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In many
human records there may be contradictions, and interpretations may be disputed
by different parties. But a "statement", a single sentence
attributed to a man; i.e., Hitler, whose opinions are now in utter disrespect,
is a detestable piece of propaganda. It is ugly and loathsome to expect any
gain from words, supposed to have been uttered by someone whose uniqueness in
history has been to lead a great nation off to war, conquest and ruin. How can
just ten words summarize a controversial phenomenon of the last century and
the beginning of the present one?
Dr. Turkkaya Ataöv, Hitler and
the Armenian Question
-------------------------------
ADDENDUM, 9-07: The original documentation is featured
on this page.
The Hitler Quote is the one big gun the
Armenians possess in their sparse evidence for the
"Genocide." it always crops up when the Armenians list their
reasons for their genocide's occurrence.
The idea, of course, is to
link the “Armenian cause” to that of the Jewish victims of W.W. II, so
that public opinion can more readily swallow the idea of a genocide.
The interesting thing is that
this quote is always quoted... not quite the same. PBS's "The Great War" program, for
example, reported the quote as: "Who remembers the Armenian massacres
today." Below, you'll find Professor Gerard Weinberg's example,
"Who today remembers the Armenian
extermination?" Then there is the
more customary, “Who, after all, speaks today of the extermination of the
Armenians?”
If Hitler made such a quote,
I feel it should at least be quoted the way he was supposed to have said it!
This quote grabbed first
major attention in the November 24, 1945 issue of The Times of
London, (after debuting in a 1942 book, as you will read below) basing
its attribution to Hitler in an address given by him on August 22, 1939.
Officers of the Nuremberg Tribunal located the speeches’ original minutes,
as an attempt was made to insert the quote into the proceedings; these were
admitted as evidence, and nowhere was there
mention of Armenians.
There are a few interesting
aspects to this all-important quote.
1) The 1939 speech alludes to Hitler's
invasion of Poland. It had nothing to do with The Final Solution of the Jews,
which would not be implemented for another three years, with the Wannsee
Conference gathering. So if Hitler actually made this quote, the
Armenian case is to be correlated with the plight of the Poles, not the Jews.
2) The Armenian reference doesn't tie
in with the rest of the speech. It comes out of nowhere. (Read the widely
varying versions
here.)
"I
have issued the command – and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of
criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist
in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy.
Accordingly, I have placed my Totenkopf (Death's Head) Units in readiness
– for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to
death, mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of
Polish race and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space
(Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians?"
Another version is given as
follows:
"Our strength is in our quickness
and our brutality. Ghengis Khan had millions of women killed by his own will
and with a gay heart. History sees in him only a great State-builder. What
the weak European civilization thinks about me does not matter. I have given
the order, and will have everyone shot who utters one word of criticism...
Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my Death's Head units,
with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of
the Polish race or language. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination
of the Armenians?"
[As provided by Wikipedia]
[Close]
3) If you read what came before from
the above link, both versions attest to Hitler's having said, in so many
words, "I have given the order, and will have anyone shot who utters one
word of criticism." Hitler was a megalomaniac. The Armenian reference
sounds like he was going out of his way to justify his actions. Did Hitler
need such justification?
4) What was Hitler... a great social
scientist? What did he know about the Armenian "Genocide" anyway?
(Is it possible that Hitler's pappy was obsessed with the Armenians, reading
his son bedtime massacre stories, as German Photographer Armin Theophil Wegner's dad
is reported to have mysteriously done?) At any rate, if Hitler actually made
this quote, we can now conclude he made two great blunders in his life, the
other being the invasion of the Soviet Union. "Who remembers the Armenian massacres today"? Why,
EVERYBODY remembers them! The Armenians and other Turk-haters have harped on
the "genocide" issue, having made it a cause of their existence..! They have the wealth, power
and obsession to even clutter up government parliaments hoping to pass
meaningless resolutions, as if they were the only ones who have historically
suffered. What is NOT remembered are the tons of other examples of man's inhumanity to man.
Certainly, the massacres of
Turks by Armenians are on this
list. A dramatic example is one of a relatively contemporary genocide that
actually succeeded. Hitler would have been more correct to have said,
"Who remembers the TASMANIAN massacres today." (I believe the only
Tasmanian survivor is the one from the Bugs Bunny cartoons; now you know why
he's always infuriated.)
5) The Germans were
very sensitive about being blamed for the Armenian massacres. Here is a
passage from "The Literary Digest" for October 27, 1917, an article
entitled GERMAN GUILT FOR ARMENIAN BLOOD:
NEVER has Germany been
connected so intimately with the Armenian horrors as in the testimony of the
Rev. Alpheus Newell Andrus, senior missionary for the Congregational Station
at Mardin, Mesopotamia. The plan to extirpate the Armenian Christians from
Turkey was "made in Germany and suggested to the Turks by German
officials," he declares, with the further information that wherever the
Armenians made a stand against their Moslem oppressors "it was German
officers and German cannon that broke them up." The far-sighted Germans,
he explains in the New York Evening Post, were looking forward to the time
when "they expected to gain complete dominion in Turkey, and they wanted
to eliminate the Armenian question by getting rid of the Armenian
race."
Of course, the writer was a
missionary, so we don't have to pay attention to his nonsense...
it's all his ridiculous opinion. However, this is the kind of conclusion that
made the Germans quake in their boots! Probably the ultimate reason why Talat
Pasha's assassin was allowed to walk a
free man. Imagine the impact this trial must have caused in Germany,
with the reputation of the German nation on the line. No doubt the German
press, just like the German defense attorneys, did all they could to give the
Turks a black eye. Where was Adolf Hitler during all this? As a young man, he
was probably reading all about how the Turks systematically planned to
exterminate the poor, Christian Armenians. So even if Hitler made this
quote.... it has no significance regarding whether the Turks were guilty of
genocide!
The irony, of course, is that
the evidence is overwhelming about this quote being fabricated, just like so
many other pieces of "evidence" the Armenians have cooked up. Let's
examine a few of these.
|
|
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| Armenian
“Hitler Quote” Proven To Be Fabrication |
“The U.S. Congress and Adolf Hitler on the Armenians”
by Dr. Heath W. Lowry
reviewed by Leon Picon
Speaking before the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh in 1983, Professor Richard
Hovannisian of UCLA, the dean of Armenian-American historians, echoed a bit of the
crumbling pseudo-history on which Armenians today base much of their claims of the
ill-termed ~genocide of 1915.” He told his audience interalia:
“Perhaps Adolf Hitler had good cause in 1939 to declare, according to the Nuremberg
trial transcripts, ‘Who, after all, speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians?”
It is now obvious that Professor Hovannisian never checked the Nuremberg trial transcripts
to which he attributes this Hitlerian quotation. Dr. Heath W. Lowry of the Institute of
Turkish Studies, however, did go through the Nuremberg records painstakingly, and the
results of his research are fascinating. Lowry shows quite conclusively that “the Hitler
Quote,” which has taken on a life of its own among Armenian— and even Holocaust
scholars—during the past forty years, does not appear at all anywhere in the Nuremberg
transcripts.
 |
|
Mr. Hitler
gives a speech |
“There is no proof [writes Lowry] that Adolf Hitler ever made such a
statement. Everything written to date has attributed the purported Hitler quote, not to
primary sources, but to an article that appeared in the Times of London on Saturday,
November 24, 1945. Said article, entitled “Nazi Germany’s Road to War,” cites the
quote and bases its attribution to Hitler on an address by him to his Commanders-in-chief
six years earlier, on August 22, 1939, a few days prior to his invasion of Poland.
According to the unnamed author of the Times article, the speech had been introduced as
evidence during the November 23, 1945, session of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Hitler is quoted
as having stated, 'Thus, for the time being I have sent to the East only my Death’s Head
units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the
Polish race or language. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?’
However, this version of the address was never accepted as evidence in this or any other
session of the Nuremberg Tribunal.”
The first appearance of this spurious “quotation” was in a book entitled What About
Germany? written by an American newspaperman, and published in 1942. It is to this book
and to the Times article—and only to them that the Hitler Quote is traceable; yet, while
the quote has been used a myriad of times by Armenian scholars ad publicists, no one has
attributed it to either of these sources. Nor is mention ever made of the fact that an
attempt was made to have the quote inserted into the Nuremberg proceedings, but the
Tribunal rejected the material as evidence because it was a “garbled merger” of two
Hitler speeches obtained from questionable sources. The American newspaperman, undoubtedly
Louis Lochner of the Associated Press, as Dr. Lowry documents, had a penchant for
embellishing facts. Officers of the Nuremberg Tribunal, obviously aware of this, sought
and fortunately located the original minutes taken of the Hitler speech (or speeches);
these were admitted as evidence; and nowhere is there any mention of Armenians!
In taking on a life of its own, the spurious Hitler Quote has gone through several
metamorphoses in the hands of Armenian publicists. Claiming that Hitler made this
statement to justify his plans for the extermination of the Jews of Europe, Armenians have
used the “quotation” to help them gain access to Holocaust programs and curricula. The
fact remains that nowhere, even in the Lochner and Times versions of the Hitler speech of
August 22, 1939, are Jews mentioned at all! Nevertheless, Armenians have been successful
in persuading members of the United States Congress to read into the Congressional Record
statements linking the Hitler quote to the Holocaust. Dr. Lowry has done us a service by
detailing the lack of knowledge of a number of members of our Legislative Branch and their
blind acceptance of the output of the Armenian Assembly.
Dr. Lowry’s article, which appeared in Political Communication and Persuasion, Volume 3,
Number 2 (1985), is compact and well-documented. An appendix to the article contains
excerpts from the Congressional speeches on the Armenians. Were it not so tragic, it
becomes amusing to read these excerpts just to see the degree to which Members of Congress
can garble a single quotation and distort its alleged purport. It is with justification
that Lowry concludes his article with a plea to the Congress:
“Finally given the serious problems facing our nation, e.g., the arms race,
unemployment, and budget deficits, in conjunction with the fact that as this study has
repeatedly demonstrated, history is clearly not the forte of many U.S. Congressmen and
Senators, it is not impertinent to suggest that the Congress would be better served if its
members were to confine their activities to the business at hand and leave the writing of
history to the historians.”
It is of more than passing interest to observe that with the publication of Heath Lowry’s
research another of the props sustaining the Armenian claims of “genocide” collapses.
