German Propaganda Archive Calvin University

lineBackground: The Sprechabend was a regular part of the Nazi meeting system. Unlike mass meetings, these were evenings at which people (primarily party members) met to discuss the Nazi approach to issues and events. The material here was provided to those who would lead such discussions. This article from the May/June 1944 issue deals with the challenge of persuading Germans to believe that victory was still possible. Party members are to be given arguments to use in discussions at work and with friends to build confidence in ultimate victory.

The source: “Parole Nr. 12: Nun erst recht: Wir glauben an den Sieg!,” Sprechabenddienst, May/June 1944.


Now More Than Ever: We Believe in Victory


In speaking with people’s comrades about the war, one frequently finds that people are persuaded of the necessity of our victory, but as a result of the events of the last year no longer see clearly how that goal can be achieved. How do we help the party comrade? How to we justify our certainty of victory?

First, the foundation of this faith is not a matter of reason. It rests in the depths of feeling and of will. However, each faith is supported by certain facts. We can provide a series of reasons to justify faith in our victory, reasons of military, economic, political, and worldview nature.

Cover1. Militarily, our strength is unbroken. True, we have had setbacks during the past year, but they were not because of military weakness or inability on our part, but rather were the result of political factors, as the Führer has often explained, particularly Italy’s failure (see Sprechabend-Eildienst theme Nr. 5: “One command— win the war”). Some remember the developments of the summer and fall of 1918. No matter how one looks at it, things are much better today. We took the blows without the weakening in morale that lead to collapse in 1918. Our military is intact today despite all the setbacks, and no one knows that better than the enemy. We let him speak here not because his words are of more value than our convictions, but rather to show that he speaks to himself in different ways than in the leaflets or radio broadcasts that he sends our way to cause uncertainty.

The Anglo-Saxons see no lessening of our military strength. Major General Strong, the American vice chief of staff, said early in September 1943 that the German Luftwaffe is stronger today than when the war began, and that Germany has three times as many divisions in the field as it did in September 1939. New inventions will soon surprise our enemies at sea, on land, and in the air.

There is also no decline in morale to weaken our military strength. In a speech on 9 November 1943, Churchill said: “It is clear that when we encounter German troops, they fight with their battle-tested skill.” And General Montgomery, then commander of the 8th Army in Southern Italy, also said in November: “I do not love the Germans, God knows the opposite is true, but I must still admit that they are excellent soldiers. So far I have seen no change in those Germans who made life so difficult for us in Cyrenia and Libya. They are all determined, fanatic Nazis who know war inside out.” The Swedish newspaper Stockholms Tidningen, which is sympathetic to England, summarized things on 16 September in this way: “As long as the outcome depends on the German military and its efforts, the possibility of a decisive blow against Germany is slight, perhaps even impossible.” That is clear enough.

2. Economically, the situation is similar. The food supply is in balance. Even the pessimists have not starved yet, which is the best evidence against pessimism. Even the enemy admits that the results of the blockade have been disappointing. That is why they are trying to wear down our homeland with bombing terror, since starvation has not worked. It was painful, hard to admit, but the Washington Post at the end of the year wrote: “German food rations today are higher in calories than when the war began.”

There is just as little danger in the armaments industry. The enemy admits: “Above all, Germany at present has enough raw materials and industrial plants under its control to increase its war potential over against 1943.” (Reuters, 2.1.1944.) We have some problems in the labor force. Here, too, however, the difficulties of the war have been overcome. The above-mentioned General Strong said: “The number of people employed in the war industries in areas occupied by Germany has risen over the course of the war from 23 to 35 million.” Those are his figures. Sauckel [in charge of importing foreign labor] will know better.

3. Politically, there is no possibility of collapse. True, the homeland has suffered hard blows to its morale because of bombing terror. We do not minimize the effects of air attacks, but the German people has proven itself stronger than those attacks. Swedish scientist Sven Hedin wrote on 25 January 1944: “The Anglo-Saxon air attacks on Germany are literally in vain. Instead of the expected wearing down of morale, they have brought forth fanatic bitterness and iron determination from the German population.” The enemy, too, knows that he has not had the desired effect. The Daily Telegraph wrote in October: “Nothing would be more false than to assume that German morale was about to collapse. In 1918, military collapse preceded the collapse in morale. It is useless to ask wither this time the same thing will happen, or the opposite. There is at present no indication of a collapse of either morale or the military front.” And the Manchester Guardian wrote in mid-January of this year: “No deep collapse in German morale was noticeable after the bombing of Berlin and other cities.”

By the way, the enemy’s speculations ignore the decisive fact: there is no one who could take advantage of a crisis in morale as happened in 1918. There is no organized opposition, as there was then, so there will be no repeat of November 1918. The party makes any political earthquake impossible.

4. Worldview is another basis for our faith. We represent a new order based on social and national justice. It has grown out of life’s laws. The former order no longer is viable. It is old and fragile and in contradiction to the developments of the present. The old has always had to make room for the new in this world, never the other way around. The order of plutocracy must give way to the young peoples. Even now the battle is primarily between Germany and the Soviet Union. From the worldview perspective, it is clear to us that we have deeper right on our side. Bolshevism is not organic, but rather a construct, a system for the cemetery, not for life. We in no way underestimate its military power, which is based in biology. Our faith is the driving force: we say not merely that we will win, but rather: we must win.

This is consistent with the foundations of our worldview. The new triumphs only through battle, often demanding the greatest commitment. We see it as a particular gift of fate that our nature, our abilities, our genetics, stand not in conflict with the laws of life, but rather are consistent with them. Where that is not the case, catastrophe can result, as it did in Italy, where a people not inclined to fight fell to the fighting demands of fate. We are cut from a different timber, and follow a different path. That is a further — and not the least — assurance of victory.

The strongest reason, however, is our faith in the unique nature of the Führer. He is today the same as he always was. He won the greatest victories in our history and fought the hardest battles. He will also master what is to come until a happy conclusion.

[Page copyright © 2013 by Randall Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page.]


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