturm, brich los!" in the Berlin Sportpalast, 18 February 1943, printed in Der steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944), pp. 167-204; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“Now, if I may say so, I am no Communist; I am a Capitalist. I do not favour a sharing of wealth, I want only a sharing of opportunity.”

Lord Beaverbrook (Max Aitken) · February 23, 1943 · Speech · London, House of Lords

Beaverbrook, then out of office (he left government in February 1942 and became Lord Privy Seal in September 1943), moved a motion in the House of Lords calling for a Second Front in Europe. Stalin had publicly called for one.

Speech moving a motion on a Second Front in Europe, House of Lords, 23 February 1943 (HL Deb vol. 126, c. 166) Source

“Now there is another story being put about—the danger of Communism in Europe. This is another form of enemy propaganda which is being very widely disseminated. I ask those who take note of it: What is Communism now? Anyway it is certainly not what Communism was in 1917—very far from it.”

Lord Beaverbrook (Max Aitken) · February 23, 1943 · Speech · London, House of Lords

Beaverbrook, then out of office (he left government in February 1942 and became Lord Privy Seal in September 1943), moved a motion in the House of Lords calling for a Second Front in Europe. Stalin had publicly called for one.

Speech moving a motion on a Second Front in Europe, House of Lords, 23 February 1943 (HL Deb vol. 126, c. 166) Source

“The fact that help from the West was coming was used by Stalin to the fullest possible extent in sustaining, supporting and uplifting the soldiers who were required to go into battle. That was Russia in 1941, with Stalin convincing his people that help was coming, convincing them of the supplies at his command from the United States and from Britain.”

Lord Beaverbrook (Max Aitken) · February 23, 1943 · Speech · London, House of Lords

Beaverbrook, then out of office (he left government in February 1942 and became Lord Privy Seal in September 1943), moved a motion in the House of Lords calling for a Second Front in Europe. Stalin had publicly called for one.

Speech moving a motion on a Second Front in Europe, House of Lords, 23 February 1943 (HL Deb vol. 126, c. 167) Source

“Since time is the first consideration—I think your Lordships will all agree about that—it seems to me that we must now invade North-West Europe. We must now invade in the Mediterranean too; but we must certainly invade from a British base as well as from an African base.”

Lord Beaverbrook (Max Aitken) · February 23, 1943 · Speech · London, House of Lords

Beaverbrook, then out of office (he left government in February 1942 and became Lord Privy Seal in September 1943), moved a motion in the House of Lords calling for a Second Front in Europe. Stalin had publicly called for one.

Speech moving a motion on a Second Front in Europe, House of Lords, 23 February 1943 (HL Deb vol. 126, c. 169) Source

Content note: Concerns the mass killing of Jews in Europe. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I would remind my hon. Friends of the statement made in the House by the Deputy Prime Minister on 19th January. The only truly effective means of succouring the tortured Jewish, and, I may add, the other suffering peoples of Europe, lies in an Allied victory. In devoting all their energies and resources to this end, the Governments and peoples of the United Nations are, therefore, seeking to bring relief to all the oppressed. As regards such measures of relief and rescue as may be immediately practicable, the House will recall the proposals announced by my right hon. and gallant Friend the Secretary of State for the Colonies in respect of Palestine. These will be put into operation as rapidly as facilities can be arranged. In addition to this a considerable number of refugees of Allied nationalities have arrived and continue to arrive in this country. As regards international action, I am not yet able to say when I shall be in a position to make a statement. I do not think that Dr. Nansen's appointment by the League of Nations, which was made some considerable time after the last war, affords any useful precedent for dealing with the difficulties experienced in war-time.”

Anthony Eden · February 24, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Reply to four questions on rescue of Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe, including a proposal for an international appointment on the model of Fridtjof Nansen.

