Hitler's Speech

Southland Times, Issue 24864, 2 October 1942, Page 4

Hitler's Speech

HITLER’S speech at the opening of the German Winter Relief campaign seems to have contained little more than a promise that Stalingrad would be taken. This is a promise which seems somewhat nearer fulfilment, than it was four or five weeks ago, but which is certainly not fulfilled at the present moment. The Russians are maintaining a resistance that is without parallel in the history of modern warfare, and although they seem again to be giving way under the pressure of German armour they are continuing to exact a terrible toll. For the most part Hitler’s speech was simply a diatribe against his enemies, especially Mr Churchill, who was accused of throwing away Canadian lives at Dieppe. In the same propaganda strain was the Fuhrer’s reference to the coming winter in Germany. The 1942 winter, he said, had brought the hardest test; nothing worse could come. “That we overcame the winter proves that destiny considers us worthy of survival.” But whatever developments of agriculture and industry have been made within Russia (and of these Hitler spoke in glowing terms), the winter of 1943 cannot be less arduous than the winter that is past. Large sections of the European population are underfed, if not starving; the ravages of disease are increasing; the demands on German man-power have been such as to restrict home production seriously; and the scale of bombing raids is steadily growing. At the very best the German winter of 1943 will be the most severe of the war; at the worst —if Stalingrad remains unconquered, and the German armies have to withdraw once again to the west—it may impose an almost unbearable strain on the German people.