Goebbels' Total War speech
Creator(s)
- Deutsche Wochenschau (Producer)
- Bundesarchiv (Germany). Filmarchiv
Scope and Content
List of PK cameramen. Wide shot of the huge crowd in the Berlin Sportpalast gathered to hear Goebbels' Total War speech. In the speech, Goebbels made repeated reference to the Jews and the danger they supposedly pose for Germany and Europe, but none of this language appears in the newsreel version of the speech. The first part of the newsreel has a voiceover that summarizes what Goebbels says, over shots of people in the crowd listening intently and cheering enthusiastically. Excerpts from the narration include (not a word-for-word translation): The Wehrmacht serves as the only protection for the European continent against the storm raging from the East this winter [Bolshevism]. The German people do not think of compromise but only of hard war. Goebbels lists the different types of citizens he has invited to the Sportpalast to hear his speech. While he names these groups the camera picks individuals and groups out of the crowd. They include: wounded soldiers, winners of the Iron Cross, armaments workers, doctors, artists, and German women (the women shown wear the uniforms of a Nazi womens' organization). Original sound begins when Goebbels begins to list the ten questions that he is putting before the German people, including: "Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today? Are you ready to follow the Fuehrer as the phalanx of the homeland, standing behind the fighting army and to wage war with wild determination through all the turns of fate until victory is ours? Are you resolved to follow the Fuehrer through thick and thin to victory, and are you willing to accept the heaviest personal burdens?" The crowd jumps to its feet and chants "Fuerher Befiehl, wir folgen!" Among those in the crowd are Albert Speer and Robert Ley. Goebbels ends the speech with the famous line, "Now, people, rise up, and let the storm break loose!" [Nun, Volk, steh' auf, und Sturm brich los!]" The crowd rises to its feet and salutes, while singing Deutschland ueber Alles.
Note(s)
Translation of Goebbels' questions to the audience taken from Randall Bytwerk's translation of the speech, available on the website of the German Propaganda Archive at: http://calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb35htm
Subjects
- WOMEN
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY
- PROPAGANDA (NAZI)
- SIGNS/POSTERS
- PROPAGANDA
- CROWDS
- SINGING
- GOEBBELS, JOSEPH
- SPEER, ALBERT
- LEY, ROBERT
- PROPAGANDA (ANTI-SOVIET)
- SPEECHES
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (GERMAN)
- DOCTORS
Places
- Berlin, Germany
Genre
- Film
- Newsreels.
Copies
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum holds copies of Holocaust-relevant archives from Bundesarchiv, Berlin-Lichterfelde (Abteilung Filmarchiv)