House of Commons, oral answers, 24 February 1943, HC Deb vol. 387, c144 Source

Content note: Concerns anti-Jewish legislation. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I do not think I can go as fas as my Noble Friend. What I would say is that there has been a relaxation of several of the disabilities, but I cannot say that there has been a total removal of them. I would like to see that total removal.”

Anthony Eden · March 3, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Questioned on whether Vichy-era anti-Jewish disabilities still applied to Jews in Allied-held North Africa, Eden answered a supplementary from Earl Winterton MP.

House of Commons, oral answers, 3 March 1943, HC Deb vol. 387, c524 Source

Content note: Antisemitic dehumanising language (Jews as lice); refers to the killing of Jews. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We have, — I would say, as very consistent National Socialists, taken the question of blood as our starting point. We were the first really to solve the problem of blood by action, and in this connection, by problem of blood, we of course do not mean anti-semitism. Anti-semitism is exactly the same as delousing. Getting rid of lice is not a question of ideology. It is a matter of cleanliness. In just the same way, antisemitism, for us, has not been a question of ideology, but a matter of cleanliness, which now will soon have been dealt with. We shall soon be deloused. We have only 20,000 lice left, and then the matter is finished within the whole of Germany.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 1919-PS. Original-language text not found.

Heinrich Himmler · April 1943 · Speech · Kharkov

Speech to the commanders of three SS divisions after the recapture of Kharkov in the spring of 1943, covering the war situation and SS policy. The Nuremberg document gives the date only as April 1943.

Speech of the Reichsführer-SS at Kharkov, April 1943, to SS divisional commanders, document 1919-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 4, p. 574

“Fifthly, they must complain if there is any default or failure in judgment or duty on the part of the Prime Minister and, as a last resort, bring to an end a Government where the Prime Minister diverges from a sound conception of war policy and strategy.”

Lord Beaverbrook (Max Aitken) · April 8, 1943 · Speech · London, House of Lords

Beaverbrook had given notice of a motion calling for a War Cabinet made up wholly of Ministers without departmental duties. This is one of five functions he listed for members of the War Cabinet.

Speech on the War Cabinet, House of Lords, 8 April 1943 (HL Deb vol. 127, c. 117) Source

Content note: States that Jews must be exterminated or put in concentration camps. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“To Horthy's counter-question as to what he should do with the Jews now that he had deprived them of almost all possibilities of livelihood, he could not kill them off — the Reich Foreign Minister declared that the Jews must either be exterminated or taken to concentration camps. There was no other possibility.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document D-736. Original-language text not found.

Joachim von Ribbentrop · April 17, 1943 · Private-remark · Schloss Klessheim, near Salzburg

Hitler and the Hungarian Regent Admiral Horthy met at Klessheim; Ribbentrop was present. Horthy asked what he should do with the Jews of Hungary now that they had been deprived of nearly all means of livelihood and, he said, he could not kill them. The German record reports Ribbentrop's answer in indirect speech.

Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 7 (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1946), document D-736 (German record of the Hitler-Horthy conversation, Klessheim, 17 April 1943), p. 190 Source

Content note: Says the only possibilities for the Jews were killing or internment. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Yes, there are only two possibilities -- either that, or to intern the Jews.”

English: Official IMT simultaneous translation of testimony. Original-language text not found.

Joachim von Ribbentrop · April 17, 1943 · Private-remark · Schloss Klessheim, near Salzburg

Testimony of Paul Schmidt, the interpreter present at the Hitler-Horthy talks of 17 April 1943, recalling what Ribbentrop said after Horthy asked whether he should "beat the Jews to death". Schmidt testified on 28 March 1946, almost three years after the meeting.

Testimony of Paul Schmidt (interpreter) on Ribbentrop's remark at Klessheim, in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 10, p. 203 (session of 28 March 1946) Source

Content note: Refers to "the wiping out of the Jewish race" as a process that "can no longer be halted". The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“None of the Führer’s prophetic words has come so inevitably true as his prediction that if Jewry succeeded in provoking a second world war, the result would be not the destruction of the Aryan race, but rather the wiping out of the Jewish race. This process is of vast importance, and will have unforeseeable consequences that will require time. But it can no longer be halted. It must only be guided in the right direction.”

