Chapter LXII: Book 11: , Reichsfuehrer SS HEINRICH HIMMLER (4)

If I did not see this part, I would deny life to this most positive and most manly part of our activity; i.e., the Armed SS. I would deny your life. Because this armed SS will live only if the entire SS is alive. If the entire corps is actually an order which lives according to these laws and realizes that one part cannot exist without the other--you are unimaginable without the general SS, and the latter is not imaginable without you. The police is not imaginable without the SS, nor are we imaginable without this executive branch of the state which is in our hands. The Fuehrercorps is not imaginable without the national-political institutions of education which we are building up now, and vice versa we cannot fill up our ranks without contact with the youth, we cannot exist without the business enterprises. A field which probably is unknown to most of you because nothing has ever been said about it. I want to tell you just a little bit of it: The apartment-building program which is the prerequisite for a healthy and social basis of the entire SS as well as of the entire Fuehrercorps can be carried out only when I get the money for it from somewhere; nobody is going to give me the money, it must be earned, and it will be earned by forcing the scum of mankind, the prisoners, the professional criminals to do positive work. The man, guarding these prisoners, serves just as hard as the one on close-order drill. The one who does this and stands near these utterly negative people will learn within 3 to 4 months * * * and we shall see: In peacetime I shall form guard-battalions and put them on duty for 3 months only--to fight the inferior being [Untermenschentum], and this will not be a boring guard duty, but if the officers handle it right, it will be the best indoctrination on inferior beings and the inferior races. This activity is necessary, as I said, 1. to eliminate these negative people from the German people, 2. to exploit them once more for the great folk community by having them break stones and bake bricks so that the Fuehrer can again erect his grand buildings and 3. to in turn invest the money, earned soberly this way, in houses, in ground, in settlements so that our men can have houses in which to raise large families and lots of children. This in turn is necessary because we stand or die with this leading blood of Germany and if the good blood is not reproduced we will not be able to rule the world. Please understand: We would not be able to hold the great Germanic Reich which is about to take shape. I am convinced, that we can hold it, but we have to prepare for that. If we once had not enough sons those who will come after us will have to become cowards. A nation which has an average of 4 sons per family can venture a war: if 2 of them die, 2 transplant the name. The leadership of a nation having one son or two sons per family will have to be faint-hearted at any decision on account of their own experience because they will have to tell themselves: We cannot afford it. Look at France, which is the best example. France had to accept from us a dictate. It could no longer dictate to us because they could not continue. All the things which sometimes seem strange to you because other things were more urgent during the last 2 years, because I could not explain them sufficiently to you, the leaders, because sometimes I did not explain them to you in order not to make too public what was just starting life, so that the tender nursling would not be pulled out by people who don’t like us. I preferred that very often not even my own troops knew anything about it and let the small nursling secretly grow into a small tree. Then when it is big, nowadays everything is big, now the trees are not being uprooted. Everything that seemed strange to you: “Why do we have to contribute to the spring of life [Lebensborn]?” “Why do we have to join the saving’s cooperative?” “Why do we have to do this and to do that?” If anything like that turns up, I demand from you in future:

In the first place be SS men who have the creed that everything being done is all right. One piece fits the other, even if you don’t recognize it beforehand, even if it does not appear at first sight that they fit each other. In the end, everything will be all right. The ultimate aim for those 11 years during which I have been the Reichsfuehrer SS has been invariably the same: To create an order of good blood which is able to serve Germany. Which unfailingly and without sparing itself can be made use of because the greatest losses can do no harm to the vitality of this order, the vitality of these men, because they will always be replaced. To create an order which will spread the idea of nordic blood so far that we will attract all nordic blood in the world, take away the blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again, looking at it from the viewpoint of grand policy, nordic blood in great quantities and to an extent worth mentioning will fight against us. We must get it and the others cannot have it. We never gave up the ideas and the aim conceived so many years ago. Everything we did has taken us some distance further on the way. Everything we are going to do will lead us further on the way. It can only be carried out, if everyone of us looks beyond the things he likes in his activity, his company, his regiment--and you are supposed to love it you may be proud of it--looks beyond it towards the great common goal, here the SS, and the SS also is only a means to an end, always the Reich, the ideology, created by the Fuehrer, the Reich, created by him, the Reich of all teutons.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1919-PS

Speech of the Reichsfuehrer-SS at the meeting of SS Major-Generals at
Posen October 4th, 1943

The 1941 attack

In 1941 the Fuehrer attacked Russia. That was, as we can well see now, shortly,--perhaps 3 to 6 months--before Stalin prepared to embark on his great penetration into Central and Western Europe. I can give a picture of this first year in a few words. The attacking forces cut their way through. The Russian Army was herded together in great pockets, ground down, taken prisoner. At that time we did not value the mass of humanity as we value it today, as raw material, as labour. What after all, thinking in terms of generations, is not to be regretted, but is now deplorable by reason of the loss of labour, is that the prisoners died in tens and hundreds of thousands of exhaustion and hunger [p. 3].

