27 Nov. 45
eluding conscription, occupation of the Rhineland, and
rearmament, with special emphasis on modern armor and air forces.
I have, if the Tribunal please, our Document Number L-172. It is
a photostat of a microfilm of a speech by General Jodl, and I offer
that photostat as Exhibit USA-34. I shall read, if the Tribunal
please, only a part of that, but starting at the beginning.
The speech is entitled "The Strategic Position at the
Beginning of the Fifth Year of War." It is a kind of
retrospective summary by the Defendant General Jodl. "A lecture
by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces to the Reich-
and Gauleiter, delivered in Munich on 7 November 1943." I am
reading from the English translation:
"Introduction: Reichsleiter
Bormann has requested me to give you a review today of the strategic
position at the beginning of the fifth year of war.
"I must admit that it was not without hesitation that I
undertook this none-too-easy task. It is not possible to do it
justice with a few generalities. It is not necessary to talk about
what will come but one must say frankly what the situation is. No
one, the Führer has ordered, may know more or be told more than
he needs for his own immediate task, but I have no doubt at all in my
mind, gentlemen, but that you need a great deal, in order to be able
to cope with your tasks. It is in your Gaue, after all, and among
their inhabitants that all the widespread enemy propaganda,
defeatism, and malicious rumors are concentrated. Up and down the
country the devil of subversion strides. All the cowards are seeking
a way out, or--as they call it--a political solution. They say we
must negotiate while there is still something in hand, and all these
slogans are made use of to attack the natural feeling of the people,
that in this war there can only be a fight to the end. Capitulation
is the end of the nation; the end of Germany. Against this wave of
enemy propaganda and cowardice you need more than force. You need to
know the true situation, and for this reason I believe that I am
justified in giving you a perfectly open and unvarnished account of
the present state of affairs. This is no forbidden disclosure of
secrets, but a weapon which may perhaps help you to fortify the
morale of the people. For this war will not only be decided by force
of arms, but by the will to resist of the entire people. Germany was
broken in 1918 not at the front but at home. Italy suffered not
military defeat but moral defeat. She broke down internally. The
result has been not the peace she expected but--through the cowardice
of these criminal trai-