English: Randall Bytwerk, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Goebbels · May 9, 1943 · Article

Lead article of spring 1943 that, according to Bytwerk, set the tone of an antisemitic propaganda campaign and was recommended to propagandists as a model.

"Der Krieg und die Juden" (The War and the Jews), Das Reich, 9 May 1943, reprinted in Der steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944), pp. 263-270; English translation by Randall Bytwerk Source

“Invites the Government to beg the King, to whom the whole nation looks with loyalty and confidence, that he should for the honour and safety of the country, assume the effective command of the Army, Navy and Air Force according to article 5 of the Constitution, and take the supreme initiative of command which our institutions confer upon him and which has been throughout our history the glorious heritage of the House of Savoy.”

Dino Grandi · July 24, 1943 · Statement · Rome, Palazzo Venezia (Fascist Grand Council)

Grandi presented the motion to the Grand Council on the night of 24 July 1943, after the Allied landing in Sicily. The King dismissed Mussolini the next afternoon. The paragraph quoted asks that the King resume effective command of the armed forces.

Ordine del giorno Grandi, motion presented to the Fascist Grand Council, night of 24 to 25 July 1943 (final paragraph), English in Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War, trans. Muriel Currey (OUP, 1948), ch. 5, The Coup d'Etat, pp. 40-41 (footnote); Italian text from it.wikisource.org, 'Italia - 24 luglio 1943, Ordine del giorno Grandi presentato al Gran Consiglio del Fascismo' Source

“Italians, from today I have assumed command of all armed forces. In the solemn hour which has occurred in the destinies of our country each must take up again his post of duty and of fighting. No deviation must be tolerated, no recriminations must be allowed. We must stand against those who have wounded the sacred soil of Italy. Italy, by the valor of its armed forces and the determination of all its citizens, will find again a way of recovery. Italians! I feel myself more than ever indissolubly united with you in the unshakable belief in the immortality of the fatherland.”

Victor Emmanuel III · July 25, 1943 · Broadcast · Rome

On 25 July 1943, the day after the Grand Council of Fascism voted against Mussolini, the King accepted his resignation, named Marshal Badoglio head of government and took command of the armed forces. The proclamation was broadcast that evening.

Proclamation of King Victor Emmanuel III to the Italians, countersigned by Badoglio, broadcast 25 July 1943. Italian text: Radiocorriere, no. 31 (31 July 1943), p. 3 of the scan, "Storico evento: il proclama del Re". English: The Commercial and Financial Chronicle (New York), 29 July 1943, "The King's Proclamation" Source

“My dear Duce, it's no longer any good. Italy has gone to bits. Army morale is at rock bottom. The soldiers don't want to fight any more. The Alpine regiments are singing a song which says they don't want to make war on Mussolini's account any longer. [...] The Grand Council's vote is terrific - nineteen votes for Grandi's motion and among them four holders of the Order of the Annunciation. You can certainly be under no illusion as to Italy's feelings with regard to yourself. At this moment you are the most hated man in Italy. You can no longer count on more than one friend. You have one friend left you, and I am he. That is why I tell you that you need have no fears for your personal safety, for which I will ensure protection. I have been thinking the man for the job now is Marshal Badoglio. He will start by forming a government of experts for purely administrative purposes and for the continuation of the war. In six months' time we shall see. All Rome already knows about the Grand Council's resolution, and they are all expecting a change.”

English: Frances Lobb, in Benito Mussolini, Memoirs 1942-1943 (George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1949). Original-language text not found.

Victor Emmanuel III · July 25, 1943 · Private-remark · Villa Savoia, Rome Disputed

Mussolini went to the King on the afternoon of 25 July 1943, the day after the Grand Council voted for Dino Grandi's motion, and was dismissed and arrested after the meeting. The only account of the words in this form is Mussolini's own, written afterwards.