Now, after more than forty years since its fabrication, the “Hitler Quote” has been
exploded. The central problem still remains, however. The mythology that has been
developed around the events of 1915 has been repeated so often that large segments of even
educated people have come to to accept the mythology as History. One can only hope that as
solid research continues to be conducted on this period of history by dispassionate
scholars, truth will sift down and displace the mythology at all educational levels. It
has been said that myths die hard. The Myth of the “Hitler Quote” should have died in
infancy.
From ATA-USA, Fall 1985-Winter 1986
(Holdwater adds: it is precisely because of
the impeccable research Dr. Heath Lowry was conducting during these years that the
Armenian propaganda commando units eventually directed their artillery against the
professor, in an attempt to discredit him. Unlike
the "pseudo-history" of professional Armenian "Genocide" scholars such
as Professor Richard Hovannisian, the
only thing that matters is the quality of the research itself. The first work of Dr.
Lowry's that I read were his examinations in "The Story Behind Ambassador
Morgenthau's Story," and I was genuinely impressed with his thoroughness.)
ADDENDUM: Subsequent to the writing of the above, I
encountered Professor Lowry's work on the Hitler Quote, in its entirety... it has
been provided, below.
|
Politically, "Hitler" is
a magic word that conjures up an all too true image of undisputed evil. He is quoted
on the Armenian Question for polemic and political purpose, to tie the Turks to
Hitler's evil. In the modern world nothing defames so well as associating your enemies
with Hitler. This is all absurdity, but it is potent absurdity that convinces those
who know nothing of the facts. It is also a deliberate distortion of history.
Justin
McCarthy |
|
An Armenian Historian's Doubts
|
HISTORIAN OF ARMENIAN DESCENT SAYS FREQUENTLY USED HITLER QUOTE IS
NOTHING BUT A FORGERY
Baden-Baden, W. Germany - Dr. Robert John, a
historian and political analyst of Armenian descent from New York City, declared
here that a commonly used quotation of an alleged statement by Adolf Hitler
concerning the Armenian massacres was a forgery and should not be used.
Dr. John demonstrated how he had traced the original document in the Military Branch
of the National Archives of the U.S.A. after being handed a folder bearing the
quotation at a rally outside the United Nations building in New York following the
Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The quotation: “Our strength is in our quickness and our brutality.... For the
time being I have sent to the east only Death’s Heads units, with the order to
kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children... Who talks nowadays of the
extermination of the Armenians?”
Dr. John showed slides of this document, undated and unsigned, with some words cut
out of the last page. The statement was supposed to have been made at a meeting of
the top German staff of the Obersalzberg on August 22, 1939. The document was
released to the international press covering the Nuremberg War Crimes trials on
Friday, November 23, 1945. The trials had commenced that Monday. The document was
one of several made available to the press that day. Two-hundred-fifty copies were
given to press correspondents, but only five copies were given to the 17 defense
counsels - 24 hours before the Court convened on Monday!
Much later in the trial, the German defense lawyers were able to introduce the most
complete account of the address, taken down by German Admiral Hermann Boehm, which
runs to 12 pages in translation. There is no mention of the Armenians or the rest of
the “quotation.”
Dr. Robert John said he believed that the document was introduced to create a
climate of hate which was needed to stifle the protests of eminent American jurists
such as Sen. R. Taft and Chief Justice Harland Stone. He had discussed it with Gen.
Telford Taylor, who had said, “I know the document you mean, I don’t know its
provenance, and I have not used it in my own work.”
“We all believe that violence breeds violence,” said Dr. John. “There has been
an increase in Armenian violence since this false inflammatory statement was given
publicly. Films like ‘The Day After’ are a form of violence, and should not be
shown to children - who are unable to evaluate their content. Films about the “Holocaust”
are a form of violence and are harmful to us as well as to Jews. There is a high
probability that the
surprising violence and brutality shown by the Israelis towards the
Palestinians, may be a result of being frequently exposed to these old scenes. Just
as parents who abuse their children have often been abused themselves.”
Dr. John briefly traced the history of atrocity propaganda, particularly from the
British — and later — American view. Real atrocities certainly occurred, but the
deliberate fabrication and dissemination of atrocity stories increased the
probability of their occurring. “Hate hurts the hater and hated. We are still
living in the haze of distortions and actual horrors which occurred so long ago.”
he commented.
“The time has come to stop psychologically damaging ourselves and our children by
“Holocaust studies” and Holocaust” museums,” he continued. “The Armenian,
the Jew, or the African, should not damage their development with a continual
conditioning of hate, neither should spurious guilt be visited upon others. These
negative preoccupations and obsessions are obstructing our evolution.”
Dr. John, whose paper is entitled “Information and Misinformation,” hails from
Armenian parents who moved from New Julla, Iran to India. His father changed his
name from Hovhanes to “John,” and subsequently the family moved to England. Dr.
John studies law in England and holds a doctoral
degree in political science from London University. He is presently a contributor to
the London, England based The Middle East Magazine monthly, and in addition to
giving lectures, is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines and publications.
He is also the author of Palestine Diary, and specializes in Middle Eastern issues,
including the Palestinian issue.
The REPORTER
“America’s Leading Armenian Newspaper,” August 2, 1984
|
| Evidence
the Quote Might be Valid |
The following is from a letter
published in The New York Times, June 1985:
Hitler Remark on Armenians Reported in '39
To the Editor:
Robert John, in his letter of June 8, maintains that
the reference to Hitler's comment "Who today remembers the Armenian
extermination?" is a dubious one. The only dubious matter may be his research.
In detailed and careful articles that appeared in the scholarly quarterly Issued by the
Institute for Contemporary History in Munich in 1968 and 1971, Winfried Baumgart has
demonstrated that the account by Adm. Hermann Böhm, on which your correspondent relies,
is an abbreviated and inaccurate one — perhaps not so surprising in that Böhm was a
great admirer of Hitler as opposed to Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the author of the more
detailed account.
The reference to the Armenians occurs in a document handed secretly to the British
Government on Aug. 25, 1939; It was published by the British Government In the official
series "Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919-39," volume VII, 1954; the
ribbon copy of the actual document as handed to the British Ambassador in Berlin in 1939
may be seen in Ambassador Neville Henderson's papers in the Public Record Office at Kew.
Since the record shows that the British Government received the document containing the
reference to the Armenians on Aug. 29, 1939, your correspondent's suggestion that those
who issued It did so with a deliberate intent to deceive the world In 1945 reflects on his
rather than their motives.
Anyone seriously interested In the issues surrounding Hitler's speech of Aug. 22, 1939, In
which he mentioned the "Vernichtung der Armenier," the destruction of the
Armenians, can find the evidence summarized, with detailed references to the sources In my
book "The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Starting World War II, 1937-39,"
pages 610-612.
GERHARD L. WEINBERG
William Rand Kenan Jr. Prof. of History
University of North Carolina
Chapel HIll, June 12, 1985
Holdwater says: Boy, the
professor was rather harsh with Professor Robert John, was he not? "Reflects on
his rather than their motives," implying John's findings had to do with
dishonesty. I hope Prof. Weinberg wasn't socking it to Robert John because John appears to
have been pro-Palestinian. (ADDENDUM: It appears John was the co-author The
Palestine Diary, for which Arnold Toynbee wrote the foreword.)
At any rate, this is the only
"evidence" I've come across over the years that cast doubt in my mind. I'm not
one to hide anything that appears valid, because the truth is all that matters.
---------------------
Stop the presses! A while
after writing the above, I encountered the following from an Armenian web site:
Historian Finds Hitler's Statement
On Genocide
WASHINGTON (Noyan Tapan) American historian, Robert John, while researching through the
American military archives in Washington, came across an original, primary source with
Adolf Hitler's infamous quote "Our strength lies in our intensive attacks and our
barbarity...Who today remembers the genocide of the
Armenians?"
The document once again proves, Hitler made that statement at a meeting of the highest
officials of the Third Reich which took place on August 22, 1939, in Salzburg.
Yet another re-wording of the
famous Hitler quote!
If this account is true, it looks
like Armenian historian Robert John has reversed himself completely. And he had to go all
the way to the ... American military archives??... to do so. If this is really the case,
it would appear Dr. John dismissed the words of Gerhard Weinberg, who mentioned exactly
where the Armenian reference occurred, all the way back in 1985.... in his rude reply to
Dr. John, that Dr. John was undoubtedly aware of. Perhaps Dr. Weinberg's explanation is
not as clear-cut as it sounds.
And look at this! I thought the word
"genocide" was coined by Rafael Lemkin of Poland in 1944... according to this
Armenian report, Adolf Hitler was on record to have used the word "genocide"
before anyone else!
ADDENDUM (3-05):
A reader named Mike wrote he
communicated with Robert John, and the professor passed on his original letter, and
the reply to Dr. Weinberg, which The New York Times also
published. When I have the time, I'll scan one or both and put them up.*
There doesn't seem to be as
much for Weinberg's "evidence" as first met my eye.
MUCH more importantly, the news
service which provided the Jan. 24 2002 item on John's reversal (Azbarez Online,
"Armenian Daily Newspaper") is a false one, according to Robert John
himself. I see the organization's byline reads, "ASBAREZ provides this news
service for academic research or personal use only." Of what value is a news
service that prints "facts" without verifying them?
I suspect whomever came up with
this "forgery" that Andonian would have been proud of was perfectly aware
Robert John wasn't simply an "American" historian, but an
Armenian-American one. They knew that the rare Armenians who provide contrary
evidence to the genocide con are particularly harmful, and someone planted this
doubt-casting falsification, singing "The Armenian AND? Anthem," all the way. Disgraceful.
=================================
* Okay, here it is, a month
later and I got around to the task. Please bear in mind the quality of the copies
was poor, and there may be errors in the "translation."
Here is the first letter
of Dr. John's, appearing in The New York Times on June
8, 1985:
Did Hitler Say It?
To the Editor:
The Turkish Ambassador challenges Armenian use of “the
purported Hitler quotation — "Who today remembers the Armenian
extermination?" He writes: "But Hitler is not known to have made such a
statement! The proceedings of the Nurernberg tribunal, usually given as the source,
establish that no document that includes this quotation was introduced there."
