Here are parts of a speech by Rudolf Hess in East Prussia in July 1934
"Our nation has the good fortune today to be led largely by front
soldiers, by front soldiers who carried the virtues of the front to
the leadership of the state.
The rebuilding of the Reich was guided by the spirit of the front. It
was the spirit of the front that created National Socialism.
In the face of looming death at the front, ideas of social standing
and class collapsed. At the front, the sharing of common joys and
common sorrows led to a previously unknown camaraderie between
citizens. At the front, everyone could see that the common fate
towered above the individual fate.
One more thing grew in front fighters, despite the bitter
relentlessness of the battle: The sense of a certain inner connection
with front fighters across No Man's Land, who bore the same burdens,
stood in the same mud, were threatened by the same death.
This feeling of connectedness remains to this day.
It is now true that when front fighters meet, though they were once
enemies, they now share the same memories and opinions. They talk of
the World War, but behind their words they hope for peace. The front
fighters are therefore called to be a bridge of understanding, helping
one nation to understand another when politicians are unable to find
the way...'
"Be honest! Once we stood out there, proud to be true men - soldiers,
fighters, far from the routine of our former lives. We sometimes may
have enjoyed a life that stood in stark contrast to the decadence that
modern culture and its excesses bring. We felt superior to those far
behind the lines who had nothing to do with life at the front. We felt
that we were defending the life of our nation, that we were the
bearers of its future.
Sometimes we had glad and cheerful hours. We attempted to live each
minute of the life that had been given us with double intensity, None
of us wanted to have the time at the front fade from memory.
But be honest again! We sensed the horror of death. We probably saw
death more terribly and intensely than any who came before us. We
crouched in the trenches, waiting for devastating attacks. We held our
breath in fear when we head the shells rushing toward us, when mines
exploded near us. Our hearts almost burst as we vainly sought cover
from the zinging of machine guns. We thought we were suffocating
behind our gas masks. We staggered through water-filled trenches. We
kept watch on frosty nights in the mud of shell holes. We endured days
and weeks of horror during the great battles. We froze and starved and
sometimes came near to desperation. We heard the cries of the badly
wounded, we saw those gasping for breath after gas attacks. We met the
blind staggering along, we heard the death rattles of the dying. Our
last hopes for life vanished amidst the corpses of our comrades. We
saw the misery of refugees behind us. We saw the widows and orphans,
the cripples and the suffering, the sick children, the starving women.
Be honest! Did not each of us say: Why is all this happening? Does it
have to be? Cannot humanity be spared this in the future?!
Still we held on - on our side and on the other side! We held on as
men doing their duty, who displayed discipline and loyalty, men who
abhorred cowardice.
Today I raise the same question to all the world - as a front fighter
to front fighters, as a leader of one people to the leaders of other
peoples: Must it be?! Can we not together through good will spare
humanity from this?!
Someone might ask me: Why do you raise your voice for the first time
today? Why were you silent in past years?
This is my answer: Because my voice would have been mixed together in
Germany with the voices of traitors to their own people - with the
voices of those who once attacked our front soldiers from the rear -
with the voices of those who besmeared front soldiers and praised
cowards - with the voices of those in Germany who have the Treaty of
Versailles on their consciences. I wanted nothing to do with them.
Today I may speak because a man of my people has restored the honor of
this people before the world. Today I may speak because this man has
silenced the traitors. Today I may speak because the world knows that
a National Socialist fighter is no coward. Today I may speak because
the leader of my people extends the hand of peace to the world. Today
I may speak because Adolf Hitler, the bravest of the brave, keeps me
from being misunderstood or confused with cowards.
Today I must speak because I support the man who attempts to save the
world at the last moment from catastrophe. Today I raise my voice
because I want to warn the world not to confuse the Germany of today,
the Germany of peace, with the Germany that was, with the Germany of
pacifism!
People must know this: The horrors of the war are always before us,
and the postwar generation wants war no more than the old generation.
But no one can "stroll through" Germany. Just as the French defended
every inch of their soil in the great war with all their might, and
would do so again today, so too would we Germans today. The French
front soldier above all will understand us when we say to those who
play with the idea of another war - which naturally others would have
to fight at the front, not they: "Just try to attack us! Just try to
march into the new Germany! The world will see the spirit of the new
Germany! It would fight for its freedom as no nation before it has
ever fought!
The French people know how one defends his own soil. Each woods, each
hill, each farm would have to be paid for in blood! Old and young
would dig into the soil of the homeland! They would defend themselves
with unequaled fanaticism!
