Adolf Hitler – speech in the Löwenbräukeller
Munich, November 8, 1940
Party Comrades!
We now celebrate once more the 9th of November, and as back then a rally unites us on the eve of this day. For us the year 1923 was a high-point in the struggle for power in Germany. This struggle, and hence the significance of the day which we are celebrating, can be comprehended only by those who reflect on the age in which we found ourselves then and who, above all, bring back before their eyes the historic events leading up to this gigantic struggle.
As a former soldier of the World War and present Supreme Commander of the German Wehrmacht, I can say: they [the Allies] would never have carried the victory over Germany back then, had not their allies broken us internally! Four years they labored. It was even necessary to summon an American sorcerer-priest (Zauberpriester) who found the formula which made it possible for the German Volk to fall for the word of honor of a foreign president.
I took the same stand in our struggle abroad. Any such new intrigue, any new attempt to mobilize states against us through treaties and agreements, only led to my accelerating armament. I was firmly determined to risk it all. Without interruption the struggle went on with the objective of eliminating the Versailles Treaty. For, my Party Comrades, this I had to do if I were not to be a liar. After all, what did we fight for? When we made our first appearances in the years 1920–21 and 1922, our program was the elimination of Versailles. I could not all of a sudden say: forget about it.