I have researched this question and Included my findings in
a paper I gave at the Orwellian Symposium at Baden-Baden, West Germany, in August
1984. Its title was "Information and Misinformation — Can We Free Ourselves?"
The "official" use of the quotation by the
Armenian community came to my attention following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. It
was contained in a brochure handed out at a protest demonstration outside the United
Nations in New York. I subsequently traced its author to Boston and spoke to him by
telephone. He told me that the quotation was to be found In The Times of London for
Nov. 24, 1945, in an account of the proceedings of the Nuremberg tribunal; and he
invited me to let him know of any findings that might reflect upon it.
Years later. in the military branch of the National
Archives in Washington, I held the original of the document in my hand. It consists
of three typewritten pages, with one or two words physically cut of the last page.
It was handed to the tribunal by the journalist Louis Lochner and purports to be an
account of a speech given by Hitler to his service chiefs at Obersalzberg on Aug.
22, 1939.
It contains the quotation; “Our strength is in our
quickness and our brutality... For the time being I have sent to the east only my
Death’s Head units, with orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women and
children... Who talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?"
A copy of this “document,” with copies of other
official documents, was issued to the international press covering the Nuremberg War
Crimes trials on Friday, Nov. 23, 1945, the end of the first week of the trials.
Quotations from it appeared the next day in The Times of London, The New York Times
and, I am sure, other major newspapers. No account of it appears in the proceedings
of the trials, but in the proceedings for the Monday morning following, there is a
protest by German defense counsel about documents being issued to the press, some of
them undated and unsigned.
Moreover, under questioning, Colonel Storey admits that 250
copies were issued to press correspondents, but only 3 copies were given to the 17
defense counsel — 24 hours before the court reconvened on that Monday.
(With?) the document in the archives is an appraisal by the
U.S. Provost Marshal, with notes on further information that would be required to
authenticate the document. Those seem never to have been obtained because, although
the document bears an official number, and was issued to the press as authentic, it
was not used officially by the prosecution. When I mentioned it to Gen. Telford
Taylor, he said: “I know the document you mean, I do not know its provenance, and
I have not used it in my own work.”
I later wrote to Louis Lochner, inviting him to tell for
the record what he knew about the material, but be did not reply and died soon
after.
Much later in the trial, the German defense lawyers were
able to introduce the most complete account of Hitler’s address, taken down by
Gen. Adm. Hermann Böhm, which runs 12 pages in translation. There is no mention of
the Armenians or the rest of the "quotation."
One must suspect that the document was
released to create a climate of hate and revulsion to stifle the protests of eminent
American jurists such as Senator Ruben A. Taft and Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone,
whose comments on the trial I recommend. Armenian have quoted the document in good
faith. One cannot say the same for those who issued it.
ROBERT JOHN
Life Member of the Honorshie
Society of the Middle Temple
Inns of Court, London
New York, May 27,1985
I don't know about
you, dear reader, but I am impressed with the extent of research Dr. John went
through. And I am now totally unimpressed with Dr. Weinberg, who appears to
have mainly relied on surface impressions (does it sound like he has gone through as
much trouble?), perhaps because it is in his interest to authenticate what now looks
like an utterly phony quote. And I don't follow the reasoning behind why Böhm's
translation, which seems to be pretty hefty at 12 pages (Dr. Weinberg described
these as "abbreviated and inaccurate") should be
dismissed because Böhm "was a great admirer of Hitler," as the professor asserted. It
seems to me Böhm would have made sure to have
recorded as precise an account as possible, precisely because he was so gaga
over Der Fuehrer.
But the reason why I am
no longer as cuckoo for Weinberg's puffs is because finally I can see "The
Other Side" of his claims; here is Dr. John's printed reply, from July 6, 1985:
To the Editor:
Quoting Hitler?
The documentation of Prof. G. L. Weinberg for the alleged
Hitler remark seemed impressive. However, I have now examined this publication
"by the British Government in the official series 'Documents on British Foreign
Policy, 1919-39,' volume VII, 1954," in the spirit of being prepared to accept
new evidence.
It is essentially the same document to which I referred in
my letter of June 8; this one, writes Sir G. (Ogilese?)-Forbes from the British
Embassy, Berlin, on Aug. 22, 1939, "was communicated to me by Lochner of the
Associated Press of America. His informant is a staff officer, who received it from
one of the generals present at the meeting" (Page 237).
Both "documents" contain such statements as
"Goring jumped on a table, thanked bloodthirstily and made bloodthirsty
promises. He danced like a wild man." (page 259).
This "document" would not satisfy the U.S.
Provost Marshal at Nuremberg as acceptable in court, and it has not been
substantiated since Winston Churchill said, "In wartime, truth is so precious
that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." We must hold
historians to the highest standards of proof in sorting them out.
ROBERT JOHN
Life Member of the Honorshie
Society of the Middle Temple
Inns of Court, London
New York, May 27,1985
"In the spirit of
being prepared to accept new evidence." Bravo, Dr. John! That is precisely what
a real historian must do, dispassionately examine all of the evidence, and be
prepared to "revise" one's findings, as better information comes to light.
Compare with that other
Hitler-Quote affirmer the Armenian Genocide Juggernaut frequently refers to, Kevork
B. Bardakjian, whose June 16 letter was printed side by side with Dr. John's.
Bardakjian offered "smoke and mirror" statements, to the effect that
Hitler gave a second speech that day (convenient!) and that the Nuremberg
prosecution couldn't verify the quote because a few of the players had already been
executed. Nervous that the precious quote was in danger of slipping away in light of
authentic evidence, Bardakjian referred us to the "confidential"
interviews Hitler gave in 1931, that only mysteriously surfaced after the genocide
hooey took on a second life in the mid-1960s. (After the 50th Anniversary
commemoration.) Hitler diaries, anyone?
"We must hold
historians to the highest standards of proof," Dr. John correctly points out. I don't believe the
"Senior Lecturer in Armenian" at Harvard, Kevork Bardakjian, can be
trusted as a disciple of that principle. Unfortunately, Bardakjian gives us the
ammunition to question his credibility, when he uses, in typical "Dadrian"
style, a word like "annihilation" to describe the fate of the Armenians.
Looking up that sensational word in the dictionary, we'll remember it basically
means to make disappear "without a trace." The Armenians, even the
Armenians concede, had a million survivors. (From a pre-war population of some 1.5
million, that can hardly describe an annihilation, particularly if nearly all those
Armenians died for the same reasons everyone else was dying from: famine, disease,
and combat. Such dishonesty.)
One rare conclusive
reference that Hitler has been known to make about the Armenians was from a December
12, 1942 speech where he called the Armenians "unreliable" (UNZUVERLASSIG)
and "dangerous" (GEFAHRLICH).
|
ADDENDUM (10-05):
Did Kevork
Bardakjian have a change of heart?
Kevork Bardakjian is
known as an authority on the Hitler Quote business for many years, as you observed
above. A self-described "journalist" by the pseudonym Ari Ararat wrote the
piece below, which was entitled, SECOND ACT OF THE COMEDY AZG. (To read the
"first act" on this page, click here.)
While Turkey started an attack based
on the historical documents against the issue of genocide that is not solved
politically, the fact that the reports of the Armenian News Agency AZG reflect the
dominance of the “Dashnak dictation” damages greatly the reliability of the
newspaper.
As it is known, the AZG prevented the readers form voting independently for the
questionnaire it presented on its website on May 9, 2005 by closing the option “No”
of the question asking that: “Do you want Turkey to accept the genocide?”. In
spite of this fact, at the end of voting, the rate of the “Yes” answers coming
from the Armenian readers reached only 28% and therefore, the website where was
the questionnaire was removed hastily and the agency lost its reliability in a
great extent.
[Close]
Nevertheless, it is seen that the news agency being under Dashnak orientation did
not take lessons from this tragic practice. Lately, the newspaper gave place to the
interview made by Melenya Bagalyan, one of the reporters, with Kevork Bardakciyan,
an Armenian intellectual. This interview, which is published on June 11, 2005,
caused to upset the
theses of the diaspora.
In the interview, Bardakciyan admits clearly that the statement of Hitler saying
that "who remembers the murdered Armenians?" could not be found out
despite all the searches in the archives. The revelations made by Bardakciyan about
the issue are extremely striking: "… I have conducted researches for eighteen
months in order to reach an evidence of this statement. I could not find out valid
evidence proving that Hitler said such a statement. Hitler, however, made a special
2-3 hours speech to his staff before the attack against Poland and prevented taking
notes. And what were said in this meeting are quoted by some ones to other ones
after the meeting and as far as they were kept in mind. The opposition against
Hitler rearranged the content of the talks and delivered to the British and American
embassies…". The following is known; the UK and USA are involved in the war.
And whether Hitler said this statement or not depends to which side you support
sentimentally.
It can be clearly said at this point that Bardakciyan is actually in a scientific
marginality which is far from the responsibilities of being an intellectual. In
anyway, such works having abundant contradictions which cannot be proved
scientifically will continue to indicate that the superficial mentality of the
Armenian intellectuals cannot surpass the vicious circle of genocide. In this
situation, beyond the social clichés, the real intellectual should ask
himself/herself absolutely this question: "Can any claim deprived of
evidences be considered as true?"
Until further notice, please accept the
above with a grain of salt.
|
ADDENDUM, July 2007:
Erkin Baker contacted Mr. Whitney Harris, one of the prosecutors at the Nuremberg Trials,
reporting that Harris's secretary called to say that Mr. Harris has no recollection of any
reference to an "Armenian" quote by Hitler, and that it never came up while
Harris was on duty. Baker hastens to add, however, that the prosecutors took turns during
the trials.
From the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington:
Now what in the world could
have possibly compelled this museum to have put up such a dubious quote? Their
researchers must have been aware of the controversy behind the Hitler Quote, and (if
they were professional) that the scholarly evidence was solidly against the quote's
validity. What are the forces at play that would allow this museum to display the
quote as though it were a proven fact? Have they no idea that once people get the
notion the museum values "genocide politics" over "truth," other
claims in the museum could also come under doubt?
(Thanks to Reader
Conan)
Ironic Addendum:
Former museum director Walter Reich, as quoted in the August 31, 1997 Washington
Post: "In all of its activities, the Holocaust Museum is fiercely devoted
to historical authenticity. It takes immense pains to guard against errors or
misrepresentations. This is a responsibility of all museums; it's ours all the more
so because Holocaust deniers, driven by antisemitic animus, are ready to pounce on
any errors or distortions."
|
Supplementing the above, to
get an idea of the forces at work:
"When the Holocaust Council was formed
in 1980, the Armenians were represented by Seth Moomjian [more
correctly, Set Momjian], a
first-generation Armenian-American whose parents had been orphaned in 1915 in Turkey.
