German Propaganda Archive Calvin University

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Background: The Nazi Party’s Central Propaganda Office, the Reichspropagandaleitung, published a monthly bulletin for speakers. It was designed to be kept in notebooks, divided by subject area. This is from the “Enemies of the State” section, and deals with the United States. The material was not confidential, though neither was it readily available to those who were not propagandists. I have a large collection of this material, which can be hard to find, so I have posted an index to my collection.

The source: Aufklärungs- und Redner-Informationsmaterial der Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP., 4 (April, 1939), pp. 1/18- 6/23 (Sta).


Democratic Apostles of Peace


The Testament of George Washington

On 22 February of each year, the birthday of George Washington, the political testament of this American national hero is read to the Congress and the Senate of the United States. As one can imagine, the purpose of reading of the testament is to remind the leadership and people of the United States of the thinking and guidelines of this great statesman and hero of freedom. All Americans, regardless of their political standpoint, admire George Washington. There have been times when any attempt by a government or a president to ignore or violate the directives of the testament would have lead to an immediate fall.

What are the guidelines?

The first president of the States warned his people against “inveterate antipathies” against particular nations and “passionate attachments” for others. He maintained above all that America and Europe have very different interests and political goals. Washington said: “Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have no or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combination and collisions of her friendships or enmities. Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice? It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”

His words are crisp and clear, and their validity has proven itself as they have been followed over the decades. Following them was the foundation of the strong and healthy development of the United States.

In this year 1939 as well, the political testament of the first American president was read. The current President Roosevelt, however, declined to play up the day, though in our opinion he has every reason to recall these words.

Wilson

One previous president of the U.S.A. violated the principles of the testament in the greatest and most blatant manner: the war president Wilson. After a policy of so-called neutralism, which was nothing more than a way to conceal the most active intervention on the part of the United States in European events, and which was accompanied by an enormous campaign of hatred against the Central Powers that was supported by the government and financial powers, the hour came when America openly intervened in European affairs by a declaration of war. It sent troops to the battlefields of France. That president presented himself increasingly as a Messiah who would bring peace to the old world, a peace as he said of equal rights and equal obligations. The American people had to accept the results of their president’s behavior and pay the enormous price. It is still paying today. Given its location, its natural riches, and vast spaces, etc., it should be the richest land one could imagine, yet 13 million of its citizens are starving and face a future with as little promise as the present. The nation suffers under a permanent crisis, with the lives of tens of thousands ruined. Farmers and sharecroppers live in bitter poverty because they find no market for their crops.

This was the price the American people paid for President Wilson’s intervention, and that of his warmongering upper class.

Roosevelt’s Tirade of Hated Against Germany and Italy

Today a man stands at the head of the nation who deserves to be called Wilson II. The first Wilson believed during the years 1916-1919 that he was Europe’s adviser, and thought it necessary to incite his people to war in the cause of civilization and human rights. His successor today, Roosevelt, believes he has to whip his people up for a war against the authoritarian states. Only the terms have changed, but the goals are the same. Wilson “fought” for “civilization” and “human rights” and against “militarism.” Roosevelt is “fighting” for “democracy” and “freedom” and against “authoritarian” states.

Then as now, no means was too bad to incite the people.

We National Socialists have grown accustomed since our takeover in 1933 to the particular attention of the leading politicians of the U.S.A., and of the international Jews who stand behind them. Our defensive measures against international Jewry have aroused increasing tirades against Germany in America. Sometimes it seemed as if it would be impossible to increase the flood of hatred and lies. The past months have shown us otherwise.

Roosevelt’s New Year Address

After leading politicians such as the American Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and Senator Pittman attacked the German government in the foulest manner, President Roosevelt did even more in his New Year address. He tried to persuade the American people that world peace was not assured, and that it was the duty of the American people to defend three vital principles: those of religion, democracy, and international good will. Roosevelt did not believe these principles were threatened by Soviet Russia or Soviet Spain, but rather by authoritarian Germany and Italy.

Millions are dead in Soviet Russia and Spanish priests estimate that a half million people have been murdered there only because of their faith, but that is not important and proves nothing. The dead do not trouble the American president’s conscience, indeed they did not stop him from being the single world statesman to congratulate the Soviet Russian government on the anniversary of the Bolshevist Revolution. No other statesman did this, which explains why no other statesman received such praise from the Soviet press. The Soviet press praised the “noble efforts of the great American statesman.”

