1 Winston Churchill (1874-1965) Speech 4 June 1940,

1
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Speech 4 June 1940, House of Commons
From the moment that the French defenses at Sedan and on the
Meuse were broken at the end of
the second week of May, only a rapid retreat to Amiens and the
south could have saved the British
and French Armies who had entered Belgium at the appeal of
the Belgian King; but this strategic
fact was not immediately realized. …
However, the German eruption swept like a sharp scythe around
the right and rear of the Armies
of the north. Eight or nine armored divisions, each of about four
hundred armored vehicles of
different kinds, but carefully assorted to be complementary and
divisible into small self-contained
units, cut off all communications between us and the main
French Armies. It severed our own
communications for food and ammunition, which ran first to
Amiens and afterwards through

Abbeville, and it shore its way up the coast to Boulogne and
Calais, and almost to Dunkirk. Behind
this armored and mechanized onslaught came a number of
German divisions in lorries, and behind
them again there plodded comparatively slowly the dull brute
mass of the ordinary German Army
and German people, always so ready to be led to the trampling
down in other lands of liberties and
comforts which they have never known in their own.
…Thus it was that the port of Dunkirk was kept open. When it
was found impossible for the Armies
of the north to reopen their communications to Amiens with the
main French Armies, only one
choice remained. It seemed, indeed, forlorn. The Belgian,
British and French Armies were almost
surrounded. Their sole line of retreat was to a single port and to
its neighboring beaches. They
were pressed on every side by heavy attacks and far
outnumbered in the air.
….The enemy attacked on all sides with great strength and
fierceness, and their main power, the
power of their far more numerous Air Force, was thrown into
the battle or else concentrated upon

Dunkirk and the beaches. Pressing in upon the narrow exit, both
from the east and from the west,
the enemy began to fire with cannon upon the beaches by which
alone the shipping could approach
or depart. They sowed magnetic mines in the channels and seas;
they sent repeated waves of hostile
aircraft, sometimes more than a hundred strong in one
formation, to cast their bombs upon the
single pier that remained, and upon the sand dunes upon which
the troops had their eyes for shelter.
Their U-boats, one of which was sunk, and their motor launches
took their toll of the vast traffic
which now began. For four or five days an intense struggle
reigned. All their armored divisions-
or what Was left of them-together with great masses of infantry
and artillery, hurled themselves in
vain upon the ever-narrowing, ever-contracting appendix within
which the British and French
Armies fought.
Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, with the willing help of countless
merchant seamen, strained every
nerve to embark the British and Allied troops; 220 light
warships and 650 other vessels were
engaged. They had to operate upon the difficult coast, often in

adverse weather, under an almost
ceaseless hail of bombs and an increasing concentration of
artillery fire. Nor were the seas, as I
have said, themselves free from mines and torpedoes. It was in
conditions such as these that our
men carried on, with little or no rest, for days and nights on
end, making trip after trip across the
dangerous waters, bringing with them always men whom they
had rescued. The numbers they have
brought back are the measure of their devotion and their
courage. The hospital ships, which
brought off many thousands of British and French wounded,
being so plainly marked were a
special target for Nazi bombs; but the men and women on board
them never faltered in their duty.
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…I return to the Army. In the long series of very fierce battles,
now on this front, now on that,
fighting on three fronts at once, battles fought by two or three
divisions against an equal or
somewhat larger number of the enemy, and fought fiercely on
some of the old grounds that so

many of us knew so well-in these battles our losses in men have
exceeded 30,000 killed, wounded
and missing. I take occasion to express the sympathy of the
House to all who have suffered
bereavement or who are still anxious. The President of the
Board of Trade [Sir Andrew Duncan]
is not here today. His son has been killed, and many in the
House have felt the pangs of affliction
in the sharpest form. But I will say this about the missing: We
have had a large number of wounded
come home safely to this country, but I would say about the
missing that there may be very many
reported missing who will come back home, some day, in one
way or another. In the confusion of
this fight it is inevitable that many have been left in positions
where honor required no further
resistance from them.
Against this loss of over 30,000 men, we can set a far heavier
loss certainly inflicted upon the
enemy. But our losses in material are enormous. We have
perhaps lost one-third of the men we
lost in the opening days of the battle of 21st March, 1918, but
we have lost nearly as many guns

