False Quote Attributed To Hitler At Auschwitz
Auschwitz Formerly Made Use Of A Thoroughly Discredited Source And In So Doing Misrepresented History, Which Has Had Lasting Effects
[I emailed the Head of the Research Department at Auschwitz notifying him of the spuriousness of this source and he informed me only after this article was published that the quotation was taken down sometime after 2008 to make room for a new exhibition after being up for more than 30 years. I will leave this article up as a reference for people who continue to run into this quotation in the exact form that it was presented on the wall plaque at Auschwitz, such as in this article from December 2023, and this article from May 2020. I have written a follow-up article that delves into the amazing admission from the Research Department Head of the spuriousness of this source. You can read that article here:]
Some time ago, I came across a quote attributed to Hitler:
“I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience, morality... We will train young people before whom the whole world will tremble. I want young people capable of violence, imperious, relentless, cruel.”
The quote struck me as cartoonishly evil, and contrasted strongly with the more measured and diplomatic rhetoric that Hitler used in the speeches of his that I had read previously, and so I began searching the internet for the source of the quote so I could read the context in which the statement was allegedly said in. I soon found, however, that there was no source readily available on the internet. Different articles and books, such as this December 2023 article for The Dispatch written by Jonah Goldberg, this book by Andrew Corbett, and this book by Art Lindsley, attributed this quote to Hitler, and the last also claimed that the statement was made at a Hitler Youth rally in Nuremberg, but none gave any traceable source for their claim, except Corbett's book, which listed as its source "a wall plaque at the Auschwitz Death Camp". I was able to find a picture of this wall plaque online, and I will attach it here:
With no other lead, I emailed the heads of the Library, the Archives, and the Research Department at Auschwitz on January 17th, 2024, writing this:
Subject line:
Looking For Source Of Quote
Body:
Hello, my name is Cody Davis. I'm an American historian and I am searching for the source of a quote attributed to Hitler at the Auschwitz museum. I will attach a picture that shows the quote on one of the walls at the museum. I have searched all over the internet trying to find the source of this quote so I can read the context in which it was said, and I can only trace it back to this wall at Auschwitz. I have also come across the claim that it was said during a Hitler Youth rally in Nuremberg. If you could point me to a source for this quote, preferably in English, although if not that's ok too, I would appreciate it. Thank you.
- Cody Davis
On January 18th, 2024, I received a response from the Head of the Research Department with a reference:
Hermann Rauschning „Gespräche mit Hitler”. Zürich und New York 1940, Verlag Oprecht, S. 237
From this reference, I was able to locate the quote (which was actually from two distinct alleged conversations of Hitler’s that were stitched together by Auschwitz) from a book called in English, Hitler Speaks, by Hermann Rauschning. In it, he introduces the statement from the first portion of the quote on the wall plaque by writing:
"[...] Hitler once conferred on me the privilege of learning his views on morality and the things of the spirit. [...] I give here some of these dicta, noted down at the time, but not all of them now in their original context. They are fragments from various talks."
He then lists many different bits of alleged quotations from Hitler, until he gets to the quote of interest, which I will present here in full:
"Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing men from the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge; from the dirty and degrading self-mortifications of a chimera called conscience and morality, and from the demands of a freedom and personal independence which only a very few can bear."
That is all. There is no date; there is no context, and there are no known witnesses to these alleged statements made by Hitler in an alleged private conversation with Mr. Rauschning.
The second portion of the quote, after the ellipsis, is only present in the German edition of the book, perhaps because the alleged, dateless, and placeless conversation the statement takes place in is so absurd and ridiculous that it would not be believable, and I will present it here translated from German:
"With the youth I begin my great work of education," said Hitler. "We old people are used up. Yes, we are already old. We are spoiled to the core. We do not have unbroken instincts any more. We are cowards; we are sentimental. We carry the burden of a humiliating history and the dull memory of bondage and sycophancy in our blood. But my glorious youth! Is there more beautiful in all the world? Look at these young men and boys! What material! From this I can shape a new world.
My pedagogy is tough. The weakness must be hammered away. In my religious castles, a youth will grow up that will terrify the world; that it will be frightened of. I want a violent, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that. They must endure pain. There must be nothing weak and tender in them. The look of a free, glorious predator must flash out from their eyes. I want my youth to be strong and beautiful. I will train them in all physical exercises. I want an athletic youth. That is the first and most important. That's how I will utilize the thousands of years of human domestication. This is how I will have the pure, noble material of nature in front of me. So I can create the new. I don't want intellectual education. I will spoil the youth if I give them knowledge. I would prefer to let them learn only what they learn by playful instinct and their own free will. But control they must learn. I want them to show me that they have overcome the fear of death by the most difficult tests. That is the stage of heroic youth. From it grows the stage of the free; the man who is the measure and center of the world; the creative man; the God-man. In my religious castles, the beautiful, self-commanding God-man will stand as a cultic image and prepare the youth for the coming stage of masculine maturity."
