Those Damned Nazis
by Joseph Goebbels
Why Are We Nationalists?
We are nationalists because we see the nation as the only way
to bring all the forces of the nation together to preserve and improve our
existence and the conditions under which we live.
The nation is the organic union of a people to protect its life. To be
national is to affirm this union in word and deed. To be national has
nothing to do with a form of government or a symbol. It is an affirmation of
things, not forms. Forms can change, their content remains.
If form and content agree, then the nationalist affirms both. If they conflict,
the nationalist fights for the content and against the form. One
may not put the symbol above the content. If that happens, the battle is on the
wrong field and one's strength is lost in formalism. The real aim of
nationalism, the nation, is lost.
That is how things are today in Germany. Nationalism has turned into
bourgeois patriotism and its defenders are battling windmills. One says
Germany and means the monarchy. Another proclaims freedom and
means Black-White-Red [The imperial
colors]. Would our situation today be any different if we replaced
the republic with a monarchy and flew the black-white-red flag? The
colony would have different wallpaper, but its nature, its content would
stay the same. Indeed, things would be even worse, for a facade that conceals
the facts dissipates the forces today fighting against slavery.
Bourgeois patriotism is the privilege of a class. It is the real
reason for its decline. When 30 million are for something and 30 million
are against it, things balance out and nothing happens. That is
how things are with us. We are the world's Pariah not because we do not have the
courage to resist, rather because out entire national energy is wasted in
eternal and unproductive squabbling between the right and the left. Our
way only goes downward, and today one can already predict when we will fall into
the abyss.
Nationalism is more wide-reaching than internationalism. It
sees things as they are. Only he who respects himself can respect others.
If as a German nationalist I affirm Germany, how can I hold it against a
French nationalist who affirms France? Only when these
affirmations conflict in vital ways will there be a power-political
struggle. Internationalism cannot undo this reality. Its attempts at proof fail
completely. And even when the facts seem to have some validity, nature,
blood, the will to life, and the struggle for existence on this hard earth
prove the falsity of fine theories.
The sin of bourgeois patriotism was to confound a certain economic form with
the national. It connected two things that are entirely different. Forms of
the economy, however firm they may seem, are changeable. The
national is eternal. If I mix the eternal and the temporal, the eternal will
necessarily collapse when the temporal collapses. This was the real cause for
the collapse of liberal society. It was rooted not in the eternal, but in the temporal, and when the temporal declined it took the eternal down
with it. Today it is only an excuse for a system that brings growing economic
misery. That is the only reason why international Jewry organizes the
battle of the proletarian forces against both powers, the economy and the
nation, and defeat them.
From this understanding, the young nationalism draws its absolute demand.
The faith in the nation is a matter for everyone, never a group, a class
or an economic clique. The eternal must be distinguished form the temporal.
Maintaining a rotten economic system has nothing to do with nationalism, which
is an affirmation of the Fatherland. I can love Germany and hate capitalism.
Not only can I, I must. Only the annihilation of a system of
exploitation carries with it the core of the rebirth of our people.
We are nationalists because as Germans, we love Germany. Because we
love Germany, we want to preserve it and fight against those who would destroy
it. If a Communist shouts "Down with nationalism!", he means the hypocritical
bourgeois patriotism that sees the economy only as a system of slavery.
If we make clear to the man of the left that nationalism and capitalism, that is
the affirmation of the Fatherland and the misuse of its resources, have nothing
to do with each other, indeed that they go together like fire and water, then
even as a socialist he will come to affirm the nation, which he will want
to conquer.
That is our real task as National Socialists. We were the first to recognize
the connections, and the first to begin the struggle. Because we are
socialists we have felt the deepest blessings of the nation, and because we are
nationalists we want to promote socialist justice in a new Germany.
A young Fatherland will rise when the socialist front is firm.
Socialism will become reality when the Fatherland is free.
Why Are We Socialists?
We are socialists because we see in socialism, that is
the union of all citizens, the only chance to maintain our racial inheritance
and to regain our political freedom and renew our German state.
Socialism is the doctrine of liberation for the working class. It
promotes the rise of the fourth class and its incorporation in the political
organism of our Fatherland, and is inextricably bound to breaking the present
slavery and the regaining of German freedom. Socialism therefore is not
merely a matter of the oppressed class, but a matter for everyone, for freeing
the German people from slavery is the goal of contemporary policy. Socialism
gains its true form only through a total combat brotherhood with the
forward-striving energies of a newly awakened nationalism. Without nationalism
it is nothing, a phantom, a mere theory, a castle in the sky, a book. With it it
is everything, the future, freedom, the Fatherland!
