Background: The Nazi Party depended heavily on speakers to get its message across. Those speakers needed to be informed. The following is a translation of instructions to speakers in October 1942. Winter was coming and the German summer offensive was stalling. People remembered the difficulties of the previous winter. Consistent with general propaganda methods, people were to be told that they faced a long war, but that victory was certain.

The source: Redner-Schnellinformation, Lieferung 41, 23 October 1942.

Speaker Express Information

The most recent speeches by the Führer, the Reich Marshall, Reich Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels extensively discuss the current military and political situation and the goals of this war for the German people. These speeches handle all the fundamental questions that our people have, and must, therefore, be used by all speakers as the foundation of their speeches in the coming period. The following ideas are to be presented to the people:

1. Our military successes in the East have expanded our living space and created the foundations for a secure future for the German people.
2. The strengthening of our supplies of raw materials and food in the newly-won territories will make it increasingly clear that we have gained a real increase in our military potential and that the length of the war is no longer of decisive significance to us, which is what our enemies had hoped for. Time is working for us.
3. The facts completely refute the enemy’s claim that “Hitler is winning himself to death.” They prove that the battles we won gained raw materials and food supplies that strengthen us. Adolf Hitler’s systematic leadership does not strive only for prestige victories, but also considers the necessities of everyday life.
4. The increase in food rations is the visible expression of this development, which is a first result of the splendid victories of our Wehrmacht.
5. The most pressing task now is to organize and make productive the territory that our soldiers have conquered. That is only a question of time. We must have patience. The decisive thing is that we have the foundations to extent our living space.
6. Although a steady increase in our potential is to be expected. our enemy has lost strength and must inevitably lose more. If the use of this newly-won territory is not immediately beneficial to Germany to a large extent, since the Soviets ruined and destroyed almost everything, it is nonetheless decisive that these areas and their rich reserves of raw materials, their large industrial facilities, and their fruitful soil are lost to the Soviets. They no longer have these raw food supplies and materials at their disposal. Our enemy can no longer win the war.
7. In discussing the situation, however, avoid absolutely raising expectations among our people of an immediate improvement, particularly with regards to food supplies. Things will have to move slowly. No one should think that there will be increases in the next ration period. And the coming winter will not be easier. It will place demands on us all. The decisive thing, however, is that we were not compelled to reduce the rations, but rather could increase them.

All speakers, therefore, have the duty to present things in a way that will be each the conviction that we still face a hard and difficult battle until final victory, but that it is already certain that we can be defeated neither militarily nor economically. Victory can no longer be taken from us.

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