Words attributed to King Victor Emmanuel III at his meeting with Mussolini at the Villa Savoia, 25 July 1943, as recalled by Mussolini in his Memoirs 1942-1943, translated by Frances Lobb, ed. Raymond Klibansky (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1949), p. 81 Source

This is Mussolini's reconstruction of a private conversation; there was no stenographer, and the King's own account and those of his aides were not consulted for this entry. The [...] replaces the parenthesis in Mussolini's text "(The King repeated the verses of the song in Piedmontese dialect.)". OCR errors in the scan (for example "neoi" for "need") were repaired. The memoir was first published in Italy in 1944; the 1949 English edition carries editorial notes.

“In view of developments in Italy and the possibility that Mussolini and other prominent Fascists and persons guilty of war crimes may attempt to take refuge in neutral territory, His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom feel obliged to call upon all neutral countries to refuse asylum to any such persons; and to declare that they will regard any shelter, assistance or protection given to such persons as a violation of the principles for which the United Nations are fighting and which they are determined to carry into effect by every means in their power.”

Anthony Eden · August 4, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Eden read the text of a communication sent to neutral governments following developments in Italy, agreed with the United States and Soviet governments, asking them to refuse asylum to Mussolini, prominent Fascists and persons guilty of war crimes.

House of Commons, oral answers, 4 August 1943, HC Deb vol. 391, c2268 Source

“the Italian battle fleet now lies at anchor under the guns of the fortress of Malta”

Andrew Cunningham · September 11, 1943 · Statement · Mediterranean Verified (secondary source)

After Italy's armistice of 8 September 1943 the Italian fleet sailed to Malta to surrender. Cunningham was then Allied naval commander in the Mediterranean; Churchill reports that he informed the Admiralty in these words.

Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 5, Closing the Ring (Cassell), running head "Italy: the Armistice", p. 101 of the Internet Archive scan, quoting Admiral Cunningham's message to the Admiralty on the morning of 11 September 1943 Source

Content note: Describes the extermination of the Jews; dehumanising language. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“I mean the clearing out of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race. It's one of those things it is easy to talk about — "The Jewish race is being exterminated", says one party member, "that's quite clear, it's in our program — elimination of the Jews, and we're doing it, exterminating them." And then they come, 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. Of course the others are vermin, but this one is an A-1 Jew. Not one of all those who talk this way has witnessed it, not one of them has been through it. Most of you must know what it means when 100 corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1000. To have stuck it out and at the same time — apart from exceptions caused by human weakness — to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be written, for we know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves, if — with the bombing raids, the burdens and the deprivations of war — we still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators and trouble-mongers.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 1919-PS. Original-language text not found.

Heinrich Himmler · October 4, 1943 · Speech · Posen (Poznań)

Closed speech of about three hours to roughly ninety senior SS officers, recorded on disc. In it Himmler described the killing of Jews as a task already carried out and said it should never be spoken of publicly.

Speech to SS Major-Generals (Gruppenführer) at Posen, 4 October 1943, document 1919-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 4, p. 563

Content note: Justifies the extermination of Jews; compares them to bacteria. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“We had the moral right, we had the duty to our people, to destroy this people which wanted to destroy us. But we have not the right to enrich ourselves with so much as a fur, a watch, a mark, or a cigarette or anything else. Because we have exterminated a bacterium we do not want, in the end, to be infected by the bacterium and die of it. I will not see so much as a small area of sepsis appear here or gain a hold. Wherever it may form, we will cauterize it. Altogether however, we can say, that we have fulfilled this most difficult duty for the love of our people. And our spirit, our soul, our character has not suffered injury from it.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 1919-PS. Original-language text not found.

Heinrich Himmler · October 4, 1943 · Speech · Posen (Poznań)

Continues the passage on the killing of Jews, with a warning against SS men keeping property taken from victims. Himmler said those who took property would be punished by death.

