Brian Edwards78 said:Just the call for "total war" says enough to understand what was happening; especially since the speech explicitly mentions the "Final Solution" regarding the Jewish question. While wiredangler5 argues that this was just about boosting military morale after a series of disastrous defeats, a quick few minutes of research reveals how German war crimes in Russia escalated right around and immediately following that speech.
I think you might have mixed things up regarding the mention of Jews here. It’s a fact that those fiery speeches against Jews were delivered in 1942; he was attacking them then, and I can provide the exact quotes because they really do exist. This happened right when the German "Final Solution" was being implemented. Propaganda certainly played its part back then, but that’s a completely different conversation when it comes to Goebbels. Otherwise, there's no real debate about what he said.
This quote is from my post back in February 1943. For anyone who missed it, here's the gist: the legendary German 6th Army was considered a powerhouse back home because its divisions crushed France—which everyone thought was the world's strongest military at the time—in just a few weeks before marching triumphantly into Paris.
That famous army marched through Ukraine all the way to Stalingrad, which I guess is roughly the size of a place like Sisak—just my best guess. After three months of brutal fighting, they took almost the entire city, except for a few small areas where the Russians put up a hell of a fight. Eventually, the Soviets launched a counteroffensive and wiped that famous army out in a massive victory. Looking at the toll from those few months in that area: about 1.1 million Russian casualties and over half a million German ones, including their allies.
Damn it, Michelle Alvarez8, I feel like an idiot even having to write this just to prove you're wrong. Or maybe you're just trolling because you're bored. You could jump in and explain how the Germans reacted to this defeat so I don't have to do all the heavy lifting. But if it's just me, fine. No big deal.
That catastrophic loss hit the Germans like a total shock. And man, was it heavy. It changed Hitler so much that he went from this high-energy leader who was constantly flying around and shouting from every podium he could find, to someone having a complete nervous breakdown. He just sat there like a ghost, totally lost in his own head. Michelle Alvarez8 knows this was really the beginning of his physical decline—within just a few years, illness turned him into a frail old man.
So, the main leader and the driving force behind the nation has had a total mental breakdown, and now they’re basically trying to use speed and cocaine just to stay afloat. The entire government leadership is pulling back from the media because nobody actually knows what to say anymore. The whole country is in literal shock. It's our first major defeat after years of winning, and man, what a loss. It's become crystal clear that we're actually losing the war; the Russians are a massive problem, and things aren't nearly as great on the East as Goebbels keeps barking about in every single Zeuting newspaper out there.
It’s reached a point where, in this exact moment, nobody is actually leading the country. Everyone is just lost; there's a total vacuum at the top. Even the military—morale has completely bottomed out.
To all the soldiers on every front.
Then Goebbels steps in. He knows the weight is all on his shoulders now, realizing that propaganda is the only tool left to boost morale in a nation reeling from shock. He starts driving home that core idea we’ve been discussing: the concept of total war, designed to shake the country out of its defeatist stupor. At first, Hitler pushes back because he's feeling pretty defeated himself. But Goebbels doesn't back down.
Michelle Alvarez8 remembered correctly that Goebbels gave that speech in a hall to a carefully selected audience. He somehow missed what comes next, though—not sure how he managed that. Oh well, I'll just write it out myself.
It was clearly a calculated speech, designed to be nothing but aggressive and resolute. He spent hours rehearsing every single word and perfecting his stage presence. The whole point was to stir up pride despite the defeat by claiming they had fought honorably, throwing in some rambling remarks about the German character of the victors. It worked perfectly; that specific rhetoric electrified the crowd and reignited their will to fight. He really leaned into it, delivering this fierce message that Germany wasn't finished and that every single person would now have to fight—to victory, or until the last German fell. They were heading into total war, and the hall went into a complete frenzy. Why? Because there were plenty of high-ranking officials in attendance who needed to be jolted awake, sparking a frenzy within the leadership to drive the entire nation forward.
Imagine the scene when Michelle Alvarez8 gave that massive radio speech to the entire German nation, leaving everyone feeling absolutely electrified because they thought it was just the beginning. Do you know what he actually wrote in his diary that day about the speech?
Goebbels_PŽK said:I was so persuasive that if I’d asked people to jump off a skyscraper at the end of my speech, they probably would have done it.
He did exactly what he set out to do. He boosted the national spirit and morale to a level only the Germans ever reached, leaving you speechless when you witness it. But what was the actual goal of that victory? Was it to raise the military morale of the German army and the nation, or was it just to peacefully align the Jehovah's Witnesses?