Roosevelt also ignored the murder of millions of people when it was called to his attention by a letter from the former Spanish ambassador in Great Britain, the Marquis de Merry del Wal. The ambassador told Mr. Roosevelt the following:

Your country’s press tells the world of Your Excellency’s protests against the “persecution of the Jews” in Germany. According to the press, you are deeply distressed by these events. How is it then that the murder and massacre of 400,000 defenseless men, women and children in Spain has not resulted in the slightest distress on your part? These unfortunate people did not die on the battlefields of a civil war. They were torn from their homes and murdered in public not only because of their political, but also their religious, beliefs. Their murderers openly declared their goal of destroying the very civilization that Your Excellency defends. They have intentionally destroyed thousands of churches and monuments along with uncounted works of art and private homes. They have torn the clothes from nuns and revealed them to everyone’s eyes. They raped women and looted to a degree unknown in the annals of the Christian era.

Your own ambassador, Your Excellency, against all the laws, norms and customs of international law, has been forced to live away from the government to which he is accredited, since as he said his personal security would otherwise be in danger. I further know, Your Excellency, that you have received certain proof of my assertions, for I have made efforts to ensure that you have received reports that support what I have said. Despite that, Your Excellency, you complain about events in Germany, events that cannot be compared with what is happening in Spain — and you have not given even the slightest sign of disapproval at the death of hundreds of thousands of people who have 18 million fellow believers who are among the best citizens of your country, far more than the two million Jews.

These people have been murdered solely because of their beliefs. Mr. Roosevelt, however, has never spoken of a threat to faith or religion. But they were only believers in a Christian church, after all. Mr. Roosevelt is conducting a crusade against the authoritarian states under the banner of religion only because the religious compatriots of his closest friends have been put in their place in the authoritarian states.

If President Roosevelt believes that he has to take the field to defend democracy, we may ask where and when we have ever threatened or attacked democracy. In the past years Germany has done nothing more than to partially undo the injustices inflicted on it by the predecessor of the current president of the U.S.A. Germany has not arbitrarily altered the map of Europe as he did, creating states against the will of their peoples only for purposes of power politics. It has only reclaimed its citizens who suffered a decade long under governments foreign or hostile to Germany. Germany has also not attempted to extend its borders to areas to which it had no reasonable claim, something that other statesman, including Mr. Roosevelt, have done. America’s president has told us that America’s borders extend to the Rhine, though Germany has not claimed to border on America. Germany has not attacked the United States, and has avoided everything that might unsettle America. One need only recall Germany’s refusal in 1898 to accept the offer of the President of San Domingo to establish a German naval base in his country. Germany said then that it had no wish to come in conflict with the United States. But from the beginning of the World War, America did all it could to interfere in European affairs and to support Germany’s enemies by supplying weapons, credit, foodstuffs, etc., until it finally joined the war on the side of our enemies and sent its troops against us. Germany did nothing whatsoever to provoke America’s attack. America’s involvement is an arbitrary act unique in world history. America wanted to avoid the defeat of the Allies and their eventual bankruptcy. It joined the war as the military situation of the Allies became critical and the end was in sight. Such a defeat would have meant that the millions America had lent those nations would have been lost. That is the real story of America’s fight for civilization and humanity. And one should not forget the 14 Points on which Germany trusted as it laid down its weapons, but which proved the worst trap ever a people fell prey to. The brutal consequences of the Treaty of Versailles demonstrated the nature of America’s “battle for freedom.”

Finally, Mr. Roosevelt is fighting for “international good will.” We Germans somehow failed to see any signs of international good will working for Germany’s benefit. Where was it when Germany in good faith in the 14 Points laid down its weapons and waited for “peace negotiations,” or when the enemy states proposed that universal disarmament was dependent on German disarmament, or when German conditions worsened from year to year as it waited for foreign assistance? The Führer, too, appealed to international good will for the equality of Germany with other nations, and is waiting in vain to this day for international good will to restore to us our stolen colonies.

The president of the United States spoke of the “sanctity of treaties.” How many treaties was Germany forced to sign between 1918 and 1933, however, whose sanctity was found only on the German side? Germany had to fulfill the letter of the law. For the other side, treaties were sacred only insofar as they were agreeable (consider the promises of disarmament in the Treaty of Versailles, etc.).

