Dr. Goebbels: Germans warned of ‘grave danger’
‘May not fight again for 10 to 50 years’
London, England – (July 8)
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels told the German people today that the Reich is in “grave danger” and that if it is destroyed, Germany “will not have a chance to repeat this struggle for another 10, 20 or 50 years,” the DNB News Agency reported.
Goebbels’ warning, coming almost immediately after Adolf Hitler’s admission to German industrialists that the Reich’s industries were being far outstripped by the Allies, was directed to a mass meeting of 200,000 Germans at an unidentified town “in the east” and broadcast for German consumption.
Warns of nation’s fate
In an apparent attempt to frighten the German people into working and fighting with the energy of desperation, Goebbels said:
Our enemies have made it cynically clear what fate awaits the nation in the event of the defeat they hope and strain for.
Our enemies will not be satisfied with destroying our industries, paralyzing our economic life, transporting our soldiers and workers to Siberia and slashing our country to pieces.
No, they wish on their own testimony to destroy the German nation in its national substance.
‘Still chance for victory’
“Every single German must now act as though his life is in danger,” he said.
Despite the deepening crisis, Goebbels told the Germans they “still hold all chances of victory in our hands,” asserting that the Allies face growing difficulties, too.
Goebbels said the real decisive fighting was still to come. He said:
At Cherbourg, German troops not only fought to the last cartridge but to the last drop of blood, showing that the word capitulation did not exist in their vocabulary.