Moomjian served as an adviser to President Carter, a representative to the United Nations,
and also a White House representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission! In
1980, Moomjian pledged $1,000,000 to the Holocaust Museum. However, on September 24, 1981
he backed down on this pledge, and offered instead a payment of $100,000. For a long time
no money was forthcoming. When in December 1988 an earthquake devastated Armenian Republic
the Armenian community grabbed this event as an excuse not to fulfill its pledge, they
claimed that the earthquake victims needed money. As a result only part of the pledge was
fulfilled." (From Ayhan Ozer's
"Facts and Discussion Points in the Armenian Allegations,"
ataa.org.)
|
Here are segments of what Hitler ACTUALLY said
during the "Hitler Quote" speech, to his Supreme Commanders and Generals in
Obersalzberg.
What does Hitler really teach us? Let's see
now... the Armenian "Genocide" was created as a propagandistic reason to
help justify the Allied carving up of the Ottoman Empire. Nobody cared to ask World
War I's victor (the Allies) whether the truth was told or not. This is why the Western
World still believes in the truth of the Falsified Armenian "Genocide,"
today.
"It is not right that matters, but
victory." You go, girl. Ironically, the same contention is valued by the
Armenians' allies in the genocide industry.
The graphic was taken from this
site
|
|
Note: Some of the footnote placements
below will be missing.
|
The U.S.
Congress and Adolf Hitler on the Armenians
DR. HEATH W. LOWRY |
Communication and Persuasion
Volume 3, Number 2, 1985
Abstract
This article traces the history of a purported Adolf Hitler quote which cites the
precedent of the world’s lack of reaction to the fate of Armenians during the
First World War as justification for his planned extermination of European Jewry in
the course of the Second World War. By a detailed examination of the genesis of this
quotation the author demonstrates that there is no historical basis for attributing
such a statement to Hitler. Likewise, the author traces the manner in which this
purported quote has entered the lexicon of U.S. Congressmen, and the manner in which
it continues to be used by Armenian-Americans in their efforts to establish a
linkage between their own history and the tragic fate of European Jewry during the
Second World War. The author concludes with a plea to policy-makers that they focus
their activities on the responsibilities of their offices and leave the writing of
history to the historians.
A casual perusal of the pages of the Congressional Record (CR) of both the House and
the Senate, on or about April 24, 1984, reveals a bipartisan group of our elected
officials condemning the failure of the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge and assume
responsibility for the “genocide” of the Armenian people allegedly perpetrated
by the Ottoman Empire in the course of the First World War. In 1984, a total of
sixty-six such statements, fifty-seven by members of the House and nine by Senators,
were read into the Congressional Record. Of these sixty-six tributes in support of
Armenian Martyrs’ Day remembrances, exactly one-third—twenty-two— contained
one or another version of a quote attributed to Adolf Hitler in which he purportedly
responded to a query about his planned annihilation of European Jewry, by quipping,
”Who, after all, speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians?”
|
| The
Hitler Quote: Its Source and Its Avowed Focus |
While the quiver of anti-Turkish invectives utilized by Armenian spokesmen contains
a number of arrows, none is more frequently unleashed than this charge that Adolf
Hitler was encouraged by his perception that the world had not reacted to alleged
Ottoman mistreatment of its Armenian population during the First World War. He thus
felt justified in going forward with his plan to exterminate European Jewry during
the Second World War.
Given the widespread utilization of this quotation by Armenian spokesmen and their
supporters, perhaps we should not be too surprised at the fact that it has found its
way into the lexicon of our lawmakers. Even the dean of Armenian-American
historians, Professor Richard Hovannisian of UCLA, stated in a 1983 address to the
World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, “Perhaps Adolf Hitler had good cause in 1939
to declare, according to the Nuremberg trial transcripts, ‘Who, after all, speaks
today of the extermination of the Armenians?"[1]
Is it any wonder, then, that the following list of elected U.S. officials repeat the
same charge?
Senator Rudi Boschwitz, R-Minn.; Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Senator Howard
Metzenbaum, D-Ohio; Congressman Les Aspin, D-Wis.; Congressman Howard Berman, D-Calif.;
Congressman Thomas Bliley, R-Va.; Congressman Edward Boland, D-Mass.;
Congresswoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Congressman Jim Courter, R-N.j.; Congressman
Mervyn Dymally, D-Calif.; Congressman Edward Feighan, D-Ohio; Congresswoman
Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y.; Congressman Hamilton Fish, R-N.Y.; Congressman William
Ford, D-Mich.; Congressman Sam Gejdenson, D-Conn.; Congressman William Green, R-N.Y.;
Congressman Richard Lehman, D-Calif.; Congressman Bruce Morrison, D-Conn.;
Congressman Nicholas Mavroules, D-Mass.; Congressman Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.;
Congressman James Shannon, D-Mass.; and Congressman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
It is noteworthy that sixteen of the above-listed officials (with the exception of
Boxer, Courter, Dymally, Feighan, Ford, and Schumer) all clearly state that Hitler
made his statement in support of his planned extermination of European Jewry.
Equally noteworthy is the fact that the three senators, Boschwitz, Levin, and
Metzenbaum, and four of the members of the House, Berman, Gejdenson, Green, and
Waxman, who made this linkage are themselves Jews.
|
|
|
Nazi
propaganda celebrates Pearl Harbor |
The problem with this linkage is that there is
no proof that Adolf Hitler ever made such a statement. Everything written to date
has attributed the purported Hitler quote, not to primary sources, but to an article
that appeared in the Times of London on Saturday, November 24, 1945. Said article,
entitled, “Nazi Germany’s Road To War,” [2]
cites the quote and bases its attribution to Hitler on an address by him to his
commanders-in-chief six years earlier, on August 22, 1939, a few days prior to his
invasion of Poland. According to the unnamed author of the Times article, the speech
had been introduced as evidence during the November 23, 1945, session of the
Nuremberg Tribunal. Hitler is quoted as having stated, “Thus for the time being I
have sent to the East only my Death’s Head units, with the order to
kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or
language. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?”[3] However, this version of the address was never
accepted as evidence in this or any other session of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
Furthermore, the Times article of November 24, 1945, was not the earliest mention of
Hitler’s alleged statement on the Armenians. Rather, this quotation, and indeed an
entire text of a Hitler speech purportedly made at Obersalzberg on August 22, 1939,
was first published in 1942 in a book entitled What About Germany? and authored by
Louis Lochner, a former bureau chief of the Associated Press in Berlin. [4]
On the opening page of his work, Lochner cites an unnamed informant as his source
for a document called “Contents of Speech to the Supreme Commanders, and
Commanding Generals, Obersalzberg, August 22, 1939.” He further states that he
obtained
a copy of this speech (a three-page typed German manuscript) one week prior to
Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland.
This “document,” the provenance of which has never been disclosed, investigated,
and much less established, is the real “source,” and indeed the sole source, of
Hitler’s purported remark vis-â-vis the Armenians. In its historical debut, as
published by Lochner, the “quote” reads as follows:
I have issued the command—I’ll have anybody who utters one word of criticism
executed by a firing squad — that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain
lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my
death-head formations in readiness — for the present only in the East — with
orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and
children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space
[lebensraum] which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the
Armenians? [6]
Of particular interest is the fact that while this “quotation” has appeared in
literally hundreds of publications in the past forty years, not a single one has
ever cited Lochner book as its source. Likewise, no work has ever suggested that
this statement made its first appearance, not in the course of the 1945 Nuremberg
trials, but rather in the 1942 wartime publication of an American newspaperman.
Of equal interest, assuming for the moment that Lochner’s unnamed informant did in
fact supply him with an authentic copy of Hitler’s Obersalzberg remarks, is the
total absence in this text of a single direct or implied reference to the Jewish
people. Obviously, it is an anti-Polish polemic; the single reference it contains to
the Armenians is clearly made in that context. In Lochner’s version, Hitler
states,
Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness—for the
present only in the East—with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and
without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only
thus shall we gain the living space [lebensraum] which we need. Who, after all,
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?
Here there is no ambiguity in his meaning. If Hitler actually made this statement it
obviously referred to his impending invasion of Poland and to the fate he envisioned
for its citizenry; it had absolutely nothing to do with his plans for the Jews of
Europe. This fact in and of itself belies the allegations of those sixteen members
of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives who in their statements in
conjunction with the April 24 remembrance of Armenian Martyrs’ Day, insisted that
Hitler’s remarks expressed the rationale for his slaughter of the Jews.
Interestingly enough, of the twenty-two elected representatives who incorporated the
alleged Hitler quote into their Congressional remarks, only one, Congressman William
Ford (D-Mich.), correctly identified the time and context of the statement
attributed to Hitler. Ford said, “Even Adolf Hitler used past events to shape his
own policies. In 1939 as he was beginning his invasion of Poland, Hitler ordered the
mass extermination of its inhabitants, commenting, ‘Who, after all, speaks today
of the annihilation of the Armenians?’ “ 8 In contrast, most of his colleagues
displayed their lack of knowledge about the subject they purported to address by the
use of phrases such as:
When Adolf Hitler was planning the extermination of the Jewish people. . .. (Aspin)
When Hitler first proposed his final
solution.... (Boschwitz)
...on the eve of the extermination of the Jews.
