How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
To accomplish this he and Goebbels, who on March 13 became Minister of Propaganda, conceived a master stroke. Hitler would open the new Reichstag, which he was about to destroy, in the Garrison Church at Potsdam, the great shrine of Prussianism, which aroused in so many Germans memories of imperial glories and grandeur […]. (2.7.43)
Old President Hindenburg had tears in his eyes during this ceremony, staged at the church of the Hohenzollern kings. Hitler was associating the old Reichstag with this hallowed church all the while planning to destroy the Reichstag and Hindenburg's government.
Quote #2
For six years, since the Nazi "co-ordination" of the daily newspapers, which had meant the destruction of the free press, the citizens had been cut off from the truth of what was going on in the world.
[…] whereas all the rest of the world considers that peace is about to be broken by Germany, that is it Germany that is about to attack Poland…here in Germany […] the very reverse is maintained. What the Nazi papers are proclaiming is this: that it is Poland which is disturbing the peace of Europe; Poland that is threatening Germany with armed invasion... (3.16.103)
Shirer got a chance, unlike most German people, to read papers from other countries other than Germany. He wrote in his diaries: "You ask: But the German people can't possibly believe these lies? Then you talk to them. So many do."
Quote #3
Good propaganda, to be effective, as Hitler and Goebbels had learned from experience, needs more than words. It needs deeds, however much they may have to be fabricated. (3.16.286)
Boy, did they fabricate a doozy. They dressed up S.S. men as Polish soldiers and had them attack a German radio station near the Polish border and broadcast threats to Germany. The plan was to drug concentration camp inmates and leave them as "dying" civilian German casualties. This created a pretext for invading Poland. The next day, Hitler did just that, justifying his actions to the world by this fake attack on the radio station. Since the people had only the Nazi-controlled radio, they believed it.
Quote #4
Molotov added that…the Soviet Government intended to justify its procedures as follows: The Polish State had disintegrated and no longer existed; therefore all agreements concluded with Poland were void: third powers might try to profit by the chaos which had risen; the Soviet Government considered itself obligated to intervene to protect its Ukrainian and White Russian brothers and make it possible for these unfortunate people to work in peace. (4.18.15)
Nazis weren't the only propaganda masters in the war. The Soviets also created a "shabby" pretext for invading Poland. Poland was the unfortunate victim of lies from the right and the left and was wiped off the map.
Quote #5
[…] on August 26, he ordered his envoys in Brussels and The Hague to inform the respective governments that in the event of an outbreak of war, "Germany will in no circumstances impair the inviolability of Belgium and Holland," an assurance which he repeated publicly on October 6, after the conclusion of the Polish campaign. The very next day, October 7, General von Brauchitsch advised his army group commanders, at Hitler's prompting, to make all arrangements for immediate invasion of Dutch and Belgian territory, if the political situation so demands. (4.21.12)
This was the M.O. of the Nazi regime: to reassure countries of their good intentions all the while massing troops on the border with the intent to invade. How do you think those deceived world leaders felt about falling for these lies?
Quote #6
On the morning of May 14, a German staff officer from the XXXIXth Corps had crossed the bridge at Rotterdam and demanded the surrender of the city. He warned that unless it capitulated it would be bombed. While surrender negotiations were underway […] bombers appeared and wiped out the heart of the great city. Some eight hundred persons, almost entirely civilians, were massacred, several thousand wounded, and 78,000 made homeless. (4.21.46)
At their Nuremberg trials, Goering denied that they knew the surrender was going on. Shirer tells us that the German Army archives suggest they they absolutely knew. Unfortunately for many war criminals, those archives contained enough truths to convict them.
Quote #7
"…the German Government solemnly declares to the French Government that it does not intend to use for its own purposes in the war the French fleet which is in ports under German supervision. Furthermore, they solemnly and expressly declare that they have no intention of raising any claim to the French fleet at the time of the conclusion of peace." (4.21.151)
The word "solemnly" is the dead giveaway. Hitler broke this promise, as he did countless others.
Quote #8
There was one further—and typical—piece of Hitlerian deceit. On November 13 the Fuehrer assured Pétain that neither the Germans nor the Italians would occupy the naval base at Toulon, where the French fleet had been tied up since the armistice. On November 25 the OKW Diary recorded that Hitler had decided to carry out "Lila" as soon as possible. This was the code word for the occupation of Toulon and the capture of the French fleet. (4.26.101)
What was Hitler's word worth? Zilch. Zip. Nada.
Quote #9
Though there were heartrending scenes [at Auschwitz] as wives were torn away from husbands and children from parents, none of the captives, as Hoess testified and survivors agree, realized what was in store for them. In fact, some of them were given pretty picture postcards marked "Waldsee" to be signed and set back home to their relatives with a printed inscription saying: We are doing very well here. We have work and we are well treated. We await your arrival. (5.27.37-38)
These were some of the cruelest lies of all. As the prisoners were led to the "showers," aka gas chambers, an orchestra of female inmates played light, cheerful music.
Quote #10
Under no circumstances can [they] expect to be treated according to the rules of the Geneva Convention…If it should become necessary for reasons of interrogation to spare one man or two, then they are to be shot immediately after interrogation. (5.27.131)
Hitler decided that Allied commando troops could be shot on sight, in strict violation of the Geneva Convention accords about treatment of POWs. Orders were that this particular crime was to be kept strictly secret and any copies of this order were to be destroyed.
Quote #11
Field Marshal Model issued a ringing order of the day announcing that Rommel had died of "wounds sustained on July 17" and mourning the loss of "one of the greatest commanders of our nation." (5.29.358)
Field Marshal Model issued a ringing order of the day announcing that Rommel had died of "wounds sustained on July 17" and mourning the loss of "one of the greatest commanders of our nation." (5.29.358)
Rommel had actually died of "wounds sustained" from being forced to take poison on Hitler's orders. Hitler ordered a state funeral with all the honors. He couldn't tolerate the humiliation of the German people learning that Rommel had turned against him. It was one in a long series of lies which Hitler fed the people of Germany.
Quote #12
There was Kaltenbrunner, the bloody successor of "Hangman Heydrich," who on the stand would deny all his crimes. (A Brief Epilogue)
Shirer returned to German for the Nuremberg trials, where he saw the men he had seen at the height of their glory now reduced to prisoners on trial for their lives. Many of them lied until the bitter end. The court didn't believe Kaltenbrunner; he was convicted of war crimes and hanged. Do you think these guys believed their own lies?