— nearly one thousand-and all our transport, all the armored
vehicles that were with the Army in
the north. This loss will impose a further delay on the expansion
of our military strength. That
expansion had not been proceeding as far as we had hoped. The
best of all we had to give had gone
to the British Expeditionary Force, and although they had not
the numbers of tanks and some
articles of equipment which were desirable, they were a very
well and finely equipped Army. They
had the first-fruits of all that our industry had to give, and that
is gone. And now here is this further
delay. How long it will be, how long it will last, depends upon
the exertions which we make in
this Island. An effort the like of which has never been seen in
our records is now being made.
Work is proceeding everywhere, night and day, Sundays and
week days. Capital and Labor have
cast aside their interests, rights, and customs and put them into
the common stock. Already the
flow of munitions has leaped forward. There is no reason why
we should not in a few months
overtake the sudden and serious loss that has come upon us,
without retarding the development of

our general program.
…. We have found it necessary to take measures of increasing
stringency, not only against enemy
aliens and suspicious characters of other nationalities, but also
against British subjects who may
become a danger or a nuisance should the war be transported to
the United Kingdom. I know there
are a great many people affected by the orders which we have
made who are the passionate enemies
of Nazi Germany. I am very sorry for them, but we cannot, at
the present time and under the present
stress, draw all the distinctions which we should like to do. If
parachute landings were attempted
and fierce fighting attendant upon them followed, these
unfortunate people would be far better out
of the way, for their own sakes as well as for ours. There is,
however, another class, for which I
feel not the slightest sympathy. Parliament has given us the
powers to put down Fifth Column
activities with a strong hand, and we shall use those powers
subject to the supervision and
correction of the House, without the slightest hesitation until we
are satisfied, and more than
satisfied, that this malignancy in our midst has been effectively

stamped out.
Turning once again, and this time more generally, to the
question of invasion, I would observe that
there has never been a period in all these long centuries of
which we boast when an absolute
guarantee against invasion, still less against serious raids, could
have been given to our people. In
the days of Napoleon the same wind which would have carried
his transports across the Channel
might have driven away the blockading fleet. There was al ways
the chance, and it is that chance
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which has excited and befooled the imaginations of many
Continental tyrants. Many are the tales
that are told. We are assured that novel methods will be
adopted, and when we see the originality
of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy
displays, we may certainly prepare
ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of
brutal and treacherous maneuver. I
think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not be
considered and viewed with a searching,

but at the same time, I hope, with a steady eye. We must never
forget the solid assurances of sea
power and those which belong to air power if it can be locally
exercised.
I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if
nothing is neglected, and if the best
arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove
ourselves once again able to defend
our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the
menace of tyranny, if necessary
for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are
going to try to do. That is the resolve
of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the
will of Parliament and the nation.
The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together i n
their cause and in their need, will
defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good
comrades to the utmost of their
strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and
famous States have fallen or may
fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of
Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall
fight on the seas and oceans, we shall

fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our Island, whatever
the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on
the landing grounds, we shall fight
in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we
shall never surrender, and even if,
which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part
of it were subjugated and starving,
then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the
British Fleet, would carry on the
struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its
power and might, steps forth to the
rescue and the liberation of the old.
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)
Appeal of 18 June 1940
The French government, after having asked for an armistice,
now knows the conditions dictated
by the enemy.
The result of these conditions would be the complete
demobilisation of the French land, sea, and
air forces, the surrender of our weapons and the total occupation

of French territory. The French
government would come under German and Italian tutelage.
It may therefore be said that this armistice would not only be a
capitulation, but that it would also
reduce the country to slavery. Now, a great many Frenchmen
refuse to accept either capitulation
or slavery, for reasons which are called: honour, common sense,
and the higher interests of the
country.
I say honour, for France has undertaken not to lay down arms
save in agreement with her allies.
As long as the allies continue the war, her government has no
right to surrender to the enemy.
The Polish, Norwegian, Belgian, Netherlands, and Luxemburg
governments, though driven from
their territories, have thus interpreted their duty. I say common
sense, for it is absurd to consider
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the struggle as lost. True, we have suffered a major defeat. We
lost the battle of France through a
faulty military system, mistakes in the conduct of operations,

and the defeatist spirit shown by
the government during recent battles.
But we still have a vast empire, our fleet is intact, and we
possess large sums in gold. We still
have allies, who possess immense resources and who dominate
the seas. We still have the
gigantic potentialities of American industry. The same war
conditions which caused us to be
beaten by 5,000 planes and 6,000 tanks can tomorrow bring
victory by means of 20,000 tanks
and 20,000 planes.
I say the higher interests of the country, for this is not a Franco-
German war to be decided by a
single battle. This is a world war. No one can foresee whether
the neutral countries of today will
not be at war tomorrow, or whether Germany's allies will
always remain her allies. If the powers
of freedom ultimately triumph over those of servitude, what will
be the fate of a France which
has submitted to the enemy?
Honour, common sense, and the interests of the country require
that all free Frenchmen,
wherever they be, should continue the fight as best they may.