In the face of such bitter experience, how can the American president, of all people, be a supporter of “international good will?”

Incidentally, we believe that President Roosevelt, if he wants to speak of such matters, has more than enough opportunity to look to his own country, and see no reason why he should poke his nose into other people’s affairs before order and decency prevail at home.

The Attitude of the American People

The response on the part of the American people to this New Year address shows us that they reject the plans of their president. He was told that he had no business interfering in the affairs of other countries, and Congress was told to think carefully before permitting the president to engage in foreign adventures. A national article asked if America was threatened by Hitler and if Roosevelt should force the Germans to democracy, something that has been attempted since 1917. The article concluded with these words: “Roosevelt is playing with fire.”

Congressman Hamilton Fish gave an even clearer answer. He gave a radio speech that strongly attacked Roosevelt’s policies and declared that attacks by the president and his cabinet on the so-called dictators could lead only to war. All the totalitarian states that the president was attacking were occupied with their own problems, and would be for years to come. They had no thought of waging war against the United States or Latin America (Central and South America). Representative Fish said he could not be silent when the life, freedom and happiness of his nation were at risk. The time had come to put a stop to the warmongers of the New Deal, behind whom stand the war profiteers, communists and hysterical internationalists who want America to shed its blood and waste its money as the world policeman. Roosevelt’s policies, Fish said, would lead to American involvement in every crisis in the entire world.

His speech was supported by the entire American press. It is also an indication of what the American people really think. The speech must be emphasized because it puts in words what the greater part of the American people think.

Roosevelt’s Answer to the Führer’s Speech: New War Cries

Four weeks after the American president threw the entire world into uncertainty, the Führer spoke to the German Reichstag and the world. Press reactions to his speech show how much the world appreciated the Führer’s calming words. While war cries continued on the other side of the ocean, the Führer said that he believed in a lasting peace. The effects of his words on the rest of the world did not please the American warmongers.

They decided to do something about it. President Roosevelt himself took action. In a closed session, he told the Defense Committee of the Senate that the United States must be ready to support England and France in the event of a European war. The president reportedly even suggested that definite agreements already existed to this effect. He further proposed the unrestricted sale of war materials to Western Europe. The only restriction was that they had to be able to pay for it. When a member of the American Senate asked how this policy could be squared with the law demanding strict neutrality over against Europe, Roosevelt replied: “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

These revelations naturally were a sensation throughout the world. The impact was greater than the master of the White House in Washington wanted. He therefore denied the reports. The force of his denial was somewhat weakened by excited reports in the American press in which various members of Congress refused to be called liars, and furthermore suggested that Roosevelt had said even more during the session than has been reported. The force of the denial was also weakened by a cynical article in a French newspaper that noted that “the strength of the claim has not been weakened, for it is not a matter of the letter of the law, but of the spirit.”

Roosevelt was apparently not satisfied by the reaction of the American people to his comments to the Military Affairs Committee. His visit in the middle of February to American naval maneuvers in Central America was a good opportunity to continue his warmongering. Before leaving, he announced that he “might have to return to Washington earlier than planned because of threatening developments abroad.” Such words from the American president naturally led to further tensions across the world, as did the maneuvers themselves. Roosevelt was embarrassed by his own State Department, however, which announced that it knew of no reason why the situation in Europe was particularly threatening.

America is to be Diverted from its Internal Problems

Why is Roosevelt doing all this?

The reason is clear. The American opposition party asked “Why this warmongering?,” and gave the answer. It claimed that Roosevelt was using such methods to:

1) to conceal the embarrassing sale of the most modern American warplanes to France,

2) to divert the attention of the public from unsolved domestic problems, and

3) to provide a reason for his premature return (from the naval maneuvers), which might have some impact on Congress.

We would add a fourth point: Roosevelt is acting as the mouthpiece and puppet of international Jewry when he attacks the authoritarian states. They want to use every means to destroy the newly awakened nations.

