Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

at home were, therefore, longing for peace, but that 'militarism' and the 'Kaiser' did not allow
it; that the whole world-to whom this was very well known- was, therefore, not waging a war
on the German people, but exclusively against the sole guilty party, the Kaiser; that,
therefore, the War would not be over before this enemy of peaceful humanity should be
eliminated; that when the War was ended, the libertarian and democratic nations would take
the German people into the league of eternal world peace, which would be assured from the
hour when ' Prussian militarism ' was destroyed.
The better to illustrate these claims, 'letters from home' were often reprinted whose contents
seemed to confirm these assertions.
On the whole, we only laughed in those days at all these efforts. The leaflets were read, then
sent back to the higher staffs, and for the most part forgotten until the wind again sent a
load of them sailing down into the trenches; for, as a rule, the leaflets were brought over by
airplanes.
In this type of propaganda there was one point which soon inevitably attracted attention: in
every sector of the front where Bavarians were stationed, Prussia was attacked with
extraordinary consistency, with the assurance that not only was Prussia on the one hand the
really guilty and responsible party for the whole war, but that on the other hand there was
not the slightest hostility against Bavaria in particular; however, there was no helping
Bavaria as long as she served Prussian militarism and helped to pull its chestnuts out of the
fire.
Actually this kind of propaganda began to achieve certain effects in 1915. The feeling against
Prussia grew quite visibly among the troops-yet not a single step was taken against it from
above. This was more than a mere sin of omission, and sooner or later we were bound to
suffer most catastrophically for it; and not just the 'Prussians,' but the whole German people,
to which Bavaria herself is not the last to belong.
In this direction enemy propaganda began to achieve unquestionable successes from 1916
on.
Likewise the complaining letters direct from home had long been having their effect. It was no
longer necessary for the enemy to transmit them to the frontline soldiers by means of leaflets,
etc. And against this, aside from a few psychologically idiotic 'admonitions' on the part of the
'government,' nothing was done. Just as before, the front was flooded with this poison dished
up by thoughtless women at home, who, of course, did not suspect that this was the way to
raise the enemy's confidence in victory to the highest pitch, thus consequently to prolong and
sharpen the sufferings of their men at the fighting front. In the time that followed, the
senseless letters of German women cost hundreds of thousands of men their lives.
Thus, as early as 1916, there appeared various phenomena that would better have been
absents The men at the front complained and 'beefed'; they began to be dissatisfied in many
ways and sometimes were even righteously indignant. While they starved and suffered, while
their people at home lived in misery, there was abundance and high-living in other circles.
Yes, even at the fighting front all was not in order in this respect.
Even then a slight crisis was emerging-but these were still
'internal' affairs. The same man, who at first had cursed and grumbled, silently did his duty
a few minutes later as though
this was a matter of course. The same company, which at first was discontented, clung to the
piece of trench it had to defend as though Germany's fate depended on these few hundred
yards of mudholes. It was still the front of the old, glorious army of heroes!
I was to learn the difference between it and the homeland in a
glaring contrast.
At the end of September, 1916, my division moved into the Battle of the Somme. For us it
was the first of the tremendous battles of materiel which now followed, and the impression
was hard to describe-it was more like hell than war.