It is basically wrong for us to infuse all our inoffensive soul and spirit, our good-nature, and our idealism into foreign peoples [p. 22]. This is true since the time of Herder who clearly wrote “Voices of the Nations” [Stimmen der Voelker], in a state of drunkenness, thereby bringing [p. 23] on us, who come after him, such immeasurable sorrow and misery. This is true for instance, of the Czechs and the Slovenes to whom we gave their consciousness of nationality. They were just not capable of it themselves; we had to discover it for them.

One basic principle must be the absolute rule for the SS man: we must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and to nobody else. What happens to a Russian, to a Czech does not interest me in the slightest. What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death [verrecken--to die--used of cattle] interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our Kultur; otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished. We shall never be rough and heartless when it is not necessary, that is clear. We Germans, who [p. 24] are the only people in the world who have a decent attitude towards animals, will also assume a decent attitude towards these human animals. But it is a crime against our own blood to worry about them and give them ideals, thus causing our sons and grandsons to have a more difficult time with them. When somebody comes to me and says, “I cannot dig the anti-tank ditch with women and children, it is inhuman, for it would kill them,” then I have to say, “You are a murderer of your own blood because if the anti-tank ditch is not dug, German soldiers will die, and they are sons of German mothers. They are our own blood.” That is what I want to instil into the SS and what I believe have instilled into them as one of the most sacred laws of the future. Our concern, our duty is our people and our blood. It is for them that we must provide and plan, work and fight, nothing else. We can be indifferent to everything else. I wish the SS to adopt this attitude to the problem of all foreign, non-Germanic peoples, especially Russians. All else is vain, fraud against our own nation and an obstacle to the early winning of the war.

Foreigners in the Reich

We must also realize that we have 6 to 7 million foreigners in Germany. Perhaps it is even 8 million now [p. 43]. We have prisoners in Germany. They are none of them dangerous so long as we take severe measures at the merest trifle. It is a mere nothing today to shoot 10 Poles, compared with the fact that we might later have to shoot tens of thousands in their place, and compared to the fact that the shooting of these tens of thousands would then be carried out even at the cost of German blood. Every little fire will immediately be stamped out and quenched, and extinguished,--otherwise--as in the case of a real fire--a political and psychological surface-fire may spring up among the people.

The Communists in the Reich

I don’t believe the Communists could attempt any action, for their leading elements, like most criminals, are in our concentration camps. And here I must say this--that we shall be able to see after the war what a blessing it was for Germany that, in spite of all the silly talk about humanitarianism, we imprisoned all this criminal sub-stratum of the German people in concentration camps: I’ll answer for that. If they were going about free, we should be worse off. For then the sub-humans would have [p. 44] their NCOs and Commanding Officers, then they would have their councils of workers and military. As it is, however, they are locked up, and are making shells or projectile cases or other important things, and are very useful members of human society.

The SS in wartime

Now I come to our own development, to that of the SS in the past months. Looking back on the whole war, this development was fantastic [p. 51]. It took place at an absolutely terrific speed. Let us look back a little to 1939. At that time we were a few regiments, guard units [Wachverbaende] 8 to 9,000 strong,--that is, not even a division, all in all 25 to 28,000 men at the outside. True, we were armed, but really only got our artillery regiment as our heavy arm two months before the war began. We will recapitulate which tasks, which duties, and which assignments we have been given in the last 4½ years. But first I would like to enumerate and make known once more some outward changes.

Changes in Personnel

The following changes have taken place at the Main Offices:

Our comrade, SS Lieutenant General Kaltenbrunner has succeeded our fallen friend Heydrich. Unfortunately he is ill today. He has phlebitis, but it is, I am glad to say, not dangerous. That [p. 52] is why he could not come.

Our old friend Daluege has such severe heart trouble that he has to undergo courses of treatment and now has to retire from active service for 1½ to 2 years.--I would like this evening to send our two friends, Daluege especially, and Kaltenbrunner too, a teleprint or a telegram in the name of all of us. As I have said, we may hope that Daluege will have recovered in about two years, and can then return to the front and get into harness.

SS Lieutenant General Wuennenberg is in charge as his deputy. He has been in charge of the police division up till now, and was then appointed to be Officer Commanding IVth SS armored corps. He is General of the Waffen-SS and the police, and is in charge of the uniformed regular police [ordnungspolizei] as their Head.

SS-Gruppenfuehrer Breithaupt has succeeded our old comrade and friend Scharfe as Chief of the SS-court of justice.

SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Hofmann has made a change. He has given up the Main office for race and settlement [Rasse--u. Siedlungshauptamt] and has become Senior Executive SS and Police Officer [Hoehre SS--und Polizeifuehrer] for the South-West.

SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Hildebrandt has left Oberabschnitt Weichsel, and has become Chief of the Main Office for race and settlement [p. 53].

SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Schmidt has left the Head Office for Personnel at his own request and has joined my personal staff for special duties. He is succeeded by SS-Gruppenfuehrer von Herff.

One of my closest and most long-standing colleagues, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Wolff, has now, I am glad to say, recovered completely from a severe illness which greatly endangered his life--(it was an operation for removing stones from the kidney)--and is now,--this is a new appointment--Supreme Executive SS and Police Officer for the whole of occupied Italy. He therefore has charge of 25 to 30 million people. Under him he has SS-Gruppenfuehrer Globocnik as Senior Executive SS and Police Officer for the coastal area. He too could not come today.

Senior Executive SS and Police Officers have since been appointed as follows: for Croatia--Kammerhofer, who on account of the Croatians is not called Senior Executive SS and Police Officer, but Commissioner of the Reichsfuehrer SS; for Serbia, Meyszner was appointed earlier, for Greece--[p. 54] Stroob at the moment but--I would like to tell you this now--I am transferring him from there to Schimana. Officials in Greece will become Senior Executive SS and Police Officers, and thus not command the Galician SS--Volunteer Division. SS-Gruppenfuehrer Pancke is to become Senior Executive SS- and Police Officer for Denmark.

Chief of the Anti-partisan Units [Bandenkampf-Verbaende]

In the meantime I have also set up the department of Chief of the anti-partisan units [p. 57]. Our comrade SS-Obergruppenfuehrer von dem Bach is Chief of the anti-partisan units. I considered it necessary for the Reichsfuehrer SS to be in authoritative command in all these battles, for I am convinced that we are best in a position to take action against this enemy struggle, which is a decidedly political one. Except where the units which had been supplied and which we had formed for this purpose were taken from us to fill in gaps at the front, we have been very successful.

It is notable that, by setting up this department we have gained [p. 58] for the SS in turn a division, a corps, an army, and the next step, which is the High Command of an army or even of a group--if you wish to call it that.

Regular uniformed Police and the Sipo

Now to deal briefly with the tasks of the regular uniformed police and the Sipo. They still cover the same field. I can see that great things have been achieved. We have formed roughly 30 police regiments from police reservists and former members of the police--police officials as they used to be called. The average age in our police battalions is not lower than that of the Security battalions of the Armed Forces. Their achievements are beyond all praise. In addition, we have formed Police Rifle Regiments by merging the police battalions of the “savage peoples”. Thus we did not leave these police battalions untouched but blended them in the ratio of about 1:3. That is why we have, at the present moment of crisis, a far greater stability than could be seen among the other units made up of natives or local inhabitants.

SS-industrial concerns

I now come to other individual great spheres of activity, of which it is important for you all to know [p. 63]. We have huge armament works in the concentration camps. This is the sphere of activity of our friend SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl. Every month we put in many millions of hours of work for armaments. We tackle the most thankless tasks and--I must give this its [p. 64] due--whether in the concentration camps, in Pohl’s industrial works, or outside at the offices of the Senior Executive SS and Police Officers or in the workshops of the Head Office of SS administration, one thing is obvious: wherever we are, we are SS-men. Where things are in a bad way, we act. I want every subordinate trained to this end. We want to help, unhampered by quibbles regarding authority, for we want to win the war. What we are doing, we are doing for Germany. Whether it is a question of building a road, if a tunnel is not going ahead somewhere, or if it is an invention which for sheer red-tape does not come to fruition, or anything else; where we can get to work, we get to work. What we are doing in our armament works will be a remarkable and noteworthy achievement, even if we can only assess it and prove it when the war is ended.

The Clearing out of the Jews

I also want to talk to you, quite frankly, on a very grave matter. Among ourselves it should be mentioned quite frankly, and yet we will never speak of it publicly. Just as we did not hesitate on June 30th, 1934 to do the duty we were bidden, and stand comrades who had lapsed, up against the wall and shoot them, so we have never spoken about it and will never [p. 65] speak of it. It was that tact which is a matter of course and which I am glad to say, is inherent in us, that made us never discuss it among ourselves, never to speak of it. It appalled everyone, and yet everyone was certain that he would do it the next time if such orders are issued and if it is necessary.

I mean the clearing out of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race. It’s one of those things it is easy to talk about--“The Jewish race is being exterminated”, says one party member, “that’s quite clear, it’s in our program--elimination of the Jews, and we’re doing it, exterminating them.” And then they come, 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. Of course the others are vermin, but this one is an A-1 Jew. Not one of all those who talk this way has witnessed it, not one of them has been through it. Most of _you_ must know what it means when 100 corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1000. To have stuck it out and at the same time--apart from exceptions caused by human weakness--to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be [p. 66] written, for we know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves, if--with the bombing raids, the burdens and the deprivations of war--we still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators and trouble-mongers. We would now probably have reached the 1916/17 stage when the Jews were still in the German national body.

