Tapping Hitler's Generals

It is obvious, gentlemen, that we are still in harness as far as the war of nerves is concerned and it is clear that each one of us is worried and starts thinking: ‘What will happen now? Have we sufficient means? Have we sufficient men?’ It is also obvious that we ask ourselves these questions with the best will in the world, but we must consider one thing, and that is that when we continue to discuss, I might almost say ‘thrash out’, those problems, the fact that in our present position we are occasionally inclined to take a gloomy view of things doesn’t help our people and doesn’t help us to bear our lot. We must be content with the fate which is ours. Then each one of us has his own private troubles to bear, no matter what they are, and from a purely human standpoint I do not think it right for us to aggravate those by talking about them too much, although it is quite understandable. Each one of us has quite enough to bear. Quite apart from that, it is catching, and the only thing we can do to help our Fatherland is to see that our letters from here are happy, confident and optimistic, especially as we are PW. The people at home must say: ‘Good Heavens, the PW have such confidence in us and in our Fatherland, and so the devil take us if we don’t win!’ We must not unload our troubles, whether they are justified or not, either onto our comrades here or onto our friends at home. The question of whether any particular anxiety is genuine or not, is justified or not, doesn’t come into the question and should not be discussed. I do not want to talk about it at all. All that matters is how we can best help each other to bear our lot and help the people at home by improving their morale rather than by undermining it.

Then there is another matter. We are here in a former interrogation camp. None of us knows whether listening apparatus is not still installed. We must do nothing wittingly or unwittingly, whether it is justified or unjustified, true or false, which might give the enemy any weapon which he could use in the propaganda war, or the war of nerves, or in any other way to bolster up his own people and harm the moral powers of resistance at home.[27]

Gentlemen, I should like to make an urgent request–that you should cease those conversations if there is any possibility of their being listened to. That goes for the Mess here too. We should be ashamed of ourselves if we came home and people there were to say: ‘Everything went well and the only people who caused trouble were our old Generals who were PW.’ I would be the last person, gentlemen, not to sympathise with anyone who felt: ‘There is something I must get off my chest.’ In that case you should choose one of your comrades, whom you can trust, and say to him: ‘Come here, I must get something off my chest. Let’s go out into a corner of the garden where no one can listen to us and walk up and down there. I must speak to you.’ There is nothing against that, and, of course, apart from that we are grown men who have the right at any time to… You know perfectly well what difference I mean and how to deal with it, and therefore, gentlemen, I would ask you to desist from conversations which might in any way incriminate your comrades. You have every reason to look with confidence into the future. We see from the newspaper reports of the English and the Russians, how they exaggerate things. We know from our own experience in TUNIS how tremendously the aerial victories of the Americans were exaggerated and what the real position is. We are in the happy position of being able to listen to our own news, therefore we have a certain check.[28] I need not remind you, gentlemen, we are soldiers and soldiers we remain. I thank you.