Hermann Goering
The most precious possession that a people can have, its 'freedom and honour,' was threatened. And the German people did its duty. The German army, in order that it should not itself be overthrown and destroyed, march through Belgium. It was self-defence in the highest sense of the word. It is true that the peoples of the different countries, whether of Germany or of England, of France or Russia, felt themselves to be guiltless. They obeyed their governments and did their duty. The German people too, from Emperor to peasant, from Field Marshal to private, were deeply convinced of their own innocence and believed unflinchingly in the justice of their cause. For four long years the German soldier fought heroically and chivalrously. The army and the people suffered grievously from the terrible enemy propaganda concerning so-called atrocities. It may be that our enemies honestly believed that it was necessary to use such Propaganda in order to alienate the sympathies of the world from the brave German people. It may be that they really believed that faked evidence and faked Photos were necessary to this end. Germany knew that all this was simply calumny. To be sure, war is hard. The fate of the individual becomes insignificant over against the fate of whole nations, but it was never the German way to torment and discredit their enemies. Love of cruelty was never part of the Germanic character. Many a French or Belgian child, who had lost a hand or arm or leg which, according to the Photos, had been hacked off by the Germans, could now reveal that these mutilations were caused by the shells or bombs of their own countrymen. Such things are unavoidable in war. I myself fought on the Western Front from the first day of the War to the last, and can state on my word of honour that the German soldiers always endeavoured to ease the hard lot of the civil Population.
Never has any people in the history of the world had to hold its own in such a mighty struggle as the German people were compelled to do during these years. No epic could describe what heroism, what patient endurance, what devotion to duty were shown on all fronts. For four years the German army held at bay a world of enemies, vastly superior in numbers and war material, and defended their country from invasion. For four years the German people endured and suffered grievously as in a besieged city. Every man who was capable of bearing arms, old men and boys, went out to join in the deadly struggle. And at home German women by their Patient endurance and forgetfulness of self proved their greatness and nobility. In spite of all of the enemy's efforts Germany seemed unconquerable. But at last came the bitter end, the terrible defeat.
After long years, during which the blood of the best men had been spilt, after long years of hunger and attrition, a Party consisting of traitors to their country succeeded in confusing the people at home and in poisoning its soul. Supported by enemy propaganda, bribed with the enemy’s money, Social Democrat agitators stirred up the people. Germany, bleeding from a thousand wounds, starving and exhausted, heroically carried on the fight against the enemies from without, but she was no longer strong enough to withstand the enemy within. The people was stirred up against its leaders with the slogan 'For the freedom of your class! For the freedom of the individual!' Strikes in munition works were organized by Social Democrat leaders, and the same leaders drew up appeals to commit treachery or to desert. And so at last the fate of the army - which was still fighting bravely - was sealed. This bravest of all armies had its backbone broken from behind. What the enemy would never have been able to do in open battle they achieved through their alliance with the German Social Democrats; but, in spite of all, the troops unconquered carried back their unspotted shield of honour, and their victorious banners. The mightiest struggle of history was at an end. Germany had lost the War and her freedom, but her enemies were only in appearance the victors. The countries of the west were on the verge of collapse, and Europe threatened to disappear in chaos.