(Berman)
Hitler’s statement concerning the final
solution for the Jews of Europe.... (Bliley)
Hitler who while planning the extermination of
millions of Jews was asked.... (Boland)
We can only be haunted by the words of Adolf Hitler, who said, in embarking on this
“crazed attack” on the Jews, ‘Who after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians?’ (Ferraro)
In speaking of the consequences of the Jewish Holocaust, Adolf Hitler once
remarked.... (Fish)
Hitler, before beginning his Holocaust against
the Jews.... (Gejdenson)
When Hitler was about to begin the Holocaust.... (Green)
Questioned about his policy of Jewish genocide, Hitler said.... (Lehman)
Looking at the Armenian genocide as a precedent for his own Holocaust perpetrated
against Europe’s Jews.... (Morrison)
Etc., etc., etc.8
|
| The
Hitler Quote and the Nuremberg Trials |
Having established that the first published appearance of Hitter’s alleged remark on the
Armenians occurred in the 1942 Lochner book, we will now examine the history of its
subsequent appearance in the course of the Nuremberg trials. It is necessary to state at
the outset, however, that contrary to Professor Hovannisian in the above-mentioned quote,
and a whole body of scholars writing on the Holocaust, the Nuremberg trials transcripts do
not in fact contain the purported Hitler quote. Instead, the Nuremberg transcripts clearly
demonstrate that the tribunal rejected Lochner’s version of Hitler’s Obersalzberg
speech in favor of two more official versions found in confiscated German military
records. These two records are, respectively, detailed notes of the August 22, 1939,
meeting taken down by Admiral Hermann Boehm, Chief of the High Seas Fleet, who was in
attendance; 10 and an unsigned memorandum in two parts which provides a detailed account
of Hitler’s August 22, 1939, remarks at Obersalzberg. This document originated in the
Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmact [0KW])
files and was captured by American troops at Saalfelden in Austria. This was the chief
document introduced by the prosecution at Nuremberg as evidence in the course of the
session concerned with the invasion of Poland. ~ In addition, a third eyewitness account
of the Obersalzberg meetings is found in the detailed diary kept by General Halder. [12]
These three versions, the first two of which are in fact preserved in the transcripts of
the Nuremberg Tribunal, are internally consistent one with the other in regard to the
wording of Hitler’s Obersalzberg speech. Of primary importance in the context of this
study is the fact that none of these three eyewitness versions contains any reference
whatsoever to Armenians.
The noted historian of the Second World War, William Shirer, reconstructed his account of
the Obersalzberg meeting strictly on the basis of the Boehm notes, the Halder diary, and
the captured memorandum. [13] In explaining his
failure to incorporate the “Lochner version,” he wrote with characteristic
understatement, “it may have been embellished a little by persons who were not present
at the meeting at the Berghof.” [14]
An examination of the Nuremberg transcripts from the afternoon session of November 26,
1945, enables us to piece together the actual sequence of events which led to the Times of
London article on November 24, 1945, which, as has been stated, is the source of all
post-1945 references to the alleged Hitler quote.
From these records it becomes apparent that a total of three documents dealing with the
August 22, 1939, speech were discussed in the course of the November 26, 1945, session of
the tribunal. Called, respectively, US-28, US-29, and US-30, two of the three were
subsequently introduced as evidence and preserved in the records of the trials: US-29
(Document Number 798-PS) and US-30 (Document Number 1014-PS). The third document, US-28,
was not introduced as evidence by the prosecution. An examination of the Nuremberg
transcript provides the following detail in regard to these three documents. The
prosecutor, Mr. Alderman, introduced the subject thus:
In this presentation of condemning documents, concerning the initiation of the war in
September 1939, I must bring to the attention of the Tribunal a group of documents
concerning an address by Hitler to his chief military commanders, at Obersalzberg on 22
August 1939, just one week prior to the launching of the attack on Poland.
We have three of these documents, related and
constituting a single group. The first one I do not intend to offer as evidence. The other
two I shall offer.
The reason for that is this: The first of the
three documents came into our possession through the medium of an American newspaperman
and purported to be original minutes of this meeting at Obersalzberg, transmitted to this
American newspaperman by some other person; and we had no proof of the actual delivery to
the intermediary by the person who took the notes. That document, therefore, merely served
to alert our Prosecution to see if we could find something better. Fortunately, we did get
the other two documents, which indicate that Hitler on that day made two speeches, perhaps
one in the morning, one in the afternoon, as indicated by the original minutes, which we
captured. By comparison of these two documents with the first document, we concluded that
the first document was a slightly garbled merger of the two speeches.
On 22 August 1939, Hitler had called together at Obersalzberg the three Supreme Commanders
of the three branches of the Armed Forces, as well as the commanding generals bearing the
title Commanders-in-Chief (Oberbefehlshaber).
(...?)
succeeded. In the files of the 0KW at Flensburg, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Chief of
the High Command of the Armed Forces), there were uncovered two speeches delivered by
Hitler at Obersalzberg on 22 August 1939. These are documents 798-PS and 1014-PS in our
series of documents.
In order to keep the serial numbers consecutive, if the Tribunal please, we have had the
first document, which I do not intend to offer, marked for identification Exhibit USA-28.
Accordingly, I offer the second document, 798-PS, in evidence as Exhibit USA-29, and the
third document, 1014-PS, as Exhibit USA-30. [15]
Once again we must note the obvious: Neither of the Obersatzberg speeches introduced to
the tribunal as evidence by Alderman (US-29/798-PS and US-30/1014- P5) contains any
reference to Armenians.
Dr. Ottom Stahmer, the defense counsel for Hermann Goring, took exception to Mr. Alderman’s
presentation, stating, “The third document which was not read is, according to the
photostatic copy in the Defense’s document room, simply typewritten. There is no
indication of place or time of execution.” [16]
This led to the following exchange between the president of the tribunal and Dr. Stahmer:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have got nothing to do with the third document, because it has not
been read.
DR. STAHMER: Mr. President, this document has nevertheless been published in the press and
was apparently given to the press by the Prosecution. Consequently both the Defense and
the defendants have a lively interest in giving a short explanation of the facts
concerning these documents.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal is trying this case in accordance with the evidence and not in
accordance with what is in the press, and the third document is not in evidence before us.
[17]
The discussion was then joined by Prosecutor Alderman who made the following response to
Dr. Stahmer’s charge that “the third document” (U5-28) had been “leaked” to the
press, and had already appeared in print:
On the other question referred to by counsel, I feel somewhat guilty. It is quite true
that, by a mechanical slip, the press got the first document [US-28L which we never at all
intended them to have. I feel somewhat responsible. It happened to be included in the
document books which were handed up to the Court on Friday, because we had only intended
to refer to it and give it an identification mark and not to offer it. I had thought that
no documents would be released to the press until they were actually offered in evidence.
With as large an organization as we have, it is very difficult to1 police all these
matters. [18]
As the reader has doubtless discerned, US-28, the document provided to the prosecution by
‘an American newspaperman,” which was not introduced as evidence after the original
minutes of the Obersalzberg meeting were found, is the source of the alleged Hitler
statement on Armenians. Aided by the passages quoted above from the Nuremberg transcript
for November 26, 1945, we can now account for the story which appeared in the Times of
London on Saturday, November 24, 1945. To make his deadline the unidentified Times
reporter based his story on a leaked document on the assumption that it (US-28) would have
been introduced in evidence by the time his story broke on Saturday. As the transcript
clearly attests, the reporter’s expectations in this regard were not fulfilled. The
results were far-reaching: The world has been misled for almost forty years into thinking
that the Nuremberg transcripts provided the Times reporter with his source for the quote
attributed to Hitler, “Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?”
Armenian spokesmen have been free to argue that Adolf Hitler justified his planned
annihilation of the Jews on the world’s failure to react to the alleged Ottoman genocide
of the Armenians during the First World War. The Armenian success in this regard is
clearly reflected in the April 24, 1984, Congressional Record.
In truth, no document containing the purported Hitler statement on the Armenians was
introduced or accepted as evidence in the course of the Nuremberg trials. In fact, the
actual minutes of Hitler’s August 22, 1939, Obersalzberg speeches (recovered from the
files of the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces at Flensburg), as well as the
detailed notes compiled during the speeches by Admiral Hermann Boehm, Chief of the High
Seas Fleet, and the record preserved in General Halder’s diary, are all totally devoid
of anything resembling this alleged quote. In short, contrary to Richard Hovannisian and a
host of other Armenian spokesmen, the Nuremberg transcripts through their preservation of
US-29 (798-PS), US-30 (1014-PS), and the notes of Admiral Boehm (which are corroborated by
the relevant passages from the diary of General Halder), in no way authenticate the
infamous Hitler quote. On the contrary, by establishing the actual texts of Hitler’s
Obersalzberg speeches they demonstrate that the statement is conspicuously absent from
Hitler’s remarks. The assertion that Hitler made a reference to the Armenians in any
context whatsoever is without foundation.
|
What About Lochner’s
What About Germany?
|
Was Louis Lochner the “unidentified American
newspaperman” who provided the Nuremberg prosecutor with the purported transcript
of the Obersalzberg meeting (US-28 or L-3, as it is variously known), which contains
the alleged Hitler quote on the Armenians? And, in fact, was the version of the
August 22, 1939, Obersalzberg speech published in Lochner’s 1942 book and that
supplied by the “unidentified American newspaperman” at Nuremberg one and the
same document?
The answer to both these queries is a resounding “yes.” As regards the identity
of the “unidentified American newspaperman,” in a later book (Always the
Unexpected) ,[19] Lochner quotes with some
pride a passage from W. Byford-Jones’s Berlin Twilight [20] regarding his role in supplying this document to the Nuremberg
Tribunal. It reads:
My coming with Louis Lockner [sic] had made the visit more exciting because he
was no ordinary observer at the historic trial of the major war criminals. He had
told me how he was responsible for the delivery of one of the most sensational of
innumerable documents to prove Nazi conspiracy. This document, which described how
Hitler maliciously planned the beginning of the Second World War by an attack on
Poland. . . was given to Louis Lockner in Germany just before America came into the
war, by a confidant of Colonel-Genera! von Beck, and, having first written on top of
it “Em Stuck gemeine Propaganda” [A piece of filthy propaganda] (to protect
himself if the Germans searched him), he smuggled it to America. [21]
Since Lochner related the same story in the 1942 What About Germany? in regard to
his initial receipt of the purported Obersalzberg transcript, there can be no doubt
that he was Alderman’s “unidentified American newspaperman.”[22]
Furthermore, all three known versions of the speech containing the “who remembers
the Armenians” passage (see Appendix 11) — Lochner’s 1942 What About Germany?
version; US-28 (or L-3), the document discussed at the November 26 session of the
Nuremberg Tribunal; and the one quoted in the Times of London article of November
24, 1945 — are identical copies of the same document, i.e., the one which Lochner
in 1956 finally identified as having come into his possession from a confidant of
Colonel-General von Beck. [23] An awareness of
Beck’s role in the purveyance of this version of the speech may lend insight into
the differences between the Lochner version, which was not accepted by the Nuremberg
Tribunal, and the two sets of minutes of the Obersalzberg meetings that were
accepted by the Nüremberg Tribunal and the Halder diary account (see Appendix III);
Nuremberg documents US-29 [798-PS] and US-30 [1014—PS]; Admiral Boehm’s minutes
of the meetings; and General Halder’s minutes of the meetings.
 |
|
Was
Der Fuehrer an expert on fellow Aryans,
the Armenians? |
By August 1939 General Beck was the acknowledged leader, along with
Halder, of that faction of the German officer corps plotting against Hitler and the
Nazis.[24] If, as Lochner claimed, he had
received his version of the Obersalzberg speech via Beck, i.e., if it were leaked to
him as an American newspaperman by forces opposed to Hitler, this could well account
for Shirer’s assessment of the Lochner version as “embellished a little by
persons who were not present at the Berghof.” [25]
His assessment is in fact a gross understatement. A comparison of the Lochner
version with the Nuremberg and Halder versions, shows that the former contains far
more than a little “embellishment.” Passages which would have lent themselves to
stronger anti-Hitler propaganda found in the Lochner version, are totally missing
from the Nuremberg and Halder versions. These include the following phrases, each of
which if published in the West, would have effectively portrayed Hitler in an
extremely negative light to his allies (or potential allies), to the neutrals, and
to the rest of the world:
Mussolini is threatened by a nit-wit of a king and the treasonable scoundrel of a
crown prince.
