Extracts from a speech, on the success of the Nazi system, including the fight against Communists and "international Jewry," the unity of the military and the party, and obedience to Hitler

THE ARCHIVE [Das Archiv]
March 1939, Pages 1841-1846.
RAEDER'S SPEECH, 12 MARCH 1939 Hero Commemoration Day and Day of Freedom to Rearm.
Throughout Greater Germany solemnities took place on the occasion of "Hero Commemoration Day". On March 12th 1939, these solemnities were combined for the first time with the celebration of the freedom to rearm. The day's chief event was the ceremony held in the. Berlin State Opera House in Unter den Linden. In the presence of Hitler and representatives of the party and armed forces etc., General Admiral Raeder made a speech, extracts of which are given below:
"Today, four years later, we look back at the road, the mile stones of which are real witnesses of German history. What at that time could be but a hope or expectation—in the heart—of the individual person, but what has previously been for centuries, for so many Germans, a dream and an intense longing, became a reality: Greater Germany! In a development which may seem to an outside spectator to be a miracle, but which in reality has been won thanks to an unshakeable power of faith and unparalleled will to act and conscious of his success, the Fuehrer aware of his good right and supported by the weapons given by him to the armed forces since that day, opened the road to the Homeland to the brothers and sisters in Austria (Ostmark) and in the Sudetenland.
This day is an appropriate one for the commemoration as it is not a day of mourning for what has once been lost, but on the contrary it is a day of pride because of that which has been gained forever. The flags and banners which have been hoisted on the tops of the masts are a sign that the legacy of our dead has been carried out. Those who gave their lives in the belief of Germany's greatness either in the rejoicing and in the limit-
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less enthusiasm of the year 1914 as in the firm and obstinate determination of the year 1918, would not understand, if we, who through the long and dark years have held in our faithful hands their legacy, today on the day of its fulfillment, were only in mourning.
We see in our dead a spiritual power, which reading beyond the grave, allowed the first obstinate belief in a new future of the nation to take roots, we see an image of a fighting soldier of the last year of the war and at the same time an example of fighting courage to the last. It was this power which enabled these men, who were called upon to form a new Reich based on the experience of frontline fellowship and to unite it in the new great German community. In spite of all the insults and sufferings of the period after the war this power achieved a victory! A brilliant victory! and we celebrate this victory by remembering our heroes and at the same time by thinking of our new excellent armed forces. On this occasion we are not forgetting the greatest sacrifice made by our fathers and brothers. Just because this death is the foundation of our greater Germany we remember it with gratitude which will never die. No matter where the German soldier stood and fought, on the ground, at sea, or in the air, on any front, he was always fighting against odds. He has been called upon to make greater and greater efforts and the privations and over-exertions became superhuman. He carried this burden with unshakeable belief in himself and Germany's greatness, being conscious of his responsibility towards his homeland, he considered himself its protection, its shield. He shed blood, he died. And yet he won. If the German armed forces and with them the entire German nation honours their victorious war leaders and if just today the names of the late Field Marshal von Hindenburg, of the generals Ludendorff and Conrad von Hoetzendorf or of the admirals Scheer and Count Spee and of the greatest of all airmen, Captain Richthofen are held in respectful remembrance by everyone, it is so because they already became symbols for us. These symbols embody the thought of the millions of unknown and never mentioned dead which the Great War called away from us in order that the nation should live and the Reich continue to exist. * * *
Thanks to him, this way was made possible after the conditions for this gigantic struggle have been created. National Socialism, which originates from the spirit of the German fighting soldier, has been chosen by the German people as its ideology. The German people follow the symbols of its regeneration with the same great love and fanatical passion. The German people has had
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practical experience of National Socialism and it has not been imposed, as so many outside critics believe. The Fuehrer has shown his people that in the National Socialist racial community lies the greatest and invincible sources of strength, whose dynamic power ensures not only peace at home but also enables us to make use of all the nation's creative powers. He restored to the German people its confidence in itself and in its own ability, and enabled it, through the hallowed right, which had been denied to the German people during their period of weakness, to regain its own strength and apart from that it enabled them to tackle boldly and solve the tremendous problems facing them. With that the German people and its Fuehrer have done more for the peace of Europe and for the entire world than some neighbours are capable of realizing. This is the reason for the clear and unsparing summons to fight Bolshevism and international Jewry, whose race destroying activities we have sufficiently experienced on our own people. Therefore, the alliance, with all similar minded nations who, like Germany, are not willing to allow their strength, dedicated to construction and peaceful work at home, to be disrupted by alien ideologies as by parasites of a foreign race. And therefore the demand for equality of rights and for equal respect with all other nations. These conditions alone can provide a guarantee for a peaceful life together on the globe. Within the sphere of our German racial community, we soldiers received from the Fuehrer the task of protecting our Homeland and our peaceful national development and to be teachers of young soldiers who have been entrusted to us and who pass in numbers through our hands. If later on we instruct in the technical handling of weapons, this task demands that the young soldier should also be taught National Socialist ideology and the problems of life. This part of the task, which becomes for us both a duty of honour and a demand which cannot be refused, can and will be carried out, if we stand shoulder to shoulder and in sincere comradeship to the party and its organization, whose will and actions like ours serve one purpose only, namely the creation of a German man in a community brought together by a common bond. The armed forces and the party thus became more and more united in attitude and spirit. We should have to look to the necessity of a still closer union, if it were not already one of the fundamental principles of the military and national socialist spirit, if we look to see what is happening beyond our frontiers * * *
Germany is the protector of all Germans within and beyond our frontiers. The shots fired at Almeria are proof of that. That.
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we can say it today fully conscious of our strength, is the work and the entire merit of one man, whose genial leadership, carried by the unshakeable belief in his people and with immeasurable determination, has led a whole nation in a few years from the deepest night into a bright future, who as the creator of Greater Germany is leading us in his unmistakeable way into the future. This example gave all Germans new hopes, new courage, and his own convictions. The thanks which the armed forces return to their Fuehrer and commander in chief will be the vow of unshakeable faithfulness in obedience and the fulfilment of their duties. Faithfully following his example, we will never stray from the path shown to us and with unanimous determination will give of our best for the people and the Reich. It was the Fuehrer, who led his faithful followers from victory to victory. His conviction gave us strength. His will created a new idealism of action, to which his comrades have stayed faithful to death. Many fell, but they fell as those fighters of the great war fell—for a free Germany. They all planted into a younger generation great tradition of death for a holy cause knowing that their blood will lead the way towards the freedom of their dreams.
Therefore our thought for the millions of dead of the Great War include also those men, who died in the national socialist movement, in the "Freicorps" in Austria and in the Sudetenland, for their free and greater country. And jointly with them we salute the brave men, who voluntarily marched with the columns of the Spanish fighters for freedom, in order to stake their lives for a great idea, the fight against world-bolshevism. They, who died in foreign lands, knew for all times that their blood was shed, in a higher sense, for their country, as a symbol of that mighty torrent of power, that links everything that is German in the world with earthly goods and with blood. And we think also of the dead of the new Wehrmacht, who died a hero's death whilst serving self-sacrificingly, confident of their task as the weapon-bearers of the nation. To us, they are a pledge of the most loyal fulfilment of their duties in the spirit of our great military past.