And even if the superiority of modern weapons triumphed, the path
through the Reich would be a path of grim sacrifice for the invaders
as well, for never was a nation so sure of the justice of its cause
and of the duty to defend itself to the utmost as our nation is today.
But we do not believe the well-poisoners of international relations
who want to suggest to us that some nation wishes to disturb the peace
of Germany, and therefore of Europe, if not even the world.
We particularly do not believe this is true of the French people. We
know that this people too longs for peace. Just as we front fighters
felt, so too did the French population behind the lines, which always
saw the war as a disaster for them and for the whole world: "Malheur
pour nos - malheur pour vos - malheur pour tout le monde!"
We in Germany - and particularly Germany's front soldiers - have
responded with sympathy to the voices in the French veteran's
organizations calling for honest understanding with Germany. This call
surely comes both from experience with the true nature of war as well
as from the esteem that France's front soldiers feel for the
achievements of German front soldiers.
France's soldiers know the bravery the Germans displayed against
superior forces for four and a half years. And German front soldiers
can never deny the French front soldier the honor due his bravery.
This bravery finds expression in the fact that France's army had the
highest losses on the Allied side.
Front soldiers want peace.
The peoples want peace.
Germany's government wants peace.
Even if the words of leading representatives of the French government
from time to time do not display to us a spirit of understanding, we
do not give up hope that despite it all, France's government wants
peace. Since the French people surely want peace, we are convinced
that France's government does not want war with Germany.
And if leading French spokesmen do not speak the language of the
French people or France's front fighters, we may not take their
speeches as the thinking of France's leadership. A Frenchman who knows
the people and politics of his land well told me: "Take pity on us! We
still have a parliamentarian government!" He was saying that statesmen
in their speeches sometimes are forced to say not what they think, but
what parliamentary majorities wish to hear. But we know that
parliamentary majorities are not representative of the opinions of the
people, rather of interest groups that often represent forces outside
the nation.
History surely will give more laurels to men who in difficult times
find the way to bring understanding between peoples, thereby rescuing
culture, than to men who believe they can win victories by political
and military aggression, or even those who achieve real victories.
The peoples themselves will thank those who secure peace, for
unemployment with all its resulting social misery, is primarily the
result of too little commerce between the nations. Such trade is
always hindered by a lack of confidence.
It is undoubtedly the case that good relations between Germany and
France serve not only the two nations as a whole, but also each
individual within both peoples. Concretely, each Frenchman and each
German in the long term will have higher income or higher pay.
Just as little as war and the continuation of war by other means under
the name of "peace" benefit culture and the prosperity of the nations,
so a true peace brings advantages for all.
True peace and real confidence between the nations enable a reduction
in the armaments that today demand a large part of the wealth of
nations as well as that of individual citizens.
Adolf Hitler has said repeatedly that German wishes only equality in
all areas, including armaments. Such an understanding between Germany
and its neighbors will enable Germany to be satisfied with its limited
armaments, which are necessary to guarantee its security and thereby
peace.
A defenseless nation is a danger to peace. Its defenseless all too
easily invites the "attention" of easy attacks by foreign armies. If
one people is defenseless among heavily armed peoples, it is all to
easy for honor-hungry men to earn cheap laurels, for governments to
divert their own peoples by the foreign adventure of a war.
My party comrades, the veterans among you, one of whom I am proud to
be, can testify that veterans wish peace from their deepest
convictions.
The world knows that the front fighter Adolf Hitler reveals his true
thinking with surprising openness. The front fighters in the German
government want honorable peace and understanding. I appeal to the
front fighters in other states, and to those of good will in the
governments of these states, to support us in this goal.
I direct this appeal from the holy soil of East Prussia to the front
soldiers of the world. Here on this German borderland the great world
struggle began, with its terrible sacrifices, sacrifices from which
the warring nations to this day have yet to recover. May the historic
battleground from which I speak add strength to an earnest call for
peace. On Germany's eastern border, treaties guarantee peace for the
inhabitants of large neighboring states. May the governments of the
peoples on the other borders of our Reich soon come to see that there
is greater security for their citizens in peaceful treaties than in
piling up war material. That is our hope.
The memory of Germany's dead, many of whom fell for East Prussia, will
always make Germany's desire for peace strong and powerful!
The veterans of the front and the young fighters for a free, proud and
peaceful Reich greet the front soldiers and the Führer Adolf Hitler."
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