rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-william-shirer-pdf

424 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHby the English; and that the country is having its liberty restrictedby the most brutal resort to force . . .Nevertheless, said Hitler, he was prepared ”to give each of the States namedan assurance of the kind desired by Mr. Roosevelt.” But more than that! Hiseyes lit up.I should not like to let this opportunity pass without giving above allto the President of the United States an assurance regarding thoseterritories which would, after all, give him most cause for apprehension,namely the United States itself and the other States of theAmerican continent.I here solemnly declare that all the assertions which have been circulatedin any way concerning an intended German attack or invasionon or in American territory are rank frauds and gross untruths,quite apart from the fact that such assertions, as far as the militarypossibilities are concerned, could have their origin only in a stupidimagination.The Reichstag rocked with laughter; Hitler did not crack a smile, maintainingwith great effect his solemn mien.And then came the peroration – the most eloquent for German ears, I believe,he ever made.Mr. Roosevelt! I fully understand that the vastness of your nationand the immense wealth of your country allow you to feel responsiblefor the history of the whole world and for the history of all nations.I, sir, am placed in a much more modest and smaller sphere . . .I once took over a State which was faced by complete ruin, thanksto its trust in the promises of the rest of the world and to the badregime of democratic governments . . . I have conquered chaos inGermany, re-established order and enormously increased production. . . developed traffic, caused mighty roads to be built and canalsto be dug, called into being gigantic new factories and at the sametime endeavored to further the education and culture of our people.I have succeeded in finding useful work once more for the wholeof the seven million unemployed . . . Not only have I united theGerman people politically, but I have also rearmed them. I havealso endeavored to destroy sheet by sheet that treaty which in itsfour hundred and forty-eight articles contains the vilest oppressionwhich peoples and human beings have ever been expected to put upwith.I have brought back to the Reich provinces stolen from us in 1919.I have led back to their native country millions of Germans whowere torn away from us and were in misery . . . and, Mr. Roosevelt,without spilling blood and without bringing to my people,and consequently to others, the misery of war . . .You, Mr. Roosevelt, have a much easier task in comparison. Youbecame President of the United States in 1933 when I became Chancellorof the Reich. From the very outset you stepped to the head of