The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.

The battle beginning today will decide the fate of the German nation for the next thousand years.

A state of no less than 36,000,000 inhabitants... took up arms against us... Their confidence ... knew no bounds.

Today I am at the head of the strongest Army in the world, the most gigantic Air Force and of a proud Navy. Behind and around me stands the Party with which I became great and which has become great through me... Our enemies must not deceive themselves - in the 2,000 years of German history known to us, our people have never been more united than today.

Is Paris burning?

It is the last territorial claim which I have to make in Europe, but it is the claim from which I will not recede and which, God-willing, I will make good.