Excerpt from original:
Und seitdem da setzte nun ein Ausrottungskrieg ein. In diesen Jahren der friedlichen Entwicklung der Tschechoslovakei mußten nahezu sechshundert Tausend Deutschen die Tschechoslovakei verlassen, aus einem sehr einfachen Grund: weil sie sonst hätten verhungern mussen. Allein, die gesamte Entwicklung 1918 bis 1938 zeigt eines ganz klar. Herr Benês war entschlossen, das Deutschtum ganz einfach allmählich langsam auszurotten. Und der hat dies auch bis zu einem gewissen Grad erreicht, er hat unzähligen Menschen in tiefstes Unglück gesturzt. Er hat es fertig gebracht, Millionen von Menschen scheu und ängstlich zu machen. Unter der fortwährenden Anwendung seines Terrorregimes ist es ihn langsam gelungen, diese Millionen mundtot zu machen.
TRANSLATION:
And since then, there began a war of extermination. In these years of the peaceful development of Czechoslovakia, nearly six hundred thousand Germans had to leave Czechoslovakia, for a very simple reason: otherwise they would have had to starve [not that they would have been killed, but that they would starve]. The overall development [of the country between] 1918 and 1938 alone shows one thing very clearly: Mr. Benês was determined gradually and slowly to extirpate Germanness [not: “the Germans”, but “Germanness”]. And he has achieved this to a certain degree. He has plunged innumerable human beings into the deepest misery. He has succeeded in making millions of human beings anxious and afraid. Under the continual application of his terror regime, he has succeeded in depriving these millions of a voice. [not that they would be killed, but that they were miserable, had to live in fear, and were deprived of a voice].
I have pointed out elsewhere, that, in my view, the verb “ausrotten” is, by its very nature, a very abstract sort of word. Applied to human beings, it does, I believe, imply some degree of killing, but not necessarily very much. The speech quoted above states elsewhere that “thousands” of Germans were killed, that “tens of thousands” were imprisoned, and that “hundreds of thousands” were compelled to leave the country, but, at the same time, that there were three and half million Germans in Czechoslovakia.
CARLOS W. PORTER
May 2004
Hitler Speech, Berlinersportpalast, On the Situation of the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia, 26 September 1938 (transcribed off tape, available on CD ROM from ARDNT Buchdienst /Europa Buchhandlung
D-24035 KIEL, POSTFACH 3603
GERMANY).
See also: ausrottung.htm and posen.htm
Hitler image stolen from http://www.reichslieder.com/reichslieder_Tshirts_150.html.
Recommended website: http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/archivesindex.html
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