But he couldn't talk about it any further - Hitler broke off. There were stages that he was not allowed to talk about; not even he. And by the way, he only thought this as his secret until he was no longer alive. Something really big would happen then. An overwhelming revelation. In order to fulfill his mission, he would have to die a sacrificial death. "Yes," he repeated, "I must give myself to the people in the hour of greatest danger."
I hope that anyone above twelve years old (although I would be disappointed if someone younger couldn't discern this fantasy) would be able to recognize how foolish it is to even entertain the idea that this was a real conversation, particularly when one has even the slightest knowledge of Hitler's rhetoric and the historical context. I can't read the hearts of men, but it is hard to imagine that this alleged quote up on the wall plaque at Auschwitz was ever offered up as legitimate by anyone but with malicious intent, and remains there except by the most extreme degrees of ignorance.
The author of Hitler Speaks, Hermann Rauschning, was a German politician who was briefly part of the Nazi movement before he abandoned the Nazi party and eventually emigrated to the United States after hopping around to different countries in Europe. It was during his hopping around in Europe that he published Hitler Speaks, years after the alleged private conversations took place between him and Hitler. On Hitler Speaks; English historian Ian Kershaw, one of the world's leading experts on Hitler and Nazi Germany, wrote in his 2000 Hitler biography, Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris:
"One alleged source, used for decades as an authentic guide to Hitler's thoughts and plans, prominently deployed by both Bullock and Fest, has, however, fallen by the wayside. I have on no single occasion cited Hermann Rauschning's Hitler Speaks, a work now regarded to have so little authenticity that it is best to disregard it altogether."
Rauschning's Wikipedia article has this to say about Hitler Speaks:
"His Gespräche mit Hitler (Conversations with Hitler) was a huge bestseller but its credibility would later be severely criticised, and it now has no standing as an accurate document on Hitler for historians."
It must be noted that this alleged quote at Auschwitz is presented just above a picture of a crowd of young Germans, giving the false impression that these statements were made by Hitler publicly, which, even by their own thoroughly discredited source, is not true. Rauschning claims that these statements were made during "various talks", “in conversations”, and "conferred on [Rauschning]", not given at a speech to many.
It is also important to note that, amazingly, excerpts from Rauschning's work were presented as evidence by the Soviet Union at the Nuremberg trials, and the Defense insisted that Mr. Rauschning be brought in as a witness, but he was not allowed to be brought in by the Tribunal President on a technicality. The Defense also mentioned that no affidavits from Rauschning were deposed for the Prosecution, despite the Prosecution using quotations from Rauschning's book in preferring their charges, and having proferred affidavits of similar substance, meaning Rauschning's claims never faced serious scrutiny, but were nevertheless used to make serious accusations. The relevant Nuremberg trial record can be read in full here.
Max Domarus is the author of The Complete Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945, and his work is, according to Wikipedia, "generally considered the most essential and reliable resource on the speeches of Hitler and a unique chronicle of the Third Reich." In The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary, Domarus writes:
"When, in 1932, Adolf Hitler became the most important political figure in Germany, I became intersted in his public words for, in terms of foreign policy, they reminded me of [Napoleon I and William II]. There could be no doubt that this man, once in power, would perforce come into marked conflict with the Western world, above all with Great Britain. Hence I began to collect all of Hitler's speeches, interviews, proclamations, letters, and other statements available, convinced that they would one day be of documentary value, should this demagogue be allowed to pursue his course. [...]
I personally heard Hitler speak and was able to interview public figures who had direct contact with him. [...]
I became a particularly attentive and critical listener, studying the various phases and methodology of his oratory and making my own notes of key phrases either during his speeches or shortly thereafter. Thus I was able to immediately spot changes and deletions in texts of the speeches subsequently published."
A word search of The Complete Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945 reveals that there is no documentation of the quote attributed to Hitler on the wall plaque at Auschwitz; neither the part before the ellipsis nor after it. There are, however, quotes that I will present here in relation to Hitler's stated views on the topics of morality, conscience, and international cooperation:
Policy statement on the Enabling Act to the Reichstag, March 23rd, 1933:
"The illegal state of unilateral disarmament and the resulting national insecurity of Germany cannot last any longer.
We recognize it as a sign of responsibility and good will that the British Government has, with its disarmament proposal, attempted to finally move the Conference to arrive at speedy decisions. The Reich Government will support any efforts aimed at effectively implementing general disarmament and securing Germany's long-overdue claim for disarmament. We have been disarmed for fourteen years, and for the past fourteen months we have been waiting for the outcome of the Disarmament Conference. Even more far-reaching is the plan of the head of the Italian Government, who is making a generous and foresighted attempt to ensure the smooth and consistent development of European politics as a whole. We attach the most earnest significance to this plan; we are willing to cooperate with absolute sincerity on the basis it provides in order to unite the four great powers, England, France, Italy, and Germany in peaceful cooperation to courageously and determinedly approach those tasks upon the solution of which Europe's fate depends.