After Stalin’s death — he is a very sick man — we shall demolish the Soviet
Union.
The [Japanese] Emperor s a counterpoint of the last Czar. Weak, cowardly, undecided.
I got to know those wretched worms, Daladier and Chamberlain, in Munich.
[The peoples of the Far East and Arabia] are at best lacquered semi-apes who crave
to be flogged.
Carol of Roumania is a thoroughly corrupt slave of his sexual desires.
The King of Belgium and the Nordic Kings are soft jumping jacks.
I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad.
[I have given] orders to send to death mercilessly, and without compassion, men,
women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Who, after all speaks today
of the annihilation of the Armenians? [26]
In short, a comparison of the Lochner and Nuremberg versions of the August 22, 1939,
Obersalzberg speech strongly suggests that the one leaked to Lochner by the
confidant of Beck was a strongly doctored version designed for propaganda purposes.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that General Halder’s detailed diary
entries for August 22, 1939, contain none of the above passages. Halder was, by that
date, firmly in the ranks of the anti-Hitler German officers, and presumably he
would have had no interest in censoring his own diary had Hitler in fact made such
statements.[27]
While it may never be possible to completely reconstruct the reasons behind these
addenda to the Obersalzberg speech and the manner in which they were made, nor why
Lochner was chosen as the conduit to transmit them to the West, one thing is
certain: The only versions of the Obersalzberg speech containing any reference to
the Armenians derive from a single source — Louis P. Lochner.
Thus, not only is the provenance of US-28 (L-3) doubtful, but the actual transcripts
of Hitler’s Obersalzberg speech (US 30/1014-PS, Boehm, and Halder) are at total
variance with the text of the Lochner version vis-ã-vis the alleged Armenian
statement (compare Appendices II and II). Therefore, one cannot help but share the
opinions of the Nuremberg prosecutor and William Shirer, and reject the Lochner
version.
|
| Why
Has the Lochner Version Assumed the Importance That It Has? |
Why and how such a spurious quotation of forty-five years ago became so important that it
has been cited by no fewer than twenty-two members of the U.S. Congress in 1984? The
answer is complex and closely linked to American ethnic politics. Taking advantage of the
flurry of press interest aroused by the activities of Armenian terrorist groups,
activities which in the past decade have resulted in the assassinations of over
thirty-five Turkish diplomats,[28] Armenian-American
spokesmen have stepped up their ongoing campaign of vilification against the Republic of
Turkey which they allege was responsible for the “genocide” of more than 1.5 million
Armenians during the First World War. Unhampered by the limitations of logic or truth,
these spokesmen attempt to justify current Armenian violence against innocent diplomats
(none of whom were living in 1915), as a natural response to Armenian suffering in the
course of the First World War.
In terms of logic (or the lack thereof), this is comparable to the descendants of peoples
who suffered under the last Russian czars running around shooting Soviet diplomats today.
Both the Soviet Union and the Republic of Turkey began their existence as revolutionary
states in the wake of the First World War, the former emerging from the ashes of the
Russian Empire, while the latter was created from the ruins of the 600-year-old Ottoman
Empire, the political entity in existence at the time of the alleged genocide.
A significant portion of Armenian propaganda efforts in recent years has been devoted to
establishing a linkage between their own historical experiences and those of European
Jewry during the Second World War. The cornerstone in their case has long been the
spurious Hitler quote, “Who, after all, speaks today of the extermination of the
Armenians?” Certainly, the argument that Hitler himself cited the world’s lack of
reaction to the fate of the Armenians and was encouraged by it, must be very poignant to
Jews. The following examples will serve to illustrate the mileage hitherto obtained by
Armenian’ Americans in this regard:
1. Under the tutelage of an Armenian-American Congressman, Charles Pashayan, Jr. (R-
Calif.),[29] sixty-six elected U.S. Representative
made speeches on or about April 24, 1984 (Armenian Martyrs’ Day), condemning the
Republic of Turkey, a NATO ally, for failing to acknowledge its responsibility for the “genocide”
of the Armenians which allegedly transpired a decade before the Republic came into
existence.
2. As noted earlier, seven of the twenty-two members of the U.S. Congress (three Senators
and four Congressmen) who used the alleged Hitler quote in the course of their April
24, 1984, remarks were Jewish.
3. Utilizing the “linkage” conveniently provided by the spurious Hitler quote, the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council has agreed that the Armenians were the victims of the
twentieth century’s first genocide and therefore deserve inclusion in the planned
memorial. Indeed Elie Wiesel, himself a Holocaust survivor and Chairman of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Council, in a 1981 speech delivered in the Capitol rotunda stated “Before
the planning of the final solution Hitler asked, ‘Who remembers the Armenians?’ He was
right. No one remembered them, as no one remembered the Jews. Rejected by everyone, they
felt expelled from history.” [30]
In a similar vein, Congressman Glenn Anderson, in his April 24, 1984, remarks, discussed
the inclusion of the Armenians in the planned Holocaust Memorial in the following terms:
“Toward this end, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, established by an act of Congress
in 1980, has unanimously resolved to include the Armenian genocide in its museums and
education programs.”[31]
4. During the past two years a number of state boards of education have adopted into their
programs Holocaust curricula which include detailed treatment of the Armenian “genocide”
as the precursor of the Jewish Holocaust. The curricula adopted by the states of
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey all stress the spurious Hitler quote as the tie
that binds the Armenian and Jewish experiences. In New Jersey, the curriculum was actually
prepared and published by the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League. This is, to say the
least, ironic, as the continued repetition of the spurious Hitler quote, as it is used
today, certainly defames the Turkish people.
5. On September 10, 1984, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a
resolution (House Joint Resolution 247) designating April 24 as a National Day of
Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man, and requesting the President of the United
States to issue a proclamation calling upon the American people to observe such a day of
remembrance for all the victims of genocide, “especially the one and one-half million
people of Armenian ancestry who were victims of the genocide perpetrated in Turkey between
1915 and 1923.””
This resolution, both by naming April 24 Armenian Martyrs’ Day, and by specifically
naming only Turkey as the “perpetrator” of a “genocide,” does nothing less than
brand one of the United States’ NATO allies with the historically controversial charge
of genocide. In regard to the label itself, the fact remains that there was no country of
Turkey in existence between the years 1915 and 1923; rather, the governing power in the
region was the multinational state known as the Ottoman Empire.”
House Joint Resolution 247 was submitted by Congressman Tony Coelho (D- Calif.) and 233
co-sponsors. Of interest to us is the fact that Coelho, who represents the “heartland’of
California’s Armenian community (the Merced-Fresno region of the San Joaquin Valley),
cited the purported Hitler quote in urging his colleagues to vote for passage of the H.J.
Res. 247. [34]
In addition to his own utilization of the quote, Coelho also entered a letter from
California’s Armenian-American Governor, George Deukmejian, supporting the resolution’s
passage in the record. In support of H.J. Res. 247, Deukmejian wrote, “One cannot ignore
the chilling words of Adolf Hitler before he began his reign of terror during World War
Il, ‘Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?” [35]
At the time of this writing the U.S. Senate is considering the adoption of their half of
this joint resolution.
Leaving aside the larger question of whether or not the fate of the Ottoman Armenians in
1914-1915 was in fact anything that could conceivably be termed genocide, and focusing
only on the matter at hand, the spurious Hitler quote, we find that three things come
immediately to mind.
The first is the obvious danger inherent in partisan ethnic politics as currently
practiced in the United States. To appease a handful of potential voters, some American
politicians are willing to allow themselves to be used as tools of ethnic pressure groups,
regardless of the truth or falsehood of the information they are fed.
Secondly, one cannot help but marvel at the patience of the Republic of Turkey, which,
beleaguered by economic and social problems of its own, also has to cope with misinformed
American politicians lecturing her on her own history. It is safe to say that if the U.S.
Congress spent as much time hammering at the Federal Republic of Germany (another NATO
ally) for the well-documented events which transpired forty years ago in that nation’s
history, as they spend lecturing the Republic of Turkey for actions alleged to have
occurred seventy years ago in the Ottoman Empire, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
would long since have lost a member.
Finally, given the serious problems facing our nation, e.g., the arms race, unemployment,
and budget deficits, in conjunction with the fact that as this study has repeatedly
demonstrated, history is clearly not the forte of many U.S. Congressmen and Senators, it
is not impertinent to suggest that the Congress would be better served if its members were
to confine their activities to the business at hand and leave the writing of history to
the historians.
|
APPENDIX I. Excerpts
from Congressional Speeches on the Armenians
|
SENATOR RUDY BOSCHWITZ, R-Minn. (CR—Senate,
4/25/84, p. S4852): When Hitler first proposed his final solution, he was told that
the world would never permit such a mass murder. Hitler silenced his advisers by
asking, “Who remembers the Armenians?”
Today, I join my colleagues in answering Hitler by pledging the truth.
SENATOR CARL LEVIN, D-Mich. (CR—Senate, 4/24/84, p. S4703): But, regrettably it
was soon forgotten, not by the surviving Armenians, but by most of the rest of the
world. So that when Adolf Hitler planned his invasion of Poland and the destruction
of the Jewish people, he was able to scornfully state, “Who, after all, speaks
today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
SENATOR HOWARD METZENBAUM, D-Ohio (CR—Senate, 4/24/84, p. S4719): Three years ago,
in a speech given here in the Capitol rotunda, Elie Wiesel, Chairman of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Council, made a telling point.