We have taken from them what wealth they had. I have issued a strict order, which SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl has carried out, that this wealth should, as a matter of course, be handed over to the Reich without reserve. We have taken none of it for ourselves. Individual men who have lapsed will be punished in accordance with an order I issued at the beginning, which gave this warning: Whoever takes so much as a mark of it, is a dead man. A number of SS men--there are not very many of them--have fallen short, and they will die, without mercy. We had the moral right, we had the duty to our people, to destroy this people which wanted to destroy us. But we have not the right to enrich ourselves with so much as a fur, a watch, a mark, or a cigarette or anything else. Because we have exterminated a bacterium we do not want, in the end, to be infected by the bacterium and die of it. I will not see so much as a small area of sepsis appear here or gain a [p. 67] hold. Wherever it may form, we will cauterize it. Altogether however, we can say, that we have fulfilled this most difficult duty for the love of our people. And our spirit, our soul, our character has not suffered injury from it.

The bearing of the SS-man

If I make a statement for us all and in the presence of all of us of all that we have done this year in the form of--I would almost say--a statement of accounts, then there is one thing that I must not overlook and pass over: the significance of the bearing of the SS-man.

The Principle of Selection

We are a product of the law of selection [p. 70]. We have made our choice from a cross-section of our people. This people came into being aeons ago, through generations and centuries, by the throw of the dice of fate and of history. Alien peoples have swept over this people and left their heritage behind them. Alien blood-streams have flowed into this people, but it has, nevertheless in spite of terrible hardships and terrible blows of fate, still had strength in the very essence of its blood to win through. Thus this whole people is saturated with, and held together by Nordic-Phalian-Germanic blood, so that after all one could, and can, still speak of a German people. From this people, of such varied hereditary tendencies, as it emerged from the collapse after the years of the battle of liberation, we have now consciously tried to select the Nordic-Germanic blood, for we could best expect this section of our blood to contain the creative, heroic and life-preserving qualities of our people. We have gone partly by outward appearances, and for the rest have kept these outward appearances in review by making constantly new demands, and by repeated tests both physical and mental, both of the character and the soul. Again and again we have sifted out and cast aside what was [p. 71] worthless, what did not suit us. Just as long as we have strength to do this will this organization remain healthy. The moment we forget the law which is the foundation of our race, and the law of selection and austerity towards ourselves, we shall have the germ of death in us, and will perish just as every human organization, every blossom in this world does some time perish. It must be our endeavour, our inner law, to make this blossoming and fructifying last for our people as long as possible, bringing as much prosperity as possible, and--don’t be alarmed--if possible for thousands of years. That is why, whenever we meet and whatever we do, we must be mindful of our principle: blood, selection, and austerity. The law of nature is just this: What is hard is good; what is vigourous is good; whatever wins through in the battle of life, physically, purposefully and spiritually, that is what is good--always taking the long view. Of [p. 72] course sometime--and this has happened often in history--someone can get to the top by deceit and cheating. That makes no difference to nature, to the fate of the earth, to the fate of the world. Reality, that is, Nature, Fate, removes the impostor after a time--time not reckoned in generations of man but in historical periods. It must be our endeavour never to deceive ourselves, but always to remain genuine, that is what we must continually preach and instill into ourselves, and into every boy and each one of our subordinates.

The SS after the war

One thing must be clear, one thing I would like to say to you today: the moment the war is over, we will really begin to weld together our organization, this organization which we have built up for 10 years, which we imbued and indoctrinated with the first most important principles during the 10 years before the war. We must continue to do this--we,--if I may say so, we older men--for twenty years full of toil and work, so that a tradition 30, 35, 40 years, a generation, may be created. Then this organization will march forward into the future young and strong, revolutionary and efficient to fulfill the task of giving the German people, the Germanic people the super-stratum of society which will combine and hold together this Germanic people and this Europe, and from which the brains which the people needs for industry, farming, politics, and as soldiers, statesmen and technicians, will emerge. In addition this super-stratum must be so strong and vital that every generation can unreservedly sacrifice two or three sons from every family on the battlefield, and that nevertheless the continued flowing of the bloodstream is assured.

The Virtues of the SS-Man

I will speak now of the most important virtues which I began years ago to preach and to impress on this organization, on this whole General-SS [Allgemeine-SS]--for that is the basis of this organization--and which are just now in the 5th year of war of such decisive significance and importance.

