Our Revolutionary Will
Source: SS Leitheft, Year 9, Issue 5, Mai 1943
The second year of the struggle with the Bolshevik opponent now lies behind us. This winter, too, the almost constant assault of the Bolshevik masses has shattered on the resistance strength of the National Socialist army. What that means is understood only by the man who knows the war in the comfortless expanse of the east. The numeric superiority of the Bolshevik opponent and the employment of technical means make the moral accomplishment of the German army an unprecedented deed in history. We are today clear that only an army possessing a revolutionary will can endure the struggle against the Bolshevik masses. The old concepts of duty and military obedience do not suffice to produce that iron hardness and strength of spirit demanded by the conflict with the Russian opponent. There is no doubt that Bolshevism does not only work with mass and material. In the time of internal struggle against communism we have learned that a basically negative worldview as is represented by communism can also produce fighting traits like hardness and courage. Just like during the period of internal conflict in the Reich, so too in the last two winters has the might of the Bolshevik attack only been broken by the even greater revolutionary force, the even greater hardness and stronger fanaticism of the German army. What the experience of this two-year struggle with the Bolshevik opponent has brought, must now become the prerequisite for the coming decision: the world-view educational work for the army as well as the folk must lead to that uncompromising fanaticism of the entire nation, as a result of which each individual feels himself to be Adolf Hitler’s soldier and fighter.
The time is past when a few individuals could believe they could save their own personal lives regardless of the outcome of events. Between the two fronts of National Socialism and Bolshevism there are no longer any islands for spectators and well-meaning observers. That is true for each individual in our folk and for the totality of European folks. Either the whole ship and hence the whole crew will be saved or the ship goes down and with it the whole, valuable, blood substance of Europe sinks in the Bolshevik whirlpool. We SS-men had already clearly recognized the force and the gravity of the coming decision upon entrance into Russia and the first clashes with Bolshevik guard regiments. Our impression back then has only been confirmed by events. We are, however, determined to make this experience of the front soldier, this self-evident, wordless, fanatical loyalty to Adolf Hitler directed solely at the annihilation of the enemy, an unconditional demand for each individual folk comrade. The German folk once experienced the tragic drama of a front determined to the death and a defeatist homeland. That was in the years 1917 and 1918 and belongs to the past. The blame for that development fell on the folk’s leadership back then. We will with pitiless severity watch that the spirit of the front is fully the spirit of the whole Reich. The Reich’s west bleeds and in no way stands behind the front in the strength of endurance and the defense against the infernal attacks against our residential districts and cultural monuments. Only an uncompromising leadership can employ and direct the reserve strengths that are awakened precisely in this hard struggle for existence. It would be irresponsible and contrary to all experiences to in a war like the present one takes any consideration of the shifting views of whatever know-it-alls. For that this struggle is too merciless and the prize too precious. The path of our politics and the fate of our folk will be determined by the Führer and the minority determined to lead, just as in the Seven Years War Prussia’s fate and Prussia’s victory were not produced by unsteady men and the shifting opinions of the representatives of individual provinces, rather solely by the king. In the world war 1914-1918 it was learned that the morale of the men is determined by their leader. The company commander is decisive for the performance and morale of his troop. A few men in each unit might be able to support him independently. What is true for the troop, is true for the folk. A determined minority leads. History judges it. The responsibility of the future rests on it alone. A folk, however, wants to be led and more readily forgives individual mistakes that are unavailable than deficient decisiveness and lack of clarity of goal.
If at the start of this war there might have still existed any doubt in the necessary of the world-view education of our folk, it has long been overcome by the length and hardness of the struggle with the Bolshevik opponent. Prisoner interrogations confirm that the Bolsheviks continue to emphasize political education at the front, in the bunkers and trenches, even in pockets. We are determined to be an example in this area as well in the ranks of the Waffen-SS on the basis of the realization of the power of moral forces. Just as little as instruction in the use of an individual weapon can be overlooked, so too may the world-view education be neglected, which is conveyed by the example of the Führer, by occasional instruction as well as the actual world-view education. The methods of education are based on the military situation. Our whole armed forces and our whole German folk must be filled with the energy of the National Socialist world-view. Half-measures and compromises are doomed to failure, the more so as the struggle becomes harder. This war will only be won by a revolutionary nation and a revolutionary leadership. The use of technical weapons and military skill must be carried by a superior worldview. It bestows the stronger faith and despite all setbacks the hardness that alone defiantly wins victory. We are willing to draw all the consequences of this realization.
