6 October 1939 Reichstag speech

Having just returned from a tour of the ruined city of Warsaw,^[1] Hitler spent much the 80^[2] or 90^[3] minutes of the speech in a celebratory and highly mendacious accounting of the conquest of Poland. Hitler averred that "A state of no less than 36,000,000 inhabitants... took up arms against us. Their arms were far-reaching, and their confidence in their ability to crush Germany knew no bounds...". He claimed that he had restricted bombings to military targets and that he had offered to let civilians in Warsaw evacuate the city but had been refused.^[2]

Hitler vouchsafed that going back to the Middle Ages "The outstanding features of Polish character were cruelty and lack of moral restraint", that the "shameless insults" that Poles had offered to Germany were unbearable, that the Polish government had been supported by only 15% of the population and had been "a lapdog of the Western Democracies". Hitler then made vague threats of Germany (with the Soviets) projecting its power into southeastern Europe.^[2]

Shifting tone, Hitler then offered the olive branch of peace to France and Britain. He condemned war as an enterprise where all participants were losers after enduring millions of deaths and billions of lost wealth. That if war with France should continue, "One day there will again be a frontier between Germany and France, but instead of flourishing towns there will be ruins and endless graveyards", and seemed to suggest that another European peace conference be held:

My chief endeavor has been to rid our relations with France of all trace of ill will... I have always expressed to France my desire to bury forever our ancient enmity... I have devoted no less effort to the achievement of Anglo-German friendship... To achieve this great end [of peace], the leading nations of this continent will one day have to come together in order to draw up, accept and guarantee a statute on a comprehensive basis which will insure for them all a sense of security, of calm – in short, of peace... It is equally impossible that such a conference, which is to determine the fate of this continent for many years to come, could carry on its deliberations while cannons are thundering or mobilized armies are bringing pressure to bear upon it...

Among the goals of Germany in such a conference, Hitler declared, would be "An attempt to reach a solution and settlement of the Jewish problem."^[4]

Hitler then finished with more braggadocio: "If, however, the opinions of Messrs. Churchill and his followers should prevail, this statement will have been my last."^[2]