1. Loyalty

We have, I am glad to say, not had a single case among our ranks so far, of an SS-Man being disloyal. Let this one thing be our guiding principle: If within the sphere of your knowledge there is ever anyone who is disloyal to the Fuehrer or to the Reich, even if it is only in thought, you must see to it that this man is thrown out of the organization and we will see to it that he departs this life [p. 74]. For everything,--I have said this one already and repeat it today,--everything can be forgiven in this world, but one thing cannot be forgiven among us Teutons: that is disloyalty. It would be unforgivable and is unforgivable. Downfalls, like the downfall of Badoglio in Italy must not and will not happen in Germany. The name Badoglio will in future be the name for bad dogs, the name of abuse for four-legged mongrel curs, just as in the olden days the name Thersites was the name of abuse for traitors.--We can only say one thing and preach it constantly: Let the German people show, by unparalleled and wholehearted loyalty on the part of each one of its men and each one of its women that is worthy of being permitted to live at the time of an Adolf Hitler, and worthy of this leader having arisen for it, who has dedicated his life full of care, full of responsibility, full of work, to our German Teutonic people.

2. Obedience

Obedience is demanded and given in the soldier’s life morning, noon, and night. And the little man always obeys or usually does. If he does not, he is put in prison. The question of obedience in [p. 75] the case of senior officials in the state, party and the army, and even here and there in the SS, is more difficult. I would like here to state something clearly and unequivocally: It is a matter of course that the little man must obey. It is even more a matter of course that all the senior leaders of the SS, that is, the whole corps of Gruppenfuehrer, are a model of blind obedience. If anyone thinks that an order is based on a misunderstanding on the part of the superior or on a false basis it goes without saying that it is his duty and responsibility--that is, the duty and responsibility of every one of you--to say so, and also to state his reasons truthfully like a man if he is convinced that they deprecate the order. But the moment the superior concerned or the Reichfuehrer-SS--that applies to the Corps of Gruppenfuehrer in most cases--or even the Fuehrer has made the decision and given the order, it must be carried out, not only in word and letter, but also in spirit. Whoever carries out the order must do so as a good steward, as a true representative of the authority giving the command. If you thought at first that this would be right and that that would not be right or even wrong, then there are two alternatives. Thus if a man thinks that he cannot be answerable for obeying an order, then he should say quite honestly: [p. 76] I cannot be answerable for it. I beg you to excuse me from it. Then the order will usually be: You must still carry it out. Or you think: his nerve has gone he’s weak. Then you can say: Good, retire on a pension. But orders must be sacred. If the Generals obey, then the armies obey automatically. The more our territory grows, the more does this sacredness of orders apply. It was not all difficult to enforce an order in our little Germany. But to enforce an order once we--and I am convinced of this--have garrisons in the Urals,--that _is_ more difficult. Here it will not always be possible to make sure that the order is carried out. Our controlling authority may not, may never be,--as in Russia--the Commissar. The only Commissar we have must be our own conscience, devotion to duty, loyalty, obedience. If you lead the way with this example, gentlemen, every subordinate will follow this example. But you will never be able to demand obedience of your men if you do not give the same obedience to authority over you, and give it blindly and without reserve.

3. Bravery

To bravery, I think we need least to exhort ourselves, for our leaders and men are brave [p. 77].

4. Truthfulness

I now come to a fourth virtue, which is very rare in Germany, to truthfulness. One of the greatest evils which has spread during the war is the lack of truthfulness in messages, reports, and statements which subordinate departments in civil life, in the state, the party and the Services send in to the departments over them. The message, the report is the basis of every decision. It is actually the fact that one can now in many spheres assume in wartime that 95 out of 100 messages are untrue or only half true or semi-correct [p. 80].

While on the subject of truthfulness I now come to another matter [p. 83]. It must so come about in war and in peace--in peace this will be above all a training task--that we SS-men no longer conclude written agreements, but that among us, as used to be the case formerly, the giving of one’s word and the hand-shake signify the contract, and that the hand-shake of one SS-man is--if necessary--certainly for 1 million or more. It must so happen that the hand-shake or the promise of an SS-man is more proverbially reliable than mortgage upon the greatest value of anybody else’s. It must be so!

If we conclude agreements, we must keep them. If I make a contract with an agent, even with a blackguard, I keep the contract. I take my stand unreservedly on this point of view. If I announce in the Generalgouvernement, that anyone who informs against a Jew who has sought shelter and gone into hiding, shall have a third of the Jew’s property, then it often happens that Secretary Huber or Second Lt. (SA) Huber who--when he can--makes illegal trips, or does not hesitate [p. 84] to order a new telephone or new pencils, who, that is, never saves,--suddenly begins to save for the German Reich. He says for instance: This Jew has 1200 RM. What, that means I would have to pay out to the Pole who denounced him 4000 RM. No, I’ll save that for Germany. The Pole shall only get 400 RM. So a little man goes and breaks the promise of a whole organization. That sort of thing should be impossible.

