Himmler Speech – “We had to reach the difficult decision of making this nation vanish from the face of the earth.”

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Himmler Speech

Let me quote Heinrich Himmler speaking on October 6, 1943 to a meeting of Gauleiters and Reichsleiters in Poznam.

Heinrich Himmler Speech
Heinrich Himmler

The quote was recorded by Erich Goldhagen:

“I must ask you only to listen to what I tell you in this group and never to speak about it. We were asked: What about the women and children? I made up my mind to find a clear solution here too. You see, I did not feel I had a right to exterminate the men – i.e. kill them or have them killed – while allowing the children to grow up and take revenge upon our sons and grandsons. We had to reach the difficult decision of making this nation vanish from the face of the earth.”

This quote is from “Albert Speer: The End of a Myth” by Matthias Schmidt page 196 (English version St. Martins’ Press, New York, 1984).-