David Irving on 'Ausrotten'
Hitler
Let us see exactly what Hitler means by the word
"ausrotten" -- the word he uses repeatedly and publicly to
describe what he will do to the Jews.
What was Germany's war situation at the time?
By May 26th, 1944, Germany was on the losing side of the war, and
was sliding fast. The great Allied offensive had begun in summer 1943;
with Italy captured and Germany's air force decimated, Allied bombers
were destroying nearly any target they pleased in Europe.
"Toward the end of 1943 at the latest," the now unemployed
General Halder would later write, "it had become unmistakably
clear that the war was militarily lost."
[2]
By May of 1944, the Allied invasion of France was expected at any
minute (and D-Day was in fact just two weeks away).
Hitler and the Nazi leaders insisted, even when things were
hopeless, that victory would be theirs -- but, in order to secure that
victory, the German people would have to fight to the bitter last --
down to the last man, woman, and child. This commitment to total war
had been part of Hitler's rhetoric from the beginning, but became more
important as the Allied armies approached the German border.
To establish this fixated suicidal determination in the people, the
army, and the officers of the army, required that Nazi leaders
convince them that death, and worse, was the price of defeat. Hitler
stressed this point over and over. The war may look hopeless, he
repeated, but surrender or defeat would mean such utter destruction
that the war must be fought at all costs.
To communicate this image of utter destruction, on May 26th, 1944,
Hitler painted a vivid picture of what a German loss would mean:
Meine Herren Offiziere, wir stehen in einem Kampf auf Leben und
auf Tod. Wenn in diesem Kampf unsere Gegner siegen, würde das
deutsche Volk ausgerottet werden. Der Bolschewismus würde
Millionen und Millionen und Millionen unserer Intellektuellen
abschlachten. Was nicht durch Genickschuß stürbe,
würde abtransportiert. Die Kinder höherer Schichten
würden wegkommem und beseitigt werden.
In English:
My dear generals, we are fighting a battle of life and death. If
our enemies are victorious in this struggle, the German people will
be extirpated. The Bolsheviks will butcher millions upon millions of
our intellectuals. Those who escape the bullet in the back of the
neck will be deported. The children of the upper classes will be
taken away and got rid of.
This speech was met with loud applause.
Hitler's aim in this part of the speech was to emphasize the total
destruction which awaited defeat, and to make it appear so horrible
that no one could do anything but fight to the very end.
And how did Hitler describe this butchery? What word did he choose
to underscore the horrible slaughter of millions, to communicate the
brutality which awaited the German Volk?
...das deutsche Volk ausgerottet werden.
"Ausgerottet werden" is the present passive infinitive
of the verb "ausrotten."
Recall from
the previous page
that David Irving had quoted Hitler:
If the Soviet Union should ever succeed in overrunning Germany
it will lead to the
Ausrottung
[1]
of the German people.
Because this was the same word used by Hitler to describe his
plans for the Jews, Mr. Irving sought to nullify its meaning:
There's that word ("ausrotten"). There is no way
that Hitler can mean the physical liquidation of 80 million Germans.
But this is what Hitler meant, excepting the exact figure:
the "butchery" of "millions and millions and
millions."
Hitler's words, regarding what would happen to a defeated Germany,
could have referred to the Holocaust of European Jews with great
accuracy. Shall we say that the Holocaust was the butchery of millions
and millions, including children, and the deportation of those who
survived execution? If Mr. Irving or anyone else wishes to say that, no
historian will argue.
Recall that Hitler said repeatedly:
[3]
[...] it would not be the Aryan people which would be
ausgerottet, but Jewry [...]
[...] the result will not be the Ausrottung of the
European races, but the Ausrottung of Jewry in Europe.
Mr. Irving has clearly ignored the May 26th speech. But can he claim he
was not aware of it?
The answer is no. The translation above is David Irving's.
It is David Irving's translation, from the 1977 edition of his book
Hitler's War, p. 631. In fact, it is only thanks to Mr.
Irving that Nizkor became aware of this speech at all!
[4]
So what are we to make of Mr. Irving's "card index" of
Hitler's usages of this word? Perhaps his card index really only
applied to the 1930s, and perhaps he somehow overlooked this usage in
1944 (even though he had translated it himself). Or perhaps he will
expect us to believe that, despite Hitler's continuing to use the word
to refer to the destruction of European Jews throughout the war,
[5]
he was correct to turn a blind eye to its meaning in this speech.
And what are we to make of his claim that
"the word ausrotten means one thing now in 1994, but it meant
something very different in the time Adolf Hitler uses it"?
Words do change meaning over time, it is true, but German
dictionaries tell us that "ausrotten" has not changed at
least in this century.
[6]
But, since Mr. Irving doubts the dictionaries, it would be
interesting to see him try to explain how the word changed meaning
between
page 51
of the transcript of Hitler's speech and
page 53!
On
page 53,
Hitler says:
Ich habe auch hier eingegriffen, und auch dieses Problem wird nun
gelöst werden, wie ich überhaupt sagen muß: der Jude
hat als Programm aufgestellt die Ausrottung des deutschen Volks. Ich
habe am 1. September 1939 in Deutschen Reichstag erklärt: wenn
jemand glaubt, durch einen solchen Weltkrieg die deutsche Nation
auszurotten, dann irrt er sich; wenn das Judentum das wirklich
arrangiert, dann wird derjenige, der ausgerottet sein wird, das
Judentum sein.
In English -- again, the translation is Mr. Irving's, along with
the bracketed comment:
If I may say this: the Jews had as their program the extirpation
[Ausrottung] of the German people. On September 1, 1939, I
announced in the Reichstag, if any man believes he can extirpate the
German nation in a world war, he is wrong; if Jewry really tries that,
then the one that will be extirpated is Jewry itself.
The other words that he translates "extirpate" are also
ausrotten.
As we have seen, he has later explained how Hitler did not mean
literal killing of people -- only "emasculation"
and so on. So perhaps he can also explain how the meaning changed from
the "butchery" of "millions and millions" on
p. 51,
to "the emasculation of the [Jewish] people as a power
factor" on
p. 53.
Of course, even if he could explain this, Hitler's other speeches
on the ausrotten of the Jewish people would remain.
Or, on the other hand, perhaps he can admit that his theories are
wrong, and that Hitler really did speak, publicly, of the
extermination of the Jewish race in Europe.
I do not claim that Mr. Irving's translation is perfect; I use it
mostly so that no supporter of his can accuse me of mistranslation.
aus-rotten I v/a. (21) b. sep. 1. [...] Volksstämme,
Wölfe zc.: to exterminate.
Translation:
aus-rotten 1. [...] Tribes or races of people, wolves, etc.:
to exterminate.
Or, Der Sprach-Brockhaus. Deutsches Bildwörterbuch
für jedermann, published in Leipzig by F. A. Brockhaus in
1935 (this is the complete entry):
die Aus rottung, -/-en,
Translation:
die Aus rottung, -/-en,
[
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The Context
Hitler's May 26th Speech
...the German people are to be extirpated.
Ausrotten
Was Irving Unaware?
Did the Meaning Change?
Notes
voellige Vernichtung.
complete annihilation.