The sin of liberal thinking was to overlook socialism's nation-building
strengths, thereby allowing its energies to go in anti-national directions.
The sin of Marxism was to degrade socialism into a question of
wages and the stomach, putting it in conflict with the state and its
national existence. An understanding of both these facts leads us to a new sense
of socialism, which sees its nature as nationalistic, state-building,
liberating and constructive.
The bourgeois is about to leave the historical stage. In its place will come
the class of productive workers, the working class, that has been up
until today oppressed. It is beginning to fulfill its political mission. It is
involved in a hard and bitter struggle for political power as it seeks to become
part of the national organism. The battle began in the economic realm; it
will finish in the political. It is not merely a matter of pay, not only
a matter of the number of hours worked in a day—though we may never forget that
these are an essential, perhaps even the most significant part of the socialist
platform—but it is much more a matter of incorporating a powerful and
responsible class in the state, perhaps even to make it the dominant
force in the future politics of the Fatherland. The bourgeois does
not want to recognize the strength of the working class. Marxism has
forced it into a straitjacket that will ruin it. While the working class
gradually disintegrates in the Marxist front, bleeding itself dry, the
bourgeois and Marxism have agreed on the general lines of capitalism,
and see their task now to protect and defend it in various ways, often
concealed.
We are socialists because we see the social question as a matter of
necessity and justice for the very existence of a state for our
people, not a question of cheap pity or insulting sentimentality. The worker
has a claim to a living standard that corresponds to what he
produces. We have no intention of begging for that right.
Incorporating him in the state organism is not only a critical matter for him,
but for the whole nation. The question is larger than the eight-hour day.
It is a matter of forming a new state consciousness that includes every
productive citizen. Since the political powers of the day are neither willing
nor able to create such a situation, socialism must be fought for. It is
a fighting slogan both inwardly and outwardly. It is aimed domestically
at the bourgeois parties and Marxism at the same time, because both are sworn
enemies of the coming workers' state. It is directed abroad at all powers that
threaten our national existence and thereby the possibility of the coming
socialist national state.
Socialism is possible only in a state that is united domestically and free internationally. The bourgeois and Marxism are responsible for failing to reach both goals, domestic unity and international freedom. No matter how
national and social these two forces present themselves, they are the sworn
enemies of a socialist national state.
We must therefore break both groups politically. The lines of German
socialism are sharp, and our path is clear.
We are against the political bourgeois, and for genuine
nationalism!
We are against Marxism, but for true socialism!
We are for the first German national state of a socialist nature!
We are for the National Socialist German Workers Party!
Why a Workers' Party?
Work is not mankind's curse, but his blessing. A man becomes a
man through labor. It elevates him, makes him great and aware, raises him above
all other creatures. It is in the deepest sense creative, productive and
culture-producing. Without labor, no food. Without food, no life.
The idea that the dirtier one's hands get, the more degrading the work, is a
Jewish, not a German idea. As in every other area, the German first asks
how, then what. It is less a question of the position I fill, and
more a question of how well I do the duty that God has given me.
We call ourselves a workers' party because we want to rescue the word
work from its current definition and give it back its original meaning.
Anyone who creates value is a creator, that is, a worker. We refuse to
distinguish kinds of work. Our only standard is whether the work
serves the whole, or at least does not harm it, or if it is harmful. Work is
service. If it works against the general welfare, then it is treason
against the Fatherland.
Marxist nonsense claimed to free labor, yet it degraded the work of
its members and saw it as a curse and disgrace. It can hardly be our goal to
abolish labor, rather to give new meaning and content. The worker in a
capitalist state—and that is his deepest misfortune—is no longer a
living human being, a creator, a maker.
He has become a machine. A number, a cog in the machine
without sense or understanding. He is alienated from what he produces. Labor is
for him only a way to survive, not a path to higher blessings, not
a joy, not something in which to take pride, or satisfaction, or encouragement,
or a way to build character.
We are a workers' party because we see in the coming battle between
finance and labor the beginning and the end of the structure of the
Twentieth Century. We are on the side of labor and against
finance. Money is the measuring rod of liberalism, work and
accomplishment that of the socialist state. The liberal asks:
What are you? The socialist asks: Who are you? Worlds lie
between.