If we make a promise, it must be kept. If one Reichsfuehrer-SS pledges to anyone support for his organization--as may very often be the case now in the Balkans--this pledge must be kept. We must acquire such a reputation for the keeping of contracts in the whole world, we in the SS, that we thereby gain for Germany advantages of the greatest value, namely faith through confidence. Many will come to us, who will not approach official departments. The Balkans are always in a state of confusion. That is a blessing. If they were united it would be terrible. Things are chaotic in the Caucasus and in Russia. We can only see to it--this is also a [p. 85] precept,--that the territories we have occupied and the peoples we rule over never become united, that they always remain disunited. For they would only be united against us. If therefore we pledge our protection to a party [Splittergruppe] who approaches us, it must be quite out of the question for any member of the SS or the police, any member of the whole organization to go and break the promise. This promise must be sacred.

Practical Tasks

In the way of practical duties for the Senior SS executive and [p. 103] Police Officers I see above all one task, which applies at the same time to the Heads of the Main Offices as well. For me the Senior SS Executive and Police Officer is the representative of the Reichsfuehrer-SS in his area. It would be an evil day if the SS and police fell out. It would be an evil day if the Main Offices, performing their tasks well meaningly but mistakenly made themselves independent by each having a downward chain of command. I really think that the day of my overthrow would be the end of the SS. It must be, and so come about, that this SS organization with all its branches--the General-SS which is the common basis of all of them, the Waffen-SS, the regular uniformed police [Ordnungspolizei], the SIPO, (with the whole economic administration, schooling, ideological training, the whole question of kindred), is, even under the tenth Reichsfuehrer-SS _one_ bloc, _one_ body, _one_ organization. Alas if we do not bring them together. Alas if the individual main offices, the individual chiefs had a false conception of their duty here, if they believed they were doing a good thing, whereas in fact they were taking the first step toward the end. We have come a long way on the road to amalgamation. In the hard battles of this year the Waffen-SS has been welded together in the bitterest hours from the most varied divisions and sections, and from these it formed: body-guard units [Leibstandart], military SS [Verfuegungstruppe], Death’s head units, and then the Germanic SS. Now when our “Reich”, Death’s Head Cavalry Divisions and “Viking” Divisions were there, everyone knew in these last weeks: “Viking” is at my side, “Reich” is at my side, “Death’s Head” is at my side,--“Thank God”, now nothing can happen to us.--The regular uniformed police and Sipo, General-SS and Waffen-SS must now gradually amalgamate too, just as this is and [p. 105] must be the case within the Waffen-SS. This applies to matters concerning filling of posts, recruiting, schooling, economic organization, and medical services. I am always doing something towards this end, a bond is constantly being cast around these sections of the whole to cause them to grow together. Alas, if these bonds should ever be loosened,--then everything--you may be sure of this--would sink back into its old insignificance in one generation, and in a short space of time. It could then be said that that would be no pity; if it wasn’t worth keeping alive, it should come to an end. That is right. I would not hear of anything being kept, even if it is my, our SS which is so dear to us, if it was not worth keeping alive.

Only I think that we could not be answerable for it to Germany, and to Germania, for this Germanic Reich needs the SS organization. She needs it at least for the next few centuries. Then, in a hundred, a thousand, or two thousand years another form will surely be found. When we are dead and gone, some remnant of us with a few of our fundamental ideas will pull through and carry on. Out of this will grow something new again, just as here and there we took over, and now bear, a torch from the time of the Teutons, from the age of chivalry, from the Vehmic organization, and from the [p. 106] Prussian army, in order to light a great light from it. It will be just like that later on. I believe that today we could not afford to let anything happen to this SS. That is why I urge one thing on all of you, on you, my heads of the main offices, my Senior Executive SS and Police Officers, and on this whole corps of Gruppenfuehrers, the highest gradation in this hierarchy of the SS organization: Always see the whole, always look at the whole organization, never at your branch of it only, or only your Oberabschnitt but always see the SS, and above it the Germanic Reich, and above that our Fuehrer who has created and is still creating this Reich.

The Future

When the war is won,--then, as I have already told you, our [p. 112] work will start. We do not know when the war will end. It may be sudden, or it may be long delayed. We shall see. But I say to you _now_, if an armistice and peace comes suddenly, let no-one think that he can then sleep the sleep of the just. Get all your Commanders, Chiefs and SS-Fuehrers attuned to this; only then, gentlemen, shall we be awake, for then, so many others will fall into this sleep. I am going so to rouse the whole SS, and keep it so wide awake that we can tackle reconstruction in Germany immediately. Then Germanic work will be begun immediately in the General-SS, for then the harvest will be ripe to be taken into the granary. We shall then call up age-groups thereby law. We shall then immediately put all our Waffen-SS units into excellent form, both as regards equipment and training. We shall go on working in this first 6 months after the war, as though the big offensive were starting on the next day. It will make all the difference, [p. 113] if Germany has an operative reserve, an operative backing, at the peace or armistice negotiations, of 20, 25 or 30 SS-divisions intact.