Speech to SS Major-Generals (Gruppenführer) at Posen, 4 October 1943, document 1919-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 4, p. 564

Content note: Contempt for the lives of Russians and Czechs; endorses forced labour and kidnapping of children. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“One basic principle must be the absolute rule for the man: we must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and to nobody else. What happens to a Russian, to a Czech does not interest me in the slightest. What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death [verrecken — to die — used of cattle] interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our Kultur; otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished.”

English: Office of United States Chief of Counsel, translation of Nuremberg document 1919-PS. Original-language text not found.

Heinrich Himmler · October 4, 1943 · Speech · Posen (Poznań)

Part of the same Posen speech, setting out the conduct expected of the SS towards non-Germanic peoples, in particular Russians, while forced labour was being used in the war economy.

Speech to SS Major-Generals (Gruppenführer) at Posen, 4 October 1943, document 1919-PS, in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (US Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 4, p. 559

“As the provisions of the four-nation declaration are carried into effect, there will no longer be need for spheres of influence, for alliances, for balance of power, or any other of the special arrangements through which, in the unhappy past, the nations strove to safeguard their security or to promote their interests.”

Cordell Hull · November 18, 1943 · Speech · Washington, joint session of Congress

Hull reported to both houses on the October 1943 Moscow Conference and the Four-Nation Declaration signed there by the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China.

Address by Secretary of State Cordell Hull to a joint session of Congress on the Moscow Conference, 18 November 1943, Congressional Record, vol. 89, pt. 7 (House proceedings, 18 November 1943; address begins p. 9677); also Department of State Bulletin, 20 November 1943, p. 341 Source

“On this point I can only say that, while considerations of national security must come first, I am not prepared, subject to this overriding consideration, to let anyone die in detention unnecessarily.”

Herbert Morrison · November 23, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

From Morrison's statement on his decision to release Sir Oswald Mosley and Lady Mosley from detention under Defence Regulation 18B on medical advice, subject to restrictions. The release was debated in the House on 1 December 1943.

House of Commons, 23 November 1943, HC Deb vol. 393, c1430 Source

“I mention—merely to dismiss it as an absurdity—the suggestion made in certain quarters that the decision to release at this date on medical grounds a man who stands for a doctrine almost universally detested in this country and whose influence is greatly diminished, indicated that there is a weakening on the part of the Government or myself in our determination to root out the evil cancer of Fascism. If I were to allow myself, in the exercise of the drastic power of detention without trial entrusted to me by Parliament as an exceptional war-time measure, to depart from the judicial frame of mind and to be influenced—not by considerations of the public safety—but by personal dislike or political opposition, I should no doubt be able to give entire satisfaction to many of my present critics, but I should be abusing the powers afforded by Regulation 18B and betraying the trust reposed in to me by Parliament that those powers would be exercised in a judicial spirit and solely for the purpose of national security. Any departure from these principles of administration would involve grave danger to the maintenance of constitutional democratic government and might set a precedent which in other circumstances no one would regret more than many of my critics of to-day.”

Herbert Morrison · November 23, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

From the same statement on the release of Sir Oswald Mosley, answering the charge that release signalled a weakening of the Government's attitude to Fascism.

House of Commons, 23 November 1943, HC Deb vol. 393, cc1432-1433 Source

Content note: Joking remark about executing German officers. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The President jokingly said that he would put the figure of the German Commanding Staff which should be executed at 49,000 or more.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · November 29, 1943 · Private-remark · Tehran, tripartite dinner with Stalin and Churchill Verified (secondary source)

Reply to Stalin's statement at dinner that at least 50,000 and perhaps 100,000 of the German commanding staff must be physically liquidated. Churchill objected to the execution of soldiers for political purposes. The record is a third-person minute by interpreter Charles Bohlen.

Bohlen Minutes, tripartite dinner, Tehran, 29 November 1943, 8:30 p.m., in Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, document 368, p. 554 Source

Content note: Proposal to execute tens of thousands of German officers. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“At least 50,000 and perhaps 100,000 of the German Commanding Staff must be physically liquidated.”