Professor Wiesel said: “Before the planning of the final solution Hitler asked ‘Who
remembers the Armenians?’ He was right. No one remembered them, as no one
remembered the Jews. Rejected by everyone, they felt expelled from history.”
CONGRESSMAN LES ASPIN, D-Wis. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2977): Two decades later,
when Adolf Hitler was planning the elimination of the Jewish people, he is reported
to have said, “Who remembers the Armenians?”
CONGRESSMAN HOWARD BERMAN, D-Calif. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2982): It should be a
source of concern to all of us that to this day Turkey does not acknowledge, despite
eyewitness accounts, either the facts or its historical responsibility; for the line
from Armenia to Auschwitz is direct. The holocaust of European Jewry has its
precedence in the events of 1915 to 1922. “Who stills talks nowadays of the
extermination of the Armenians,” Hitler told his generals on the eve of the
extermination of the Jews. The horrendous events of World War II overshadowed the
Armenian genocide, and it is only recently, through the peaceful efforts of the
Armenian groups, that the rest of the world has once again begun to recognize the
col!ectiye agony of the Armenian people.
CONGRESSMAN THOMAS BLILEY, R-Va. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2979): Mr. Speaker, I
know that the actions of the Ottoman Government did not lead directly to the forced
starvation of the Ukraine by Josef Stalin, the gas chambers of Auschwitz, the
gruesome slaughter of the Cambodians, ldi Amin’s death campaign in Uganda, and the
more recent actions in Matabeleland in Zimbabwe, but I know that human nature, even
a warped and infamous human nature, needs the comfort of believing that it can get
away with something before it proceeds. As an example I would cite Adolf Hitler’s
statement concerning the final solution for the Jews of Europe when he said, “Who
now remembers the Armenians?” If more proof is needed then we can all look up Idi
Amin’s frequent statements of his adoration for Adolf Hitler as a man who knew how
to handle a problem.
CONGRESSMAN EDWARD BOLAND, D-Mass. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2975): The silence with
which the community of nations greeted the decimation of the Armenian people may
have emboldened those who would later perpetrate similar acts. It certainly had an
effect on Adolf Hitler who, while planning the extermination of millions of Jews was
asked how the world would respond to a program of mass murder. In reply Hitler said
“Who remembers the Armenians?”
CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA BOXER, D-Calif. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2977): Th repeated
denials of these well-documented crimes of the Ottoman Turkish regime call to mind
the Nazi maxim that a big lie if often repeated becomes truth. Hitler himself cited
the Armenian massacres as evidence that humanity cares nothing for the murder of
people.
CONGRESSMAN JIM COURTER, R-N.J. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2977): But there can be no
doubt that this ignorance of history’s darker events aids those who perpetrate
them, and those who would do so in the future. It is known that Hitler cited the
fact that the Armenian genocide was little known, little discussed and little
remembered in his time. We can only imagine the conclusions he drew from this fact.
CONGRESSMAN MERVYN DYMALLY, D-Calif. (CR—House, 4/12/84, p. H2924): Today,
historians argue about the number of Armenians actually killed. Others claim that no
genocide took place at all. This is a devastating conclusion to the survivors,
whether they be Americans, Lebanese, Egyptians, French or citizens of any other
country. ... If we deny the Armenian Genocide—a historical event that has been
well documented—we echo the words of Adolph Hitler who said, “Who still talks
nowadays, of the extermination of Armenians?”
CONGRESSMAN EDWARD FEIGHAN, D-Ohio (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2971): But only twenty
years after the fact, the century’s first genocide was the “forgotten genocide.”
As Hitler paused on the edge of his own reign of terror, he asked “Who remembers
the Armenians?” And no one had. A world blind to the lessons of history saw them
repeated on a wider scale.
CONGRESSWOMAN GERALDINE FERRARO, D~N.Y.* I have dwelled on the Armenian genocide not
because it is unique as flagrant abuse of human rights, but precisely because it is
not unique. The world knew about the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews — and failed
to act. Those failures spread the shame of these unspeakable crimes against humanity
far beyond those directly responsible for them.
The events in Turkey in 1915, and in Germany in World War II, and in Cambodia in the
1970’s are of course not directly related. The madness and brutality of the
perpetrators of each genocide had their own tragic basis.
But there is a strong tie in the world’s silence in the face of each of these
horrors. We can only be haunted by the words of Adolph Hitler, who said, in
embarking on his “crazed attack” on the Jews, “Who, after all, speaks today of
the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Now, today, years too late for the millions killed in the Nazi gas chambers and
Khmer Rouge execution centers, we stand to say that we speak of the annihilation of
the Armenians. And of the Jews, and of the Cambodians. We stand to remind the world
of these crimes against humanity, that we may prevent future crimes.
CONGRESSMAN HAMILTON FISH, R-N.Y. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2982): In speaking of
the consequences of the Jewish Holocaust, Adolf Hitler once remarked: ‘Who
remembers the Armenians?’ Indeed it is our responsibility to do just that;
remember that which we would rather choose to forget.
CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM FORD, D-Mich. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2981): Even Adolf Hitler
used past events to shape his own policies. In 1939 as he was beginning his invasion
of Poland, Hitler ordered the mass extermination of its inhabitants, commenting, “Who,
after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Humanity’s
failure to remember the genocide of an entire people scarcely 25 years earlier gave
Hitler the go ahead to exterminate millions of innocent people.
CONGRESSMAN SAM GEJDENSON, D-Conn. (CR—House, 4/25/84, p. [1766): In the now
infamous quote, Adolf Hitler, before beginning his Holocaust against the Jews,
referred to international indifference in the face of the Armenian genocide. “Who,”
he asked, “remembers the Armenians?”
CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM GREEN, R-N.Y. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2972): When Hitler was
about to begin the Holocaust and a member of his staff asked him what the world
would think, Hitler is reported to have replied, “Who remembers the
Armenians?"
CONGRESSMAN RICHARD LEHMAN, D-Calif. (CR—House, 4/12/84, p. H2793): Questioned by
an aide about his policy of Jewish genocide, Hitler said: “Who after all now
remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?”
CONGRESSMAN BRUCE MORRISON, D-Conn. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2979): Adolf Hitler
took advantage of the world’s amnesia, looking at the Armenian genocide as a
precedent for his own Holocaust perpetrated against Europe’s Jews. Hitler said, in
a chilling remark made in 1939, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians?”
CONGRESSMAN NICHOLAS MAVROULES, D-Mass. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2979): Sadly,
however, the Armenian genocide would be surpassed by the Nazi holocaust in the 1930’s
and 1940’s. Adolf Hitler, in an attempt to explain away his maniacal slaughter,
would ask with a laugh: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the
Armenians?”
CONGRESSMAN CHARLES SCHUMER, D-N.Y. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2976): It is of
paramount importance that we do not let this tragedy be forgotten with the passage
of time. This act of inhumanity, based on religious and nationalistic grounds, was
as terrible as any manmade catastrophe to that time; yet, only two decades later,
Hitler could ask, “Who remembers the Armenians?” Perhaps if the world had paid
more attention to the plight of the Armenian massacre, later tragedies could have
been averted.
CONGRESSMAN JAMES SHANNON, D-Mass. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2973): This act of
wholesale annihilation set the stage for Hitler’s attempted extermination of the
Jewish people. He justified his plan to doubting co-conspirators with the reasoning
that no one remembered the Armenian genocide which had taken place only 15 years
earlier.
CONGRESSMAN HENRY WAXMAN, D-Calif. (CR—House, 4/24/84, p. H2981): This day serves
to remind us that this first genocide of our century served as a precedent for the
holocaust of World War II when more than 6 million people were destroyed by a
government leader who responded: “Whoever cared about the Armenians?” when it
was suggested that the world opinion would not allow the Nazis to get away with
their attempt to eliminate the Jewish people.
|
| Excerpts
from the Nuremberg Versions of the August 22, 1939, Obersalzberg speech Dealing with
the Planned Invasion of Poland |
APPENDIX II
Lochner, 1942, p. 2
Our strength consists of our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of
women and children to slaughter — with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in
him solely the founder of a state. Its a matter of indifference to me what a weak western
European civilization will say about me. I have issued the command — I’ll have anybody
who utters one word of criticism executed by a firing squad — that our war aim does not
consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy.
Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness — for the present only
in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion,
men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the
living space (Iebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians?
NCA, Volume VII, p. 753
Our strength is in our quickness and our brutality. Ghenghis Khan had millions of women
and children killed by his own will and with a gay heart. History sees only in him a great
state builder. What weak Western European civilization thinks about me does not matter.
I have given the order and will have every one shot who utters even one word of criticism
that the aim of the war is not to attain certain lines, but consists in the physical
destruction of the opponent Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my “Death’s
Head units” with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children of
Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who
still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?
The Times,
November 24, 1945, p. 4
Our strength is in our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had millions of women
killed by his own will and with a gay heart. History sees in him only a great
State-builder, What the weak European civilization thinks about me does not matter.
I have given the order and will have everyone shot who utters one word of criticism....
Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only
my Death’s Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and
children of the Polish race or language. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of
the Armenians?
APPENDIX III
US-30 (1014-PS)
TMWC, Vol. II, pp. 290-291
NCA, Vol. III, pp. 665-666
OCFP, Vol. VII, pp. 205-206
Destruction of Poland in the foreground. The aim is elimination of living forces, not the
arrival at a certain line: Even if war should break out in the West, the destruction of
Poland shall be the primary objective. Quick decision because of the season.
Boehm, August 22, 1939 TMWC, Vol. XLI, p. 25
The goal is the elimination and destruction of Poland’s military power even if war
should begin in the west. A swift, successful outcome in the east offers the best
prospects for restricting the conflict.
Halder, August 22, 1939
DCFP, Vol. VII, p. 559
Aim: Annihilation of Poland—elimination of its vital forces. It is not a matter of
gaining a specific line or new frontier, but rather the annihilation of an enemy, which
constantly must be attempted by new ways.
I shall give a propagandistic cause for starting the war—never mind whether it be
plausible or not. The victor shall not be asked, later on, whether we told the truth or
not. In starting and making a war, not the Right is what matters but Victory.
