Nazi Germany

In one line: From 30 January 1933 to 8 May 1945 the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) governed Germany under Adolf Hitler, first by emergency decree and an Enabling Act that took lawmaking from the Reichstag, then as a one-party state that ran a police terror system, fought a war of conquest, and organised the persecution and murder of Jews and other groups.

The leader and the people under the leader

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  Adolf Hitler

  Reich Chancellor; from 1934 Führer and Reich Chancellor · 1933 to 1945

  Adolf Hitler: Read more

  Head of government from 30 January 1933 and, after the offices of chancellor and president were combined on 2 August 1934, head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces; laws and decrees were issued in his name.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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!”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  All 26 quotes from Adolf Hitler, and 4 often attributed but not verified

  In the archive: Hitler über Deutschland: the 1932 campaigns that made the NSDAP a mass party, Manufactured unanimity: the Nazi single-list plebiscites, 1934-1938

Party and SS

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  Rudolf Hess

  Deputy of the Führer (Stellvertreter des Führers) and Reich Minister without Portfolio · 1933 to 1941

  Rudolf Hess: Read more

  Ran the NSDAP's party administration for Hitler and was consulted on the drafting of laws until he flew to Scotland on 10 May 1941, after which the office was renamed the Party Chancellery.

  In their words

  “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!”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  All 5 quotes from Rudolf Hess, and 1 often attributed but not verified

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  Martin Bormann

  Head of the Party Chancellery; from 1943 Secretary to the Führer · 1941 to 1945

  Martin Bormann: Read more

  Directed the NSDAP's central administration after Hess's flight and controlled access to Hitler and the flow of party business to him.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “In the last few weeks low-flying English and American flyers have repeatedly shot children playing in squares, women and children at work in the fields, peasants plowing, vehicles on the highways, trains, etc. from a low altitude with their aircraft guns [Bordwaffen], and have thus murdered defenseless civilians — particularly women and children — in the vilest manner. Several instances have occurred where members of the crews of such aircraft who have bailed out or have made forced landings were lynched on the spot immediately after capture by the populace which was incensed to the highest degree. No police measures or criminal proceedings were invoked against the German civilians who participated in these incidents.”

  “Dear Admiral of the Fleet, As, owing to the non-arrival of all divisions, our position appears hopeless, the Fuehrer last night dictated the enclosed political Testament.”

  All 3 quotes from Martin Bormann, and 1 often attributed but not verified

  In the archive: Kinderlandverschickung: evacuating Germany's children into Hitler Youth camps, 1940-1945, The Volkssturm: staging a 'people's storm' out of Nazi Germany's last conscription, 1944-45

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  Heinrich Himmler

  Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police; from 1943 Reich Minister of the Interior · 1929 to 1945

  Heinrich Himmler: Read more

  Commanded the SS from 1929, the whole police under the SS from 1936, and the concentration camp system and the SS units in occupied territory during the war; also held the Interior Ministry from August 1943.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  All 6 quotes from Heinrich Himmler

  In the archive: The SS as its own propaganda institution: Das Schwarze Korps, the Ahnenerbe and the order myth, 1931-1945

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  Reinhard Heydrich

  Chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA); from 1941 Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia · 1939 to 1942

  Reinhard Heydrich: Read more

  Headed the Security Police (including the Gestapo) and the SS Security Service (SD) under Himmler, chaired the Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942, and died on 4 June 1942 of wounds from an assassination attempt in Prague.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  All 4 quotes from Reinhard Heydrich

  In the archive: The Gestapo's Denunciation Apparatus: Policing by Public Tip-Off, 1933-1945

State

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  Hermann Göring

  Reich Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe and Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan · 1940 to 1945

  Hermann Göring: Read more

  President of the Reichstag from 1932, Prussian minister-president and interior minister from 1933, air force chief from 1935 and head of the Four Year Plan for the war economy from 1936; the rank of Reich Marshal, created on 19 July 1940, placed him above every other officer.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  All 8 quotes from Hermann Göring, and 5 often attributed but not verified

  In the archive: From a fire to a vote: the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act, February-March 1933

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  Joachim von Ribbentrop

  Reich Foreign Minister · 1938 to 1945

  Joachim von Ribbentrop: Read more

  Headed the Foreign Office, negotiated the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 23 August 1939, and ran a foreign press and radio service that competed with the Propaganda Ministry.

  In their words

  “"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."”

  “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.”

  “Yes, there are only two possibilities -- either that, or to intern the Jews.”

  All 8 quotes from Joachim von Ribbentrop

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  Wilhelm Frick

  Reich Minister of the Interior · 1933 to 1943

  Wilhelm Frick: Read more

  Ran the ministry responsible for the civil service, the constitution and citizenship law; signed the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and became Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia in August 1943.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “Heinrich Himmler, in June of 1934, was able to convince Hitler that Roehm wanted to start a putsch. The Fuehrer ordered Himmler to suppress the putsch, which was supposed to take place at the Tegernsee, where all of the SA leaders were coming to gather. For Northern Germany, the Fuehrer gave the order to suppress the putsch to Goering. On account of this order, many, many people were arrested, and as was heard in the course of time, little by little, something like a hundred, even more, who were accused of high treason, were killed. All of this was done without resort to legal proceedings. They were just killed on the spot. Many people were killed — I don't know how many — who actually did not have anything to do with the putsch. People who just weren't liked very well, as for instance, Schleicher, the former Reich Chancellor, were killed. Schleicher's wife was also killed as was Gregor Strasser, who had been the Reich organization leader and second man in the Party after Hitler. Strasser, at the time he was murdered, was not active in political affairs anymore. However, he had separated himself from the Fuehrer in November or December of 1932. The SS was used by Himmler for the execution of these orders to suppress the putsch. This was the first illegal act by the Party since the accession to power. This state of affairs, which is today still partly under discussion, and which I consider correct, was never stated officially, but became known in the course of the years, little by little.”

