Hitler's Table Talk

492 AN INVESTITURE IN THE CHANCELLERY
This very afternoon a ceremony will take place in the Mosaic
Hall of the Reichskanzelei, at which expression will be given to
the gratitude due from the nation to its workers. On this
occasion, a hundred crosses of the Kriegsverdienstorden (War
Services' Order) will be awarded to workmen, and one Knight's
Cross of the same Order to the foreman of an armoured fightingvehicle
factory. These decorations will be presented by a
soldier holding the Ritterkreuz, a corporal returned from the
front who, serving his anti-tank gun single-handed, destroyed
thirteen Russian tanks. It was a delight for me yesterday to
receive a visit from this non-commissioned officer, a typical
example of National Socialist youth. Although he has the
appearance of a youngster of seventeen, he possesses the
assurance of a man whom nothing can daunt.
Once the war is over, and I am less absorbed in military
problems, I shall make it my particular business to develop
in our youth this type of man—wide-awake, intelligent, selfassured—on
the model of this young corporal. This will allow
me to oppose foreigners, whose manhood appears to be composed
either of degenerates or of brute beasts or some such sort
of extremes, with fine lads of the kind that defended Narvik and
Cholm.
Exactly in the same way as the war of 1870-71 was the
melting-pot of the old Reich, the battlefields of this war will be
the cement which will bind into one indissoluble whole all the
races of the Greater German Reich. Not one of them will come
into the confederation feeling like a whipped hound, for each
and every one of them will come with the pride born of the
knowledge that each and every one has shed his blood and
played his part in the greatest struggle for freedom in the history
of the German race.
As I expect everyone to give of his best, I shall adhere to the
principle that all Germans, whatever their origin, must be
represented in the Party Chancellery at Munich. In the same
way, when it is a question of major undertakings such as
buildings, autobahnen, canals, or indeed anything which calls for
a determined effort on the part of the whole nation, I wish
everyone to play their part. Dispersal of effort spells merely
dissipation of force. Just as intervention in great numbers by