Michelle Alvarez8, there’s no talk about Jews here. Or Russians. Or the British. The guy was talking about total war in terms of the Germans themselves. So, go ahead—translate my signature line into English and tell me exactly what's controversial about it. I’m looking for a real analysis, not just a link to Wikipedia. I know you're capable of more than that.
So, to wrap it all up. The whole German nation is waking up to this. It looks like millions of new soldiers will be stepping up in the next wave of mobilization. Every German probably had to prove they were contributing and actually serving the interests of the state.
Factories tied to weapons, food, and uniforms.Honestly, if you weren't pulling your weight for the country and helping us win the war through your job, you just got handed a helmet and a rifle and sent on a one-way trip to Stalingrad.
He basically mobilized the entire nation. He even sent his own wife off to work at a factory, making her take the streetcar just to show everyone that everyone was sacrificing. He wanted people to see she wasn't driving around in a car with military escorts like some big high-society lady anymore.
So, Mrs. Goebbels would just hop on a streetcar to get to her job, basically working like a low-level grunt on the third shift, jumping into some greasy factory line to sand down artillery barrels or whatever it was.
Of course, that was just propaganda meant for the masses.
He didn't actually go himself; he just lashed out at his wife. But whatever, he’s doing something else now, so she’ll be stepping up for the family. 😁).
Michelle Alvarez8, remind the admins and everyone reading this that Speer actually pulled off the "Total War" concept in his own field. He rebuilt the entire German industrial machine with that new slogan, giving it such incredible momentum. Before you know it, Germany had bounced back and was already prepping a massive military offensive by that same summer.
He completely talked the nation into a state of total war, pushing everyone to fight until the last man. It got to the point where Germans didn't care how many lives were lost; they fought with such fanaticism that even the Russians were stunned by their persistence, despite the constant defeats.
When the Russians went on the offensive in the summer of '44 and wiped out 800,000 people like it was nothing, nobody in Germany even blinked. It was as if 800 employees just got laid off from a company, rather than 800,000 lives being lost in just two months of fighting.
They fought with absolute fanaticism down to the last street in Berlin, dying at such a rate that casualties were counted by the thousands every single hour. Still, they fought until the bitter end, and that's exactly what left all their opponents with a profound sense of respect for the Germans themselves. This is the "total war" Michelle Alvarez8 is talking about. You see, for Goebbels, everything is just propaganda. Every single detail, including the things we’re discussing now. But he didn't always stick to the same script. It all depended on what he needed to pull off at the time.
Alright, go ahead and explain the whole Jewish question thing and why my signature is an issue. Since you opened this thread to discuss it properly, don't just drop superficial links without giving our local community the actual substance. It's your turn. 😁
Brian Edwards78 said:Regardless, I don't think Goebbels quotes belong in user signatures on a civilized forum.
Hmm, like I said, prove what’s actually controversial. You left out a huge part of the story when explaining things to the admins to support your point. So, here we go. I'm just hanging out in the backyard, about to grab a drink, and I feel like messing around with this until sunrise. I didn't have the energy before, but now I'm just chilling and feeling like beefing up this thin intro and your other posts. 🙂
By the way, you're mistaken again. You're forgetting that not everything someone says is inherently controversial. Did you know that in the election year Hitler came to power, he never once mentioned Jews or persecution because he didn't want to lose votes over it? Keep in mind, this was from a major antisemite. Back then, he gave some incredible speeches focused solely on the German nation getting back on its feet. Those speeches aren't controversial, even if they came from him. They don't contain a shred of hate speech.
It's the same with Goebbels. It all depends on the context of what we're talking about.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to frame my quote as Nazi propaganda, you can do better than Wikipedia. To support your argument, you handed the uninformed admins a link showing that crime rates rose in 1943. Well, yeah, because the war was scaling up. You forgot to mention that those crimes were the result of Hitler's directive to all German divisions back in 1941, which stated that every Russian and Bolshevik should be killed without being taken prisoner. That was the consequence, not the speech you're talking about, which has nothing to do with your point. Nor does the Final Solution, which stemmed from a completely different branch of German policy rather than this specific speech. 😉
So, since you started this thread about my signature, explain your stance to the admins properly so we can have a fair debate, instead of using cheap Wikipedia tricks that aren't really your style. Here we go, let's engage in some long-winded trolling since I'm in the mood, and I know how much you love being thorough. I'd love to see how a "historian" like you managed to overlook explaining all this so superficially. It's hard for me to believe you suddenly lost all that massive knowledge you used to have.
Go on, continue. I'm expecting a solid debate where you actually prove your point, especially since I personally root out Nazi nonsense on this forum—I'm allergic to it myself and know the difference very well. 😉 So, show me and the admins where I'm wrong. No big deal, no hard feelings. 🙂