There will be a presidential election in the United States next year. People think that Roosevelt may want to run for a third term, or at least ensure that one of his close party associates succeeds him. He has done nothing at all to alleviate unemployment, improve the lot of the farmer, etc. The American people must be distracted from the complete failure of their president. Roosevelt seems to find no means too foul to accomplish this end. The only parallel we can see is to the rules of Soviet Russia or Soviet Spain. They, too, tried and tried to conceal their failures by unleashing world war. The leaders of the Soviet Union tried to persuade their people that true communism could only develop after all the other states of the world were allies of the powers in Moscow, and the Red rulers in Soviet Spain tried and tried to conceal their governmental incompetence by unleashing a world conflict. We are not surprised to see the American president in such company. The real rulers of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union are the same as in the United States: international Jewry.

The truth of this claim is confirmed by the behavior of the wife of the American president. Mrs. Roosevelt, as a sign of her support for the Spanish Bolshevist rulers, accepted a gift of stolen etchings by Spanish masters. Mrs. Roosevelt chaired an exhibition of busts of Spanish communist leaders, made by the Jew Josef Davidson. She also invited the well-known top Bolshevist Toller to lunch. She surrounds herself with wounded bigwigs of Soviet Spain, under whose orders 500,000 Spaniards were killed only because they were faithful to their beliefs and their religion.

We need not wonder that numerous minor satellites circling Roosevelt attempt to equal, even surpass, their lord and master.

Senator Pittman, for example, believed he could increase his significance when he told the Senate at the end of December that the people of the U.S.A. did not like the governments of Japan and Germany. Since the U.S. public had not been asked its opinion, and had never had such an opinion, the American people whose opinion Mr. Pittman claimed to report consisted only of himself. It was not a very convincing opinion.

This same Pittman was plunged into ecstasy by Roosevelt’s New Year address and felt it necessary to add something himself. Speaking for himself, but naturally for the whole country as well, he declared that Congress was ready to declare moral, economic, and financial sanctions against the dictatorships, and that the United States would help the democratic nations in their struggle against the dictators by all means short of war. The innocent reader might assume that Senator Pittman was against war. He would not have such an impression if he heard what Mr. Pittman considered to be support short of war.

When asked what support “short of war” meant, he cynically replied: “Why shoot a man when you can starve him?” Mr. Pittman favors war against innocent women and children. He wants to condemn a people to starvation in his struggle for “humanity.” That’s the way American humanitarians are.

The American Interior Secretary Harold Ickes is just like Mr. Pittman. He has regularly made his opinions about Germany known. He was the one who, after the Hindenburg catastrophe in Lakehurst refused to supply helium to Germany, since Germany might attack America with its airships. Mr. Ickes also made the suggestion that the American post office should boycott German ships.

In all these attacks we see the work of the Jews who have particular strength in the United States. America today is not governed by men like Roosevelt, Ickes, etc., but rather its fate is determined by the Jews who stand behind them, Jews like Baruch, Frankfurter, Morgenthau, etc. They are the real rulers of America, and Roosevelt, Ickes, etc., are only their tools. The fact that this is known in America is evident from a variety of newspaper articles. The New York Daily News, for example, wrote that “the wave of anti-Semitism in America has increased significantly in recent weeks and months.” The fact that the Jew Bernard Baruch, the president’s closest adviser, is called the unofficial president of the United States is proof of this fact.

But enough of that. We refuse to interfere in the affairs of other nations. We think that every country gets the Jews that it deserves.

But we demand the same principle be extended to us. Let Mr. Roosevelt carry out his reforms and crusades in his own country. He will not live long enough to do it all. We do not think we have yet seen anything on the other side of the ocean that is worth imitating. We think it not a sign of ability, but rather of incompetence, that a nation with such enormous resources and space, with all modern methods, finds itself in such mass misery and is unable to do anything to alleviate that misery.

Where would Roosevelt be if he had had to deal with the situation the Führer faced when he took power in Germany? Mr. Roosevelt has agricultural resources more than sufficient to feed the country, yet his people are starving. His country has enormous resources, yet millions are unemployed. There is only one conclusion to be drawn.

Let these men say what they want about Germany. We know that the Führer has taken the proper steps to deal with the future. He has built us up militarily to the point that anyone will think twice before attacking us. But he has also shown us the way for Germany to become increasingly independent of the favor or disfavor of the rest of the world. That may make others envious. Such envy and dislike are the real cause for the absurd attacks that are always being made in America against Germany.

[Page copyright © 1998 by Randall Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page.]


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