A suitable propaganda cause will be advanced for the
conflict. The credibility of this is unimportant. Right lies with the victor.
Solution: Means immaterial. The victor is never
called on to vindicate his actions. We are not concerned with having justice on our side,
but solely with victory.
Have no pity. Brutal attitude. 80 million people shall get what is their right Their
existence has to be secured. The strongest has the right. Greatest severity.
Quick decision necessary Unshakeable faith in German soldier. A crisis may happen only if
the nerves of the leaders give way.
We must shut and harden our hearts. To whomever
ponders the world order it is clear that what is important are the war-like
accomplishments of the best...
We can and must believe in the value of the German
soldier. In times of crisis he has generally retained his nerve, while the leadership has
lost theirs.
Execution: Harsh and remorseless. Be steeled against
all signs of compassion!
Speed: Faith in the German soldier, even if re verses occur.
First aim: advance to the Vistula and Narew. Our technical superiority will break the
nerve of the Poles. Every newly created Polish force shall again be broken at once.
Constant war of attrition.
New German frontier according to healthy principles. Possibly a protectorate as a buffer.
Military operations shall not be influenced by these reflections. Complete destruction of
Poland is a military aim. To be fast is the main thing. Pursuit until complete
elimination.
Once again: the first priority is the swiftness of
the operations. To adapt to each new situation, to shatter the hostile forces, wherever
they appear, and to the last one.
This is the military goal which is the prerequisite
for the narrower political goal of later drawing up
new frontiers.
Of paramount importance are the wedges (which must be driven) from the southeast to the
Vistula, and from the north to the Narev and the Vistula. Promptness in meeting new
situations; new means must be devised to deal with them quickly. New Frontiers: New Reich
territory. Outlying protectorate territory. Military operations must not be affected by
regard for the future frontiers.
|
Notes
|
1.. The
entire text of Hovannisian’s 1983 speech was read into the Congressional Record
— Senate, pp. S471 3-5471 5, by Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.)on April 24, 1984,
as part of his remarks entitled, “69th Anniversary of Armenian Martyr’s Day.’
Hovannisian’s use of the alleged Hitler quote appears on p. 54714. On p. S4704
Levin notes that the Hovannisian speech and similar fact sheets and articles which
he entered into the Record were provided him by the Armenian Assembly.
 |
|
Ironic
the one quote this professional
speech-giver is most remembered for is
one he likely never said |
2.. The Times,
Saturday, November 24, 1945, p. 4. While the alleged Hitler quote on the Armenians
normally appears bereft of source (as in the example cited above by Hovannisian),
when “documented’ the Times article is invariably given. The unidentified
author of the Times article claims that his story was based on “An address by
Hitler to his commanders-in-chief on August 22, 1939 — a few days before the
invasion of Poland — was read at yesterdays hearing of the Nuremberg trial
[November 23, 1945].”
3.. Italics added.
4.. Louis P. Lochner, What About Germany?
(New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1942), pp. 1-4 (hereafter cited as Lochner,
1942).
5.. Lochner, 1942, p. 1.
6.. Lochner, 1942, p. 2 (italics added).
7. Lochner, 1942, p. 2.
8.. Congressional Record—House, p. H2981
(April 24, 1984).
9.. See Appendix I for the use of the
alleged Hitler quote in the remarks of the sixteen U.S. lawmakers.
10.. The minutes of the August 22, 1939,
Obersalzberg meeting kept by Admiral Boehm were submitted as evidence at Nuremberg
in defense of Admiral Raeder. As such they are part of the trial transcript and
appear in Volume XLI of Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International
Military Tribunal (hereafter cited as TMWC), Nuremberg, November 14, 1945—October
1, 1946, pp. 16-25 (New York: AMS Press, 1971). Boehm’s minutes were marked as
Document Raeder-27 (hereafter cited as Boehm, August 22, 1939).
11.. The documents confiscated from the
0KW were two in number. They were accepted by the Nuremberg prosecutors as the
official minutes of the August 22, 1939 Obersalzberg meeting. As such they are
preserved as part of the trial transcripts: TMWC, Volume II (New York: AMS Press,
1971), pp. 285-293. Given the trial numbers of US-29 (798-PS) and US-30 (1014-PS),
respectively, these documents were also published in Nazi Conspiracy and
Aggression (hereafter cited as NCA). There, US-29 (798-PS) appears in Volume III,
pp. 581-596, and US-30 (1014-PS) in the same volume on pp. 665-666. Likewise, they
appear in Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918—1945, Series D (1937-1945),
Volume VII (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956) (hereafter
cited as DCFP), pp. 200-206. In subsequent citations of these documents I shall
cite the appropriate page numbers from each of the three publications listed
above.
12.. General Franz Halder’s notes from
the August 22, 1939, Obersalzberg meeting, while not submitted as evidence at
Nuremberg, were subsequently published in DGFP, pp. 557-559 (hereafter cited as
Halder, August 22, 1939).
13.. William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of
the Third Reich (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960), p. 529-532. See in
particular his detailed description of the documents in question on p. 529
(hereafter cited as Shirer, 1960).
14.. Shirer, 1960, fn. p. 529.
15.. This passage is taken from the
transcript of the Nuremberg tribunal: TMWC, Volume II (New York: AMS Press, 1971),
pp. 285-286 (italics added). The document discussed (but not submitted as
evidence) by Prosecutor Alderman as Exhibit USA- 28 was subsequently published in
NCA, Volume VII, pp. 752-754, where it was given the number L-3 (Note Shirer,
1960, fn. p. 529, mistakenly lists its number in this publication as: C-3).
16.. TMWC, Volume II, p. 291.
17. TMWC, Volume II, p. 291 (italics
added).
18..
TMWC, Volume II, p. 292.
19..
Louis P. Lochner, Always the Unexpected (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1956), p.
287 (hereafter cited as Lochner, 1956).
20.. Lieutenant-Colonel W. Byford-Jones,
Berlin Twilight (London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.,
1946), pp. 174, 176-77.
21.. Lochner, 1956, pp. 287-288 (italics
added)
22.. Lochner, 1942, p. 405. What is harder
to account for is the fact that neither the Nuremberg prosecutors nor William Shirer
was aware of the fact that Lochner had originally published his document in 1942. In
Lochner, 1956, p. 314, the author tells us that his WhatAbout Germany? appeared in
print on October 15, 1942, and that “it was on the best-seller lists for a
considerable time.’ Despite this fact, the present study is the first to establish
that US-28 (L-3), the document discussed but not introduced as evidence in the
course of the Nuremberg trials, was supplied to the prosecutors at Nuremberg by
Lochner, and had in fact been published by him in 1942.
23.. Lochner, 1956, pp. 287-288.
24.. Shirer, 1960. For Beck’s role as an
organizer of the anti-Hitler conspiracy, see pp. 309, 366-375, 387, 422, 488.
25.. Shirer, 1960, fn. p. 529.
26.. See Lochner, 1942, pp. 1-4, and NCA,
Volume VII, pp. 752-754.
27.. For a description of Halder’s role
in the anti-Hitler conspiracy, see Shirer, 1960, pp.
374-375, 378-379, fn. 380, 381-382, 404-408, 411-413, 422, 426, 517, 530, 558-559.
28.. For an analysis of the manner in which
Armenian spokesmen use the activities of terrorists to further their cause, see
Heath W. Lowry, “Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Armenian Terrorism: ‘Threads
of Continuity,” in International Terrorism and the Drug Connection (Ankara: Ankara
University Press, 1984), pp. 71-83.
29.. It was Pashayan who “took the
special order’ on April 24, 1984, under which the various members of the House of
Representatives made their speeches on Armenian Martyrs’ Day. See Congressional
Record—House p. H2967 (April 24, 1984).
30.. Quoted in the April 24, 1984, remarks
of Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), which were published in the Congressional
Record—Senate, p. 54719 (April 24, 1984).
31.. Quoted in the April 24, 1984, remarks
of Congressman Glenn Anderson (D-Calif,), which were published in the Congressional
Record—House, p. H2970 (April 24, 1984).
32.. Congressional Record—House, p. H9227
(September 10, 1984).
33.. The most authoritative scholarly work
dealing with the Ottoman population of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centures is Justin McCarthy’s Muslims and Minorities: The Population of Ottoman
Anatolia and the End of the Empire (New York and London: New York University Press,
1983). This demographic study shows (pp. 47-88) that Armenian deaths during the
period in question did not exceed 600,000 and resulted from the same wartime
conditions of starvation, epidemic disease, and inter-communal warfare which
accounted for the loss of 2.5 million Muslim lives in the same period. The author
provides no breakdown of the percentage of deaths experienced by either group
resulting from the various causes he discusses.
34.. Congressional Record—House, p. H9228
(September 10, 1984).
35.. Congressional Record—House, p. H9228
(September 10, 1984).
A couple of other Hitler
Quotes, more relevant to the Armenian "Genocide":
(1) ...(I)n the
big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad
masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of
their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the
primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big
lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little
matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would
never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not
believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so
infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought
clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to
think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie
always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact
which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire
together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use
falsehood for the basest purposes.
(2) No matter what an amount of talent employed
in the organization of propaganda, it will have no result if due account is
not taken of these fundamental principles. Propaganda must be limited to a few
simple themes and these must be represented again and again. Here, as in
innumerable other cases, perseverance is the first and most important
condition of success.
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, translated by James Murphy, February,
1939
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Theodore J. O’Keefe points out, in a criticism of the Holocaust Museum's
willingness to bend facts ("A Challenge from the USHMM: A Revisionist
Response"), that other versions of the Hitler Speech do not "report that
the 240-pound Hermann Goering leapt on a table top and danced wildly to celebrate
those alleged words of the Fuehrer, a part of this vulgar forgery given to Lochner
that the Museum chose not to quote. Nor—as one does not learn moreover from the
Museum’s scanty and misleading caption—did journalist Lochner rush to broadcast
Hitler’s monstrous plans to the world. Instead, he delivered the
"reports" (as the Museum calls this forged version of Hitler’s speech)
to an official of the British Embassy in Berlin—as his contacts in the German
resistance had asked him to do."
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In their desperation even an
evil man like Hitler became a moral witness to the Armenian Cause
(Hai Tahd)
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Once again:
The Original
Documentation for the "Hitler Quote"
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