We do not want to make everyone the same. Nor do we want levels
in the population, high and low, above and below. The aristocracy of the coming
state will be determined not by possessions or money, but only on the
quality of one's accomplishments. One earns merit through
service. Men are distinguished by the results of their labor. That is the
sure sign of the character and value of a person. The value of labor
under socialism will be determined by its value to the state, to the whole
community. Labor means creating value, not haggling over things. The
soldier is a worker when he bears the sword to protect the national
economy. The statesman too is a worker when he gives the nation a form
and a will that leads it to produce what it needs for life and freedom.
A furrowed brow is as much a sign of labor as a powerful fist.
A white collar worker should not be ashamed to claim with pride that of which
the manual laborer boasts: labor. The relations between these two groups
determine their mutual fate. Neither can survive without the other, for both are
members of an organism that they must together maintain if they are to
defend and expand their right to exist.
We call ourselves a workers' party because we want to free labor from
the chains of capitalism and Marxism. In battling for Germany's future,
we freely admit to it, and accept the odium from the liberal bourgeois that
results. We know that we will succeed in bringing new blessings out of their
curses.
God gave the nations territory to grow grain. The seed becomes grain and the
grain becomes bread. The middleman of it all is labor.
He who despises labor but accepts its benefits is a hypocrite.
That is the deepest meaning of our movement: it gives things back their
original significance, unconcerned that today they may be in danger of sinking
into the swamp of a collapsing worldview.
He who creates value works, and is a worker. A movement that wants to free
labor is a workers' party.
Therefore we National Socialists call ourselves a worker's party.
When our victorious flags fly before us, we sing:
- "We are the army of the Swastika,
- Raise high the red flags!
- We want to clear the way to freedom
- For German Labor!"
Why Do We Oppose the
Jews?
We oppose the Jews because we are defending the freedom of the German
people. The Jew is the cause and beneficiary of our slavery
He has misused the social misery of the broad masses to deepen the dreadful
split between the right and left of our people, to divide Germany into two
halves thereby concealing the true reason for the loss of the Great War and
falsifying the nature of the revolution.
The Jew has no interest in solving the German question. He cannot have
such an interest. He depends on it remaining unsolved. If the German
people formed a united community and won back its freedom, there would be no
place any longer for the Jew. His hand is strongest when a people lives in
domestic and international slavery, not when it is free, industrious, self-aware
and determined. The Jew had caused our problems, and lives from them.
That is why we oppose the Jew as nationalists and as
socialists. He has ruined our race, corrupted our morals,
hollowed out our customs and broken our strength. We owe it to him that we
today are the Pariah of the world. He was the leper among as long as we were
German. When we forgot our German nature, he triumphed over us and our
future.
The Jew is the plastic demon of decomposition. Where he finds filth
and decay, he surfaces and begins his butcher's work among the nations. He hides
behind a mask and presents himself as a friend to his victims, and before they
know it he has broken their neck.
The Jew is uncreative. He produces nothing, he only haggles with
products. With rags, clothing, pictures, jewels, grain, stocks, cures,
peoples and states. He has somehow stolen everything he deals in. When he
attacks a state he is a revolutionary. As soon as he holds
power, he preaches peace and order so that he can devour his
conquests in comfort.
What does anti-Semitism have to do with socialism? I would put
the question this way: What does the Jew have to do with
socialism? Socialism has to do with labor. When did one
ever see him working instead of plundering, stealing and living from the sweat
of others? As socialists we are opponents of the Jews because we see in
the 'Hebrews' the incarnation of capitalism, of the misuse of the nation's goods.
What does anti-Semitism have to do with nationalism? I would
put the question this way: What does the Jew have to do with
nationalism? Nationalism has to do with blood and race. The Jew is
the enemy and destroyer of the purity of blood, the conscious destroyer of our
race. As nationalists we oppose the Jews because we see the Hebrews as
the eternal enemy of our national honor and of our national freedom.
But the Jew after all is also a human being. Certainly, none of
us doubts that. We only doubt that he is a decent human being. He does
not get along with us. He lives by other laws than we do. The fact that he is a
human being is not sufficient reason for us to allow him to subject us in
inhumane ways. He may be a human being—but what kind of a human being
is he! If someone slaps your mother in the face, do you say: "Thank you!
He is after all a human being!" That is not a human being, it is a
monster. Yet how much worse has the Jew done to our mother
Germany, and is still doing today!
There are also white Jews. True, there are scoundrels among us, even though
they are Germans, who act in immoral ways against their own racial and blood
comrades. But why do we call them white Jews? You use the term to describe
something inferior and contemptible. Just as we do. Why do you ask us why we
oppose the Jews, when you without knowing it are one too?
