Opening Moves

Not wholly accurate but it made better listening.

“We are striving to stop their progress but you should all know that, for now, we are striving in vain. More farms and villages are coming under their control, towns and cities falling within their domain.”

“Now, more than ever Europe… No,… the World needs her citizens to come together as one, joining to defeat this aggression and ensure that our nations, yours and mine, stay free. I say the world and mean the world, for this will not stop here in Germany, nor on some distant Atlantic or Mediterranean shore, but it will spread across oceans and engulf continents until the World as we know it has gone.”

“Separately, entrenched in our recent divides, we will fall. Together, we will stand proud and destroy this menace forever. Thank you.”

Once the translation had finished the listeners were regaled with the distinctive voice of Churchill, taped in England the previous evening and played at the newly reactivated communications centre at Versailles, delivering a speech as only he could, enshrining every virtue of man in his stirring words and focussing his audience on uniting in the coming struggle.

By the time that De Gaulle commenced, the only allied leader to speak live from Versailles, sixteen minutes had passed. The French leaders address was short and seemed more leaning to stirring his own compatriots to stand tall, perhaps recognising that his country, of all the Allies, needed most inspiration and resolve.

De Gaulle concluded and there was a silence, seemingly designed to build tension but actually no more than a hitch at the radio base as the next speaker sat down at the microphone and waited his turn.

A monotone voice announced Von Papen as the next speaker.

A silence descended, heavy with the static of expectation, until a single steady voice spoke in his native tongue.

“Meine Herren, kinsfolk of Europe, Germany and her allies have endured much these past six years and we have been beaten in a war, enduring beyond the barriers of human endurance, giving all for our country and state, our nation and folk.”

“That we endured so much, gave so much and invested so much blood and sweat in such a faulty cause will be our national burden for generations to come.”

“The leadership of our nations, Germany and Austria, was faulty but these leaders were followed too readily and obeyed too easily for any of us to avoid the national guilt we now feel.”

“I speak to you at this hour as an appointee of the conquering powers, without mandate or common assent from my nation, placed at the head of a governing body, the Council of Germany and Austria. This body consists of leaders, political and military, known to you all these last few years.”

Pausing, Von Papen referred to his list, reciting the names in order of entry and including the military ranks where appropriate.

“These men have agreed to serve on the Council, in order to commence the process of returning our lands to the control of those who have lived and died here for generations.”

“I have been given the position at the head of this table, as Chancellor, to make some decisions, small admittedly, but ones made for Germans and Austrians by Germans and Austrians.”

A throat cleared and on he plunged.

“These last few years our countries have visited aggressive war upon our neighbours and that is a burden we must carry to the next millennium and beyond.”

Von Papen’s voice was rich with both pain and resolve.

“Crimes have been committed and those crimes must be atoned for by those responsible; there can be no other way.”

“Regardless of whether you pulled a trigger, drove a tank, or stayed at home enduring the bombs, our peoples have a collective responsibility to make amends for these excesses, to fully atone for our national actions before we can move forward as nations without the burdens of our past.”

“We come to this now, the start of our national atonement, at the moment of Europe’s darkest need, and when we are least capable of answering the call.”

Those in the radio room witnessed him stiffen as he gathered himself.

“In line with the request the Council has received from General Eisenhower, on behalf of the governments of the United States, United Kingdom and France, I now instruct the…”

A silence descended, one that should not have been and across the continent millions of eyes bored deeply into radio sets, willing the speaker to press on.

Gathering himself, Von Papen pressed on.

“In line with those requests the Council requests that all capable persons, be they free living or presently detained, with the exception of ex-members of the SS, make themselves ready to serve in the military struggle to preserve Germany, Austria, Europe and the World.”

“Identify yourselves to the nearest allied personnel and do as you are instructed, observing your moral conscience at all times, representing your nation and state, and acting as a soldier and citizen of Europe.”