English: Charles E. Bohlen, English-language minutes (Bohlen Minutes), in Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1961), document 368. Original-language text not found.

Joseph Stalin · November 29, 1943 · Private-remark · Tehran, tripartite dinner

At a dinner of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, Stalin set out two conditions for preventing a renewed German threat, of which this was the first. The minute records that Roosevelt then said, jokingly, that the number should be 49,000 or more, and that Churchill objected strongly to executing soldiers 'for political purposes'.

Bohlen Minutes, tripartite dinner meeting, 29 November 1943, 8:30 p.m., in Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943 (Washington, 1961), document 368, pp. 553-554 Source

“'In war-time,' I said, 'truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.'”

Winston Churchill · November 30, 1943 · Private-remark · Tehran

Churchill's own later account of a meeting of the Allied leaders and staffs at Tehran, in a discussion of cover and deception plans for the 1944 invasion of France. He records that Stalin and his colleagues appreciated the remark when translated.

Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 5, Closing the Ring (London: Cassell, 1952), ch. 21, 'Teheran: The Crux', p. 337, recording his remark to Stalin at Tehran on 30 November 1943 Source

“He added that there were in the United States from six to seven million Americans of Polish extraction, and as a practical man, he did not wish to lose their vote.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 1, 1943 · Private-remark · Tehran, private meeting with Joseph Stalin Verified (secondary source)

Roosevelt asked to speak with Stalin privately about the Polish frontier question and American domestic politics before the 1944 election. The record is a third-person minute taken by interpreter Charles Bohlen, not a stenographic transcript.

Bohlen Minutes, Roosevelt-Stalin meeting, Tehran, 1 December 1943, 3:20 p.m., in Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, document 378 Source

“My object has been to devise a scheme that will be recognised as fair and which would not place the duty upon the officials of my Department of selecting according to merit or suitability. I therefore propose to resort to the most impartial method of all, that of the ballot. A draw will be made from time to time of one or more of the figures from 0 to 9 and those men whose National Service Registration Certificate numbers happen to end with the figure or figures thus drawn by ballot will be transferred to coalmining.”

Ernest Bevin · December 2, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Bevin's statement announcing the ballot under which some conscripts were directed to coalmining (the "Bevin Boys") instead of the armed forces.

House of Commons, 2 December 1943, HC Deb vol. 395, c521 Source

“Yes, I am entitled to direct anybody anywhere, including the right hon. Member.”

Ernest Bevin · December 2, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Bevin's reply to Sir Hugh O'Neill MP, who asked whether the coalmining scheme needed fresh legislation. Bevin withdrew the application of the remark to Members of Parliament a moment later, after a point of order.

House of Commons, 2 December 1943, HC Deb vol. 395, c523 Source

“The most important development in the Indian food situation in the last few weeks is that the main rice crop, which is just coming to harvest, is reported to be excellent, particularly in Bengal. Military assistance in Bengal is getting into its stride, and the outlying centres, as well as Calcutta, are now receiving adequate supplies, though distribution from those centres to the more remote villages still presents a problem. Plans for rationing in urban areas are proceeding and should be in operation in Calcutta by the middle of this month. Deaths in Calcutta for the fortnight ending 28th October totalled 3,132. I cannot give figures for Bengal as a whole. It is reported that 2,233,000 people are being fed daily from free food kitchens.”

Leo Amery · December 2, 1943 · Speech · London, House of Commons

A Member asked for the latest figures on deaths from famine in Bengal and the extent of cholera.

Oral answer on the Indian food situation, House of Commons, 2 December 1943 (HC Deb vol. 395, c. 513) Source

“There are thousands of cases in which conscientious objectors, although they have refused to take up arms, have shown as much courage as anyone else in Civil Defence and in other walks of life.”