Anti-Semitism is not Christian. That means that it is Christian to
allow the Jews to go on as they are, stripping the skin from our bodies and
mocking us. To be a Christian means to love one's neighbor as
oneself! My neighbor is my racial and blood brother. If I love him I have to
hate his enemies. He who thinks German must despise the Jews. The one
requires the other.
Christ himself saw that love did not always work. When he found the
moneychangers in the Temple, he did not say: "Children, love one another!" He
took up a whip and drove them out.
We oppose the Jews because we affirm the German people. The Jew is our
greatest misfortune.
It is not true that we have Jews for breakfast.
It is true that slowly but surely, he is stealing all that we
have.
Things would be different if we behaved as Germans.
Revolutionary Demands
We do not enter parliament to use parliamentary methods. We know that the
fate of peoples is determined by personalities, never by parliamentary
majorities. The essence of parliamentary democracy is the majority, which
destroys personal responsibility and glorifies the masses. A few dozen rogues
and crooks run things behind the scenes. Aristocracy depends on accomplishment,
the rule of the most able, and the subordination of the less capable to the will
of the leadership. Any form of government; no matter how democratic or
aristocratic it may outwardly appear; rests on compulsion. The difference is
only whether the compulsion is a blessing or a curse for the community.
What we demand is new, decisive and radical, revolutionary in the truest
sense of the word. That has nothing to do with rioting and barricades. It may be
that that happens here or there. But it is is not an inherent part of the
process. Revolutions are spiritual acts. They appear first in people, then in
politics and the economy. New people form new structures. The transformation we
want is first of all spiritual; that will necessarily change the way things
are.
This revolutionary act is beginning to be visible in us. The result is a new
type of person visible to the knowing eye: the National Socialist. Consistent
with his spiritual attitude, the National Socialist makes uncompromising demands
in politics. There is no if and when for him, only an either or.
He demands:
The return of German honor. Without honor, one has no right to life. A nation
that has pawned its honor has pawned its bread. Honor is the foundation of any
people's community. Losing our honor is the true cause of the loss of our
freedom.
In place of a slave colony, we want a restored German national state. The
state is not an end in itself for us, rather a means to an end. The true end is
the race, the sum of all the living, creative forces of the people. The
structure that today calls itself the German republic is not a way to maintain
our racial inheritance. It has become an end in itself with no real connection
to the people and their needs. We want to abolish the slave colony and replace
it with a people's state in freedom.
Want work and bread for every productive national and blood comrade. Pay
should be according to accomplishment. That means more pay for German workers!
That will stop the senseless fighting in which we engage today.
First provide housing and food for the people, then pay reparations! No
Democrat, no Republican, has the right to complain about this demand, for it was
first raised by a banner carrier of November Germany [the
Weimar Republic, beginning in November 1918]. We only want to make
the slogan a reality.
Provide essentials first! First we must meet the critical needs of the
people, then we can produce luxury goods. Provide work for those willing to
work! Give the farmers land! The German foreign policy that today sells what we
have at below-market rates must be completely transformed and must focus
radically on the German need for space, drawing the necessary power-political
conclusions.
Peace among productive workers! Each should do his duty for the good of the
whole community. The state then has the responsibility of protecting the
individual, guaranteeing him the fruits of his labor. The people's community
must not be a mere phrase, but a revolutionary achievement following from the
radical carrying out of the basic life needs of the working class.
A ruthless battle against corruption! A war against exploitation, freedom for
the workers! The elimination of all economic-capitalist influences on national
policy.
A solution to the Jewish question! We call for the systematic elimination of
foreign racial elements from public life in every area. There must be a sanitary
separation between Germans and non-Germans on racial grounds exclusively,
not on nationality or even religious belief.
Down with democratic parliamentarianism! Establish a parliament based on
occupations which determines production. Policies will be determined by a
political body that earns is place by the laws of strength and selection.
The return of loyalty and faith in economic life. The complete reversal of
the injustice that has robbed millions of Germans of their possessions.
The right of personality before that of the mob. Germans always will have
preference before foreigners and Jews.
A battle against the destructive poison of international Jewish culture! A
strengthening of German forces and German customs. The elimination of corrupt
Semitic principles and racial decay.
The death penalty for crimes against the people! The gallows for profiteers
and usurers!
An uncompromising program implemented by men who will implement it
passionately. No slogans, only living energy.
That is what we demand!
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