  All 5 quotes from Wilhelm Frick

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  Albert Speer

  Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions (from 1943 Armaments and War Production) · 1942 to 1945

  Albert Speer: Read more

  Directed war production from 8 February 1942, drawing on forced labour from occupied Europe and concentration camps; earlier General Building Inspector for Berlin (1937) and Hitler's architect.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “The enemy air force has concentrated further on traffic installations. Economic transportation has thereby been considerably reduced... In 4 to 8 weeks the final collapse of German economy must therefore be expected with certainty... After that collapse, the war cannot even be continued militarily... We at the head have the duty to help the nation in the difficult times which must be expected. In this connection we must soberly, and without regard for our fate, ask ourselves the question as to how this can be done even in the more remote future. If the opponent wishes to destroy the nation and the basis of its existence, then he must do the job himself. We must do everything to maintain, even if perhaps in a most primitive manner, a basis of existence for the nation to the last.”

  “In those days Hitler, after the military situation conference, often had conversations in his shelter with Ley, Goebbels, and Bormann, who were particularly close to him then because they supported and co-operated in his radical course of action. [...] It would not be difficult to introduce the gas into the ventilator of the air-conditioning plant, which was in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. It was then bound to circulate through the entire shelter in a very short time. Thereupon, in the middle of February 1945, I sent for Stahl, the head of my main department "Munitions," with whom I had particularly close relations, since I had worked in close co-operation with him during the destructions. I frankly told him of my intention, as his testimony shows. I asked him to procure this new poison gas for me from the munitions production.”

  All 7 quotes from Albert Speer

  In the archive: The Nero Decree: Hitler's order to destroy Germany, and the myth built on defying it

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  Walther Funk

  Reich Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank · 1938 to 1945

  Walther Funk: Read more

  Held the Economics Ministry from February 1938 and the Reichsbank presidency from January 1939; before that, Reich press chief of the government and state secretary in the Propaganda Ministry from 1933 to 1937.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “As far as my participation in this Jewish affair is concerned, that was my responsibility, and I regretted later on that I ever participated. The Party had always brought pressure to bear on me to make me agree to the confiscation of Jewish property, and I refused repeatedly. But later on, when the anti-Jewish measures and the brutality against Jews were being carried out with full force, something legal had to be done to prevent the looting and confiscation of the whole of Jewish property. [...] That is when I should have resigned, in 1938. I am guilty. I am guilty. I admit that I am a guilty party here.”

  All 5 quotes from Walther Funk

Armed forces

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  Wilhelm Keitel

  Chief of the Armed Forces High Command (OKW) · 1938 to 1945

  Wilhelm Keitel: Read more

  Chief of staff to Hitler as supreme commander for all three services; signed the 1938 agreement with Goebbels on propaganda companies and signed the surrender document in Berlin on 8 May 1945.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  All 8 quotes from Wilhelm Keitel

  In the archive: The Wehrmachtbericht's collapse: from 'Endsieg' to Dönitz's surrender broadcasts, 1944-1945

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  Karl Dönitz

  Commander-in-Chief of the Navy; from 30 April 1945 Reich President · 1943 to 1945

  Karl Dönitz: Read more

  Commanded the navy from 30 January 1943 and, under Hitler's testament, succeeded him as head of state; his government at Flensburg was arrested on 23 May 1945.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  All 6 quotes from Karl Dönitz

  In the archive: The Wehrmachtbericht's collapse: from 'Endsieg' to Dönitz's surrender broadcasts, 1944-1945

Propaganda and press

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  Joseph Goebbels

  Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda · 1933 to 1945

  Joseph Goebbels: Read more

  Controlled the press, radio, film, theatre, literature and the arts through the ministry created on 13 March 1933 and the Reich Chamber of Culture, and was NSDAP propaganda chief from 1930; named Reich Chancellor in Hitler's testament and died on 1 May 1945.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “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.”

  “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?”

  “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.”

  All 15 quotes from Joseph Goebbels, and 3 often attributed but not verified

  In the archive: The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, 1933-1945, The 1933 book burnings and Nazi control of publishing, Film under Goebbels: Triumph des Willens (1935) and Der ewige Jude (1940)

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  Otto Dietrich

  Reich Press Chief of the NSDAP and of the Reich government; state secretary in the Propaganda Ministry · 1937 to 1945

  Otto Dietrich: Read more

  Passed Hitler's press wishes to the newspapers from his headquarters and issued the daily press slogan in wartime; became a state secretary in the Propaganda Ministry in November 1937, having led the party's press office since 1931.

  In their words

  “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.”

  “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 !”

  “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.”

  All 8 quotes from Otto Dietrich

  In the archive: The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, 1933-1945