My Political Testament
More than thirty years have now passed since 1914 when I
made my modest contribution as a volunteer in the first world war, which was
forced upon the Reich.
In these three decades, my life and all my thoughts and
deeds have been motivated solely by my love for and loyalty to my people. They
gave me the strength to make the most difficult decisions that have ever
confronted mortal man. In these three decades I have exhausted my time, my
working strength, and my health.
It is not true that I or anyone else in Germany wanted the
war in 1939. It was desired and instigated exclusively by those international
statesmen who were either of Jewish origin or who worked for Jewish interests.
I have made too many offers for the control and limitation of armaments, which
posterity will not be able to disregard forever -- for the responsibility for
the outbreak of this war to be laid on me. I have furthermore never wished that
after the first disastrous world war a second should arise against England,
much less against America. Centuries will pass away, but out of the ruins of
our cities and monuments the hatred will continually grow anew against the
people that is ultimately responsible, and for whom we have to thank for all
this: international Jewry and its helpers!
Three days before the outbreak of the German-Polish war I
again proposed to the British ambassador in Berlin a solution to the
German-Polish problem – one similar to the solution that had been applied in
the case of the Saar territory involving international supervision. That
proposal likewise cannot be denied. It was rejected only because the leading
circles in English politics wanted the war, partly on account of the hoped-for
business opportunities, and partly prompted by the propaganda organized by
international Jewry.
I have also left no doubt that, if the nations of Europe
were once again to be treated as mere objects of commerce, to be bought and
sold by these international conspirators in money and finance, then the people
that is really guilty of this murderous conflict will also be held accountable:
Jewry!
Moreover, I left no one in doubt that this time millions of
European children of the Aryan nations were not going to starve, and millions
of grown men were not going to suffer death, and hundreds of thousands of women
and children were not going to be burned and bombed to death in cities, without
the real guilty ones having to atone for their guilt, even if by more humane
means.
After six years of war, which in spite of all setbacks will
ultimately will go down in history as the most glorious and valiant expression
of a nation's will to life, I cannot forsake the city that is the capital of
this Reich. Given that the forces are not sufficient to hold out any longer
against the enemy offensive here, and that our own resistance is gradually
being weakened by men who are as deluded as they are lacking in initiative, I
wish, by remaining in this city, to share my fate with those millions of others
who have also accepted to do so. Moreover I do not wish to fall into the hands
of an enemy who requires a new spectacle organized by the Jews for the
amusement of their incited masses.
I have therefore decided to remain in Berlin and here of my
own free will to choose death at the moment when I believe the headquarters of
the Führer and Chancellor itself can no longer be held. I die with a joyful
heart, mindful of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of our soldiers at
the front, our women at home, the achievements of our farmers and workers, and
the efforts, unique in history, of our youth that bears my name.
That I express my thanks to you all from the bottom of my
heart is just as self-evident as my wish that you should therefore on no
account give up the struggle, but rather continue it against the enemies of the
Fatherland, no matter where, true to the principles of the great Clausewitz.
From the sacrifice of our soldiers and from my own solidarity with them unto
death, will in any case arise from German history the seed of a radiant renaissance
of the National Socialist movement and thereby of the realization of a true
national community.
Many of the most courageous men and women have decided at
the end to unite their lives with mine. I have begged and finally ordered them
not to do that, but instead to take part in the further struggle of the nation.
I beg the leaders of the armies, the navy and the air force to strengthen by
all possible means the spirit of resistance of our soldiers in the National
Socialist spirit, with special reference to the fact that I myself, as founder
and creator of this movement, have also preferred death to cowardly abdication
or even capitulation.
May it, at some future time, become a matter of honor for
the German officer -- as is already the case in our navy -- that the surrender
of a district or of a town is impossible, and that these leaders especially
here must go forward as shining examples, faithfully fulfilling their duty unto
death.
Second Part
Before my death I expel from the Party the former Reich Marshal
Hermann Göring, and deprive him of all rights which he may enjoy by virtue of
the decree of June 29, 1941, and by virtue of my Reichstag declaration on
September 1, 1939. In his place I appoint Grand Admiral Dönitz as Reich
President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Before my death I expel the former Reichsführer-SS and Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler
from the Party and from all government posts. In his place I appoint Gauleiter Karl Hanke as Reichsführer-SS and
Chief of the German Police, and Gauleiter Paul
Giesler as Reich Interior Minister.
Göring and Himmler, quite apart from their disloyalty to me
personally, have done immeasurable harm to the country and the whole nation by
secret negotiations with the enemy, which they have conducted without my
knowledge and against my wishes, and by illegally attempting to seize state
power for themselves.
In order to give to the German nation a government made up
of honorable men, who are duty-bound to carry on the war by all means, I
appoint as leaders of the nation the following members of the new cabinet:
President
of the Reich: Dönitz
Chancellor of the Reich: Dr Goebbels
Party Minister: Bormann
Foreign Minister: Seyss-Inquart
Minister of the Interior: Gauleiter Giesler
Minister of War: Donitz
Supreme Commander of the Army: Schörner
Supreme Commander of the Navy: Dönitz
Supreme Commander of the Air Force: Greim
Reichsführer of the S.S. and Head of the German
Police: Gauleiter Hanke
Trade: Funk
Agriculture: Backe
Justice: Thierack
Culture: Dr Scheel
Propaganda: Dr Naumann
Finance: Schwerin-Crossigk
Labor: Dr Hupfauer
Munitions: Saur
Leader of the German Labor Front and Minister
without Portfolio: Dr Ley
Although some of these men, such as Martin Bormann, Dr.
Goebbels, and so forth, together with their wives, have joined me of their own
free will and did not wish to leave the Reich capital under any circumstances,
but have been willing to perish with me here, I must nevertheless ask them to
obey my request, and in this case put the interests of the nation above their
own feelings.
By their work and loyalty as colleagues they will be just as
close to me after death, as I hope that my spirit will linger among them and
always go with them. May they be hard but never unjust; above all, let them
never allow fear to influence their actions, and set the honor of the nation
above everything in the world. Finally, may they be mindful that our task, that
of building a National Socialist State, represents the work of the coming
centuries, and imposes on everyone an obligation always to serve the common
interest and to subordinate his own advantage to this end. I call on all
Germans, all National Socialists, men, women, and all soldiers of the Armed
Forces, to be loyal and obedient unto death to the new government and its
President.
Above all I enjoin the leaders of the nation and their
followers to scrupulous observance of the laws of race, and to merciless
resistance to the universal poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry.
Berlin, April 29, 1945, 4:00
a.m.
Adolf Hitler
Witnesses
Dr. Joseph Goebbels
Wilhelm Burgdorf
Martin Bormann
Hans Krebs
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Source of this translation: Institute for Historical Review (http://ihr.org/other/hitlertestament.html)
We have restored the list of
appointments that does not appear in the IHR translation.
An authoritative text of the German
original is published in the official 42-volume record of the Nuremberg
Tribunal (IMT “blue series”), Trial of the Major War
Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Volume 41,
pages 547-554. (Document Streicher-9).
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