Ernest Bevin · December 9, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons

Reply to Sir John Mellor MP, who had asked whether conscientious objectors would be directed to coalmining.

House of Commons, oral answers, 9 December 1943, HC Deb vol. 395, c1108 Source

Content note: Official figures on famine and cholera deaths. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“As I informed the hon. Member on 2nd December, figures of famine deaths for the whole of Bengal are not available. Figures for Calcutta for the period 16th August to 11th December, 1943, are as follows:—Admissions to hospital of starving persons 16,285. Deaths among such admissions 6,156. In addition, during the period 1st August to 11th December, the number of bodies disposed of by police or non-official relief organisations in Calcutta was 9,216, but this total may include some deaths not due to starvation. The total number of deaths from cholera in the whole of the Bengal Presidency between 27th June and 13th November was 77,938.”

Leo Amery · December 16, 1943 · Speech · London, House of Commons

A Member asked whether Bengal had published figures for deaths from starvation and cholera over the previous six months. Amery gave figures supplied through the Government of India.

Oral answer on starvation and disease in Bengal, House of Commons, 16 December 1943 (HC Deb vol. 395, c. 1665) Source

“In connection with the material already on hand on this subject-among other things a new congratulatory message of Churchill's for the Anglo-American terror fliers has been published-it must be established that the war criminal Churchill will one day receive his punishment for his historical guilt. In commenting, it must furthermore be -observed that nothing must be mentioned on the subject of reprisals on our part, or of retaliation.”

English: Official translation in the Nuremberg Military Tribunal record (document NG-3327). Original-language text not found.

Otto Dietrich · December 28, 1943 · Statement

Daily press instruction on reporting the Allied air war. The prosecution relied on it as an order to withhold news of the lynching of Allied airmen; the Tribunal found the evidence insufficient on that count and acquitted Dietrich of it.

Tagesparole of the Reich Press Chief, 28 December 1943, document NG-3327, Prosecution Exhibit 1225, as quoted in the judgment of Military Tribunal IV (Ministries case), in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, vol. XIV (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1952), pp. 435-436 Source

“The Red Army, however, proved capable not only of halting the attack of the German-fascist hordes, but also of dealing them a series of heavy blows one after the other—at Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, on the Dnieper and beyond—blows under which the former vanity and self-assurance of the Germans have been considerably cowed.”

English: Soviet War News (London), translator not credited. Original-language text not found.

Mikhail Kalinin · 1944 · Article

Opening of the article, written while the Red Army was advancing in Ukraine and Belorussia, on the sources of Soviet military strength. The article was issued in English as a booklet by Soviet War News in London.

M. I. Kalinin, "Why We Win" (London: Soviet War News, 1944-45), p. 5 Source

“One of the greatest crimes in history, the slaughter of the Jewish people in Europe, is continuing unabated. This Government has for a long time maintained that its policy is to work out programs to save those Jews and other persecuted minorities of Europe who could be saved. You are probably not as familiar as I with the utter failure of certain officials in our State Department, who are charged with actually carrying out this policy, to take any effective action to prevent the extermination of the Jews in German-controlled Europe.”

Henry Morgenthau Jr. · January 16, 1944 · Statement

Opening of the report Morgenthau presented to President Roosevelt at the White House on 16 January 1944. It was drafted by Treasury staff, chiefly Josiah E. DuBois Jr., and went to the President under Morgenthau's name; within days Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board.

Personal Report to the President (original title: Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews), Morgenthau Diaries, Book 694, pp. 194-202, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, dated 16 January 1944, as reprinted in A Study of the Holocaust: Student Readings (ERIC ED419720) Source

Content note: Accusation of antisemitism against US officials The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“Whether one views this failure as being deliberate on the part of those officials handling the matter, or merely due to their incompetence, is not too important from my point of view. However, there is a growing number of responsible people and organizations today who have ceased to view our failure as the product of simple incompetence on the part of those officials in the State Department charged with handling this problem. They see plain Anti-Semitism motivating the actions of these State Department officials and, rightly or wrongly, it will require little more in the way of proof for this suspicion to explode into a nasty scandal.”

