Hermann Goering

17. FOR EQUAL RIGHTS, HONOUR AND PEACE

But then Adolf Hitler showed that he was not only the re-awakener of Germany at home, but, as he now demonstrated to the world for the first time, in foreign politics also a statesman of the highest rank. Into the midst of this tense atmosphere he hurled his famous peace speech before the Reichstag. The world waited feverishly on that afternoon for what the new German Chancellor, the much abused man, the wild militarist, would now have to say. And he spoke of the German people's deep desire for peace, of its terrible poverty and distress ; he spoke of how it needed all its forces to come out of this distress. He spoke, too, of his fight against subversive influences and against unemployment, and solemnly declared before the whole world that nobody in Germany and no German statesman thought of attacking any other country, and that the new Germany wanted to co-operate with her neighbours in a spirit of sincere mutual esteem. But he spoke, too, with deep earnestness and glowing eloquence of the reawakened German feeling of honour, of Germany's desire to be master of her destiny. He pointed out also that we had made great sacrifices to the cause of European peace and were willing to make still further sacrifices, but that there was one thing that could never be abandoned, one thing that even the most cowardly could never yield, the one thing that for a people, if it would be free, was more vitally necessary than air - the nation's honour.

Our enemies were disappointed and filled with rage that in a few hours this masterly speech had torn to bits their whole network of lies. But in other countries those men sighed with relief who really wished for peace, and therefore understood that one could not require of a great people like the Germans what one would oneself feel to be unbearable. The threatening thunderstorm seemed to have passed. But the enemies of Germany went on working feverishly in order to increase to an immeasurable extent Germany's difficulties in the League of Nations and to plunge the German people into grievous conflicts. In the Disarmament Conference responsibility had been shifted on to the wrong shoulders. The disarmament of the highly armed States was no longer discussed. The proposals in this direction were hardly worth serious consideration. Here, too, the discussions were concerned solely with Germany. The disarmed and, from a military point of view, weakest country, was to be still further disarmed. Germany was again to be stamped before the world as the disturber of European peace. Shameful conditions were to be imposed on Germany in order to humiliate the Hitler regime before its own people and before the world. The politicians at Geneva were superior in cunning to our negotiators. They cleverly managed always to present Germany as being obstinate and unyielding. Suddenly in bombastic, hypocritical words they declared that the equality, to be true only a theoretical equality, which had been promised to a Schleicher Germany in December could not apply to a Hitler Germany.

One could now clearly see what they were aiming at. We Germans now knew what would happen at the Disarmament Conference at Geneva. There was only one thing now at stake and which could not be the subject of bargaining. This was our honour and the question of our equality among the nations. After fully considering the matter and carefully examining his own conscience, Hitler did the one thing possible. He took the bold step of checkmating the League of Nations and its intrigues in one move by declaring that Germany would withdraw from the Conference and the League. Once more the Press answered this bold and skilful move with a howl of rage.

How could Hitler permit himself to escape from the net which had been laid, and how could Germany dare to break the traditional and popular rules of the Geneva game in which Germany had always to be the loser! At last the League of Nations was forced to realize that it was up against a first-class opponent.

But Hitler had freed himself from oppressive and unbearable fetters. Germany, for fifteen years bound and impotent in foreign politics, had at last regained her freedom of action. For the first time Germany was not merely the anvil; for the first time the hammer blows of an active German foreign policy sounded. By joining the Four Power Pact, the brilliant conception of that really great statesman, Mussolini, Germany had shown that she was ready to associate herself with any conference or political action which seemed honestly to serve the cause of peace.

Simultaneously with her departure from Geneva the last election campaign began in Germany. This election was not, like the previous ones, a struggle between innumerable fronts. A united nation was defending itself as one man; it was demanding as one man that it should be granted equal rights, and was fighting as one man for its honour against those countries that were hostile to Germany. The German people showed the world that it was desirous of collaborating with all its strength in any policy that would really serve the peace of the world. But, on the other hand, it also showed the world that if it wished to negotiate with Germany it must grant this Germany the same respect, the same rights and honour, that other nations would demand for themselves. The German people, almost to the last man and the last woman, supported their leader and his policy of freedom and honour. Germany has also in the future no desire to rob or humiliate any other nation, but this same Germany will not allow any nation to rob or humiliate her.

May the other peoples realize that the Leader in Germany is the first guarantor of European peace. For the task which Hitler has taken over, and the fight which he is waging at home, does not only concern Germany. Hitler's mission is of importance for the history of the whole world, because he took up a war to the death against Communism and therewith raised a bulwark for the other European nations. Many times before in world history have mighty spiritual struggles been decided on German territory. It is our solemn belief that if, in the mighty struggle between Communism and National Socialism, the former had won, then the deadly bacillus would have spread from Communist Germany to the other European countries. The day will come when the other countries will begin to realize this, and on that day France, England and other peoples will be thankful that at the critical moment there was an Adolf Hitler in Germany.