Hitler: War will turn in Germany’s favor by 1945
Fuehrer grimly promises elimination of anyone who falters during struggle
Saturday, February 24, 1945
LONDON, England (UP) – Adolf Hitler, in a speech read by a henchman, said today that the war will turn in Germany’s favor during “1945.”
Der Fuehrer grimly promised the “elimination” of any German who falters during the struggle.
The German radio reported Hitler’s first reported speech since January 30, 1945. The German DNB Agency said it was read for him at a Munich Nazi Party celebration. It was addressed to old party comrades on the 25th anniversary of the forming of a Nazi Party program.
As he had January 30, he made little effort to gloss over the struggle which faces Germany. He said that each German “must throw everything into the balance so as to free our people from this plight.”
Will happen this year
The speech said:
There must be no doubt that National Socialist Germany will carry on the struggle until the historical turning point takes place, and this will happen during the present year.
Hitler said that to preserve the German nation, its people must be ready “to shoulder every sacrifice in order to safeguard this life for the future.”
Working relentlessly
He said:
My own life has only such value as it has for the nation.
Therefore, I am working relentlessly at the reestablishment and consolidation of our fronts for the defensive and the offensive, at the production and employment of old and new weapons, at the stiffening of the spirit of our resistance, and, if necessary, just as in previous times, at the elimination of all wreckers who either do not join in the struggle for the preservation of our nation or who want to oppose it.
Hitler said he was almost sorry that Allied bombers had not wrecked his house at Berchtesgaden, for had such action been carried out, he could have shared this additional burden with his people.
Can’t stand weakness
He said:
I have read these days in the British papers that the enemies intend to destroy my country house. I almost regret that this has not been done, for whatever I call my own is not more valuable than that which my compatriots possess. I shall be happy to share in carrying unto the last, and as far as is humanly possible, every burden that others have to bear.
The only thing I would be unable to bear would be signs of weakness among my people.
Hitler explained that his sense of duty and his present work kept him from delivering his speech in person, the Berlin radio said. He said that only the Nazi Party program had enabled the Germans, to carry on, and added:
Whoever is amazed at the miracle of the present resistance, or even cannot understand it, ought to consider what it means that I, an unknown man without a name, began a struggle for an idea and thus for a conquest of power, likewise against a united world of enemies.
“We all know how difficult the present struggle is,” he said. “Whatever we may lose in this battle bears no comparison to what we would lose were it not crowned by success.”