Henry Morgenthau Jr. · January 16, 1944 · Statement

From the same report to the President, which accused named State Department officials of obstructing rescue of Jews from Europe and set out two cases in evidence.

Personal Report to the President (original title: Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews), Morgenthau Diaries, Book 694, pp. 194-202, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, dated 16 January 1944, as reprinted in A Study of the Holocaust: Student Readings (ERIC ED419720) Source

“From the very start the whole of the officers' corps must be so indoctrinated that it feels itself coresponsible for the National Socialist State in its entirety. The officer is the exponent of the State. The idle chatter that the officer is nonpolitical is sheer nonsense.”

English: Nuremberg trial translation of document D-640 (as read into the IMT record). Original-language text not found.

Karl Dönitz · February 15, 1944 · Statement

Passage from a directive of Dönitz, as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, to naval officers on political indoctrination, read by Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe in cross-examination (document D-640, exhibit GB-186). Dönitz answered that he had said it and asked that the preceding lines on discipline and fighting strength be read too.

Cross-examination of Dönitz by Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, reading document D-640, in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg: IMT, 1947), vol. 13, p. 391 (session of 10 May 1946) Source

“Usual briefing for the Cabinet at 6 p.m. where Winston was in an impossible mood with nothing but abuse about everything the Army was doing. Every commander from 'Jumbo' Wilson to last Company commander was useless, the organization was useless, the Americans hopeless, etc., etc. It was all I could do to contain my temper.”

Alan Brooke · February 28, 1944 · Diary · London Verified (secondary source)

Alan Brooke was Chief of the Imperial General Staff and chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. His wartime diary, kept for his wife, was published in edited form by Arthur Bryant in 1957 and 1959. The entry was written during the Anzio beachhead battle.

Arthur Bryant, Triumph in the West 1943-1946: based on the diaries and autobiographical notes of Field Marshal the Viscount Alanbrooke (Collins, London, 1959), p. 159 (diary entry for 28 February 1944) Source

Content note: Press instruction to intensify antisemitic propaganda. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“The anti-Semitic campaign must be emphasized still more than up till now as an important propagandistic factor in the world struggle. Therefore, at all possible occasions world Judaism has to be stigmatized as the one whose cunning machinations are even opposed to the interests of its hostess nations. On top of all that these voices are to be recorded which show clearly the real Jewish intentions of destruction and to make them the subject of convincing exposure. In this respect German journalism has to aim at keeping awake in the German people the feeling that Judaism constitutes a world danger on the one hand, and on the other, above all, to carry the discussions abroad.”

English: Official translation in the Nuremberg Military Tribunal record (document NG-3410). Original-language text not found.

Otto Dietrich · March 2, 1944 · Statement

Daily press instruction issued in the sixth year of the war while the deportation and killing of Jews was in progress. The Tribunal quoted a series of such directives.

Tagesparole of the Reich Press Chief, 2 March 1944, document NG-3410, Prosecution Exhibit 1277, as quoted in the judgment of Military Tribunal IV (Ministries case), in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, vol. XIV (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1952), p. 572 Source

Content note: Describes Jews as a "spreading poison". The words are shown as they were said or written. Why

“What would have become of our country today if the Fuehrer had not united Us under National Socialism? Split parties, beset with the spreading poison of Jewry, and vulnerable to it because we lacked the defense of our present uncompromising ideology, we would long since have succumbed under the burden of this war and delivered ourselves up to the enemy who would have mercilessly destroyed us.”

English: Nuremberg trial translation of document 2878-PS (as read into the IMT record). Original-language text not found.

Karl Dönitz · March 12, 1944 · Speech

Passage from Dönitz's Heroes' Day (Heldengedenktag) address to the navy, read by Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe in cross-examination (document 2878-PS). Dönitz was then Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, with 600,000 to 700,000 men.