If the peace is a final one, we shall be able to tackle our great work of the future. We shall colonize. We shall indoctrinate our boys with the laws of the SS-organization. I consider it to be absolutely necessary to the life of our peoples, that we should not only impart the meaning of ancestry, grandchildren and future, but feel these to be a part of our being. Without there being any talk about it, without our needing to make use of rewards and similar material things, it must be a matter of course that we have children. It must be a matter of course that the most copious breeding should be from this racial super-stratum of the Germanic people. In 20 to 30 years we must really be able to present the whole of Europe with its leading class. If the SS, together with the farmers,--we together with our friend Backe, then run the colony in the East on a grand scale, without any restraint, without any question about any kind of tradition but with nerve and revolutionary impetus, we shall in 20 years push the national boundary [Volkstumsgrenze] 500 kilometers Eastwards.

I requested of the Fuehrer today, that the SS--if we have fulfilled our task and our duty by the end of the war--should have the privilege of holding Germany’s most Easterly frontier as a defence frontier [p. 114]. I believe this is the only privilege for which we have no competitors. I believe not one person will dispute our claim to this privilege. We shall be in a position there to exercise every young age-group in the use of arms. We shall impose our laws on the East. We will charge ahead and push our way forward little by little to the Urals. I hope that our generation will successfully bring it about that every age-group has fought in the East, and that every one of our divisions spends a winter in the East every second or third year. Then we shall never grow soft, then we shall never get SS members who only come to us because it is distinguished or because the black coat will naturally be very attractive in peacetime. Everyone will know that: “if I join the SS, there is the possibility that I might be killed.” He has contracted in writing that every second year he will not dance in Berlin or attend the carnival in Munich, but that he will be posted to the Eastern frontier in an ice-cold winter. Then we will have a healthy elite for all time. Thus we will create the necessary conditions for the whole Germanic people and [p. 115] the whole of Europe, controlled, ordered and led by us, the Germanic people, to be able, in generations, to stand the test in her battles of destiny against Asia, who will certainly break out again. We do not know when that will be. Then, when the mass of humanity of 1 to 1½ milliards lines up against us, the Germanic people, numbering, I hope, 250 to 300 millions, and the other European peoples, making a total of 600 to 700 millions--(and with an outpost area stretching as far as the Urals, or, a hundred years, beyond the Urals)--must stand the test in its vital struggle against Asia. It would be an evil day if the Germanic people did not survive it. It would be the end of beauty and “Kultur”, of the creative power of this earth. That is the distant future. It is for that that we are fighting, pledged to hand down the heritage of our ancestors.

We see into the distant future, because we know what it will be. That is why we are doing our duty more fanatically than ever, more devoutly than ever, more bravely, more obediently and more thoroughly than ever. We want to be worthy of being permitted to be the first SS-men of the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, in the long history of the Germanic people, which stretches before us.

Now let us remember the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, who will create the Germanic Reich and will lead us into the Germanic future [p. 116].

Our Fuehrer Adolf Hitler
Sieg Heil!
Sieg Heil!
Sieg Heil!

# # # # #

Speech of the Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler at Kharkow April 1943

My SS-Fuehrer,

It is perhaps very strange, that we should meet in a university of the Russian State, here at Kharkow,--at this Kharkow, which has played so great a part, and really will play a still bigger part in the history of the war. Until last year it was of no very great significance. This year it has become, like Stalingrad, but in the reverse sense, a city of destiny in German war history, in German history. I have asked you, the Commanding Officers of the three SS-Divisions, who took part in this campaign from the Dnieper to Kharkow and carried out this campaign practically alone and forced a decision, to come together here in order, as has been the custom for many many years, as long as there has been an SS, to meet each other again, and in order once more to establish a few facts about the past and the future.

I would like, in a few words, to outline the whole position and situation with regard to the war.

Today, Germany is on the borders of Europe everywhere. These European frontiers stretch up as far as the North Cape, down the Norwegian coast, through Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and France and jump over to Africa, continue to Tunis to form a bridgehead, run across as far as the frontiers formed by the sea, then from Greece and Crete up to the borders of the neutral states of Turkey and Bulgaria, to join hands again here in the East. I would like to give it a name: it is the great fortress of Europe.

It will undoubtedly happen, that the enemy will make the attempt, today, tomorrow or the next day, at some time, to break into this fortress of Europe at one point or another. That will undoubtedly be the case. Possibly he will be able to force an entry for a shorter or longer period at one point or another in places which we do not have in our personal and responsible control, or which we are not defending with our arms [p. 2]. One thing is certain: wherever the enemy lands, if once we can get to grips with him on the Continent, where we are not dependent on supplies from overseas, that ought to be, and will be, all right with us. On the whole, however, it is here in the East that the decision lies. The fortress of Europe with its frontiers must be held and will be held too, as long as is necessary. The decision, therefore, lies here in the East; here must the Russian enemy, this people numbering two hundred million Russians, be destroyed on the battle field and person by person, and made to bleed to death ...

