Hitler's Table Talk

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR AGAINST RUSSIA 31
20 17th September 1941, evening, and the night of
I7th-i8th
Hazard and the taking of decisions—The attack against
Russia—The German soldier is the best in the world—
Junior officers—Antonescu's tactics at Odessa—Success of
our "mistakes"—No hegemony without possession of the
Russian spaces—The birth of a world of slaves—No India
without the British—Anarchy and the Slavs—The Germanic
race and the conception of State—No University at Kiev—
The importance of the Pripet Marshes—Germans must
acquire a sense of Empire.
The spirit of decision does not mean acting at all costs. The
spirit of decision consists simply in not hesitating when an
inner conviction commands you to act.
Last year I needed great spiritual strength to take the
decision to attack Bolshevism.
I had to foresee that Stalin might pass over to the attack in
the course of 1941. It was therefore necessary to get started
without delay, in order not to be forestalled—and that wasn't
possible before June.
Even to make war, one must have luck on one's side. When
I think of it, what luck we did have !
I couldn't start a campaign of propaganda to create a
climate favourable for the reverse situation; and innumerable
lives were saved by the fact that no newspaper or magazine
article ever contained a word that could have let anyone guess
what we were preparing. I decided to take into account the
risk that in the ranks of the Wehrmacht there might still be
some elements contaminated by Communism. If there were,
I suppose that those of them who could see what happens in
Russia have now been cured. But at the moment of our
attack, we were entering upon a totally unknown world—
and there were many people amongst us who might have reflected
that we had, after all, a pact of friendship with the
Russians !
The German soldier has again proved that he is the best
soldier in the world. He was that in the time of Frederick the
Great, and he has always been that. When it's a question of