For this reason we feel particularly grateful for the appreciative warmth which has greeted Germany's national uprising in Italy. We wish and hope that the concurrence of spiritual ideals will be the basis for a continuing consolidation of the friendly relations between the two countries.
Similarly, the Reich Government, which regards Christianity as the unshakable foundation of the ethics and morality of the Volk, places great value on friendly relations with the Vatican and attempts to develop them. We are filled with a feeling of empathy for the troubles and distress of our Brudervolk in Austria. In all its doings, the Reich Government is conscious of the connection between the fate of all German tribes. The attitude toward the other individual foreign powers is evident from what has already been said. But there as well, where the mutual relations are already encumbered with difficulties, we shall endeavor to reach a settlement. However, the differentiation between victor and vanquished can never be the basis of an understanding.
We are nonetheless of the conviction that a settlement of this sort in our relations to France is possible if both governments really attack the problems confronting them with farsightedness. In regard to the Soviet Union, the Reich Government is determined to cultivate friendly relations which are productive for both parties. The Government of the National Revolution above all views itself capable of such a positive policy with regard to Soviet Russia. The fight against Communism in Germany is an internal affair, in which we will never tolerate outside interference. The national political relations to other powers to which we are related by mutual interests will not be affected by this. Our relationship with the other countries shall continue to warrant our most earnest attention in [the] future, in particular our relationship to the major countries overseas, with which Germany has long been allied by friendly ties and economic interests." [Emphasis mine]
Radio address, October 14th, 1933:
"And this National Socialist Revolution is pursuing only one aim: restoring order in our own Volk , providing work and bread for our starving masses, proclaiming the concepts of honor, loyalty and decency as elements of a moral code of ethics which can bring no harm upon other peoples, but rather is of benefit to all. Had the National Socialist Movement not been the representative of a body of ideal concepts, it would not have been able to save our Volk from the final catastrophe. It has remained true to this body of concepts not only throughout the period of its struggle for power, but also in the period it has been in power! We have attacked and combatted every type of depravity, infamy, deception, and corruption which has accumulated in our Volk since the ill-fated Treaty of Versailles.
This Movement is committed to the task of restoring loyalty, faith and decency to their rightful position, without respect of person. For eight months we have been waging a heroic battle against the Communist threat to our Volk, the decomposition of our culture, the subversion of our art, and the poisoning of our public morality. We have put an end to denial of God and abuse of religion. [...]
[The German Volk] will prove to the world how strongly it stands behind a regime which knows no aim other than, with acts of peaceful labor and civilized culture, to make a contribution toward rebuilding a world which today is spiritually unhappy.
This world, however, which we are not harming and from which we desire only that it let us labor in peace, has been persecuting us for months with a flood of lies and slander."
Speech at a session of the Reichstag, July 13th, 1934:
"We wanted to once again create a State to which every German can cling in love; to establish a regime to which everyone can look up [to] with respect; to find laws which are commensurate with the morality of our Volk; to install an authority to which each and every man submits in joyful obedience."
Hitler's first proclamation as German head of government, February 1st, 1933:
"In these hours when we were overcome by a powerful anxiety as to the existence and the future of the German nation, the aged leader of the World War appealed to us men in the national parties and leagues to fight under him once more as we had at the front, this time at home, in unity and loyalty for the salvation of the Reich. The venerable Reich President has allied himself with us in this noble sense, and therefore we shall vow to God, our conscience and our Volk as national leaders that we may resolutely and steadfastly fulfill the task thus conferred upon us as the National Government.
The inheritance we have taken on is a terrible one.
The task which we must accomplish is the most difficult ever posed to German statesmen within the memory of mankind. But our confidence is unbounded, for we believe in our Volk and in its imperishable virtues. Peasants, workers, and bourgeoisie must all join together to provide the building blocks for the new Reich.
The National Government will therefore regard it as its first and foremost duty to reestablish the unity of spirit and will of our Volk. It will preserve and defend the foundations upon which the power of our nation rests. It will extend its strong, protecting hand over Christianity as the basis of our entire morality, and the family as the germ cell of the body of our Volk and State. It will reawaken in our Volk, beyond the borders of rank and class, its sense of national and political unity and its resultant duties. It will establish reverence for our great past and pride in our old traditions as the basis for the education of our German youth. Thus it will declare a merciless war against spiritual, political and cultural nihilism. Germany must not and will not drown in anarchistic Communism.
It will replace turbulent instincts with national discipline as the guiding rule of our life. In doing so, it will devote great care to those institutions which constitute the true guarantors of the power and strength of our nation." [Emphasis mine]
Auschwitz has a responsibility to present history with the utmost attention to and concern for truth, and they have failed in the instance of this spurious quotation attributed to Hitler on the mentioned wall plaque. I request that they take it down and apologize to the German people for their error.