It is my opinion--and here, I believe, I am speaking to men [p. 3] who already understand this--that we must conduct the war and our campaign on these lines:--how can we take the most men from the Russians--dead or alive? We shall do it by killing them or taking them prisoner and [p. 4] really putting them to work, by endeavoring to gain as much control as possible over any territory we occupy, and by leaving empty of people any territory we dispose of, any areas we make over to the enemy. Either they must be deported and will be used as labour in Germany for Germany, or they will just die in battle. To hand people back again, giving the enemy workers once more and enabling him to recruit again,--that I think, taking the broad view, would be absolutely wrong. That could not be advocated * * *

On the other side, one thing goes on the same as ever, the U-boat war, this dreadful stranglehold on the throat of the enemy. [p. 5] I have good reason to be convinced that this stranglehold will never be relaxed, but will tighten. I cannot help feeling that things are beginning to go worse with England these last few months in matters of supply. That by no means indicates that England will collapse today, tomorrow or the next day, but it does mean that we will just be approaching the time when one or other of our opponents, once Russia is conquered and eliminated as a factor, will come to the conclusion that it is not worth carrying on the war. The result--and I am convinced of this, I believe it and I know it--the result, the end of this war, regardless of however many months or even years it lasts, will be this: that the Reich, the German Reich or the Germanic Reich of the German nation, will with just title find confirmation of its evolution, that we have an outlet and a way open to us in the East, and that then centuries later, a politically Germany--a Germanic World Empire will be formed. That will be the result, that will be the fruit of all the many, many sacrifices, which have been made and which must still be made.

We have,--I would say, as very consistent National Socialists, [p. 7] taken the question of blood as our starting point. We were the first really to solve the problem of blood by action, and in this connection, by problem of blood, we of course do not mean anti-semitism. Anti-semitism is exactly the same as delousing. Getting rid of lice is not a question of ideology. It is a matter of cleanliness. In just the same way, anti-semitism, for us, has not been a question of ideology, but a matter of cleanliness, which now will soon have been dealt with. We shall soon be deloused. We have only 20,000 lice left, and then the matter is finished within the whole of Germany. But for us the question of blood was a reminder of our own worth, a reminder of what is actually the basis holding this German people together. Just as is the case in the years between 1938 and 1943, in exactly the same way as now, the same ill-founded reproaches were made then: well, if you bring the Nordic man so much to the fore, you’re creating a new split, a new class-distinction,--it’s a new class hatred. We’re overcoming the social barriers, so I’ve been told by important party members, and now you’re setting up racial ones. My reply to these people has always been: If you want to look at things in a negative way, there is nothing in the world which you cannot see in a negative way. From the negative angle, of course, you can argue that way. I see it differently, for I see it on this plane: What is the binding factor which holds the man in East Prussia and the man in the Black Forest together, the man in Schleswig-Holstein and in Hamburg and the man in Munich, in Graz, in Pomerania, in Berlin [p. 8] and in the Rhineland? What is then the factor or the element which contains all that is dear and precious and valuable to us? It is in fact what we Germans call inherent Kultur, it is this Germanic, this Nordic component of our blood.

In one operation those peoples must and will be incorporated in the Germanic Reich which, at one time, were part of Germany, part of the German Empire (the Roman Empire and the German nation) and belonged to us up to 1806 or only till 1648,--that is Flanders, Wallonia, and the Netherlands. They were a part of the Reich [p. 10]. Over and above this, we must have the power to bring into the fold, and make a part of our community in a second operation, those Germanic peoples and states too, which have never been part and parcel of the German Reich,--I mean Denmark and Norway, the Danish and Norwegian people.

I very soon formed a Germanic SS in the various countries. We very soon got Germanic volunteers from them [p. 11]. It has not always been liked and is still not liked today by many of the political leaders in these countries. From the beginning, I have said to them, “You can do what you like and leave what you like. I leave everything entirely to you, but you may be sure, that an SS will be set up in your country, and there is but one SS in Europe, and that is the Germanic SS, led by the Reichsfuehrer-SS. You can resist, or you can offer no resistance, it’s all the same to me. We shall do it in any case!” We have told them that curtly and plainly and clearly from the beginning.

I have said to the SS-men from the beginning too: We do not expect you to renounce your nation, or do anything which a proud and self-respecting fellow who loves his nation cannot do. We do not expect you to become German out of opportunism. But we do expect you to subordinate your national ideal to the greater racial and historical ideal, to the Germanic Reich.