It is therefore necessary to group the largest possible French
force wherever this can be done.
Everything which can be collected by way of French military
elements and potentialities for
armaments production must be organised wherever such
elements exist.
I, General de Gaulle, am undertaking this national task here in
England.
I call upon all French servicemen of the land, sea, and air
forces; I call upon French engineers
and skilled armaments workers who are on British soil, or have
the means of getting here, to
come and join me.
I call upon the leaders, together with all soldiers, sailors, and
airmen of the French land, sea, and
air forces, wherever they may now be, to get in touch with me.
I call upon all Frenchmen who want to remain free to listen to
my voice and follow me.
Long live free France in honour and independence!
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Mein Kampf (1924-1925)

[The Jew] sticks where he is with such tenacity that he can
hardly be driven out even by superior
physical force. He expands into new territories only when
certain conditions for his existence are
provided therein; but even then--unlike the nomad--he will not
change his former abode. He is
and remains a parasite, a sponger who, like a pernicious
bacillus, spreads over wider and wider
areas according as some favourable area attracts him. The effect
produced by his presence is also
like that of the vampire; for wherever he establishes himself the
people who grant him hospitality
are bound to be bled to death sooner or later. Thus the Jew has
at all times lived in States that
have belonged to other races and within the organization of
those States he had formed a State of
his own, which is, however, hidden behind the mask of a
'religious community', as long as
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external circumstances do not make it advisable for this
community to declare its true nature. As

soon as the Jew feels himself sufficiently established in his
position to be able to hold it
without a disguise, he lifts the mask and suddenly appears in the
character which so many did not
formerly believe or wish to see: namely that of the Jew.
The life which the Jew lives as a parasite thriving on the
substance of other nations and States has
resulted in developing that specific character which
Schopenhauer once described when he spoke of
the Jew as 'The Great Master of Lies'. The kind of existence
which he leads forces the Jew to the
systematic use of falsehood, just as naturally as the inhabitants
of northern climates are forced to wear
warm clothes.
He can live among other nations and States only as long as he
succeeds in persuading them that
the Jews are not a distinct people but the representatives of a
religious faith who thus constitute a
'religious community', though this be of a peculiar character.
As a matter of fact, however, this is the first of his great
falsehoods.

He is obliged to conceal his own particular character and mode
of life that he may be allowed to
continue his existence as a parasite among the nations. The
greater the intelligence of the
individual Jew, the better will he succeed in deceiving others.
His success in this line may even
go so far that the people who grant him hospitality may be led
to believe that the Jew among
them is a genuine Frenchman, for instance, or Englishman or
German or Italian, who just
happens to belong to a religious denomination which is different
from that prevailing in these
countries. Especially in circles concerned with the executive
administration of the State, where
the officials generally have only a minimum of historical sense,
the Jew is able to impose his
infamous deception with comparative ease. In these circles
independent thinking is considered a
sin against the sacred rules according to which official
promotion takes place. It is therefore not
surprising that even to-day in the Bavarian government offices,
for example, there is not the
slightest suspicion that the Jews form a distinct nation
themselves and are not merely the

adherents of a 'Confession', though one glance at the Press
which belongs to the Jews ought to
furnish sufficient evidence to the contrary even for those who
possess only the smallest degree of
intelligence. The JEWISH ECHO, however, is not an official
gazette and therefore not
authoritative in the eyes of those government potentates.
Jewry has always been a nation of a definite racial character and
never differentiated merely by
the fact of belonging to a certain religion. At a very early date,
urged on by the desire to make
their way in the world, the Jews began to cast about for a means
whereby they might
distract such attention as might prove inconvenient for them.
What could be more effective and
at the same time more above suspicion than to borrow and
utilize the idea of the religious
community? Here also everything is copied, or rather stolen; for
the Jew could not possess
any religious institution which had developed out of his own
consciousness, seeing that he lacks
every kind of idealism; which means that belief in a life beyond
this terrestrial existence is

foreign to him. In the Aryan mind no religion can ever be
imagined unless it embodies the
conviction that life in some form or other will continue after
death. As a matter of fact, the
Talmud is not a book that lays down principles according to
which the individual should prepare
for the life to come. It only furnishes rules for a practical and
convenient life in this world.
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The religious teaching of the Jews is principally a collection of
instructions for maintaining the
Jewish blood pure and for regulating intercourse between Jews
and the rest of the world: that is
to say, their relation with non-Jews. But the Jewish religious
teaching is not concerned with
moral problems. It is rather concerned with economic problems,
and very petty ones at that. In
regard to the moral value of the religious teaching of the Jews
there exist and always have
existed quite exhaustive studies (not from the Jewish side; for
whatever the Jews have written on

this question has naturally always been of a tendentious
character) which show up the kind of
religion that the Jews have in a light that makes it look very
uncanny to the Aryan mind. The Jew
himself is the best example of the kind of product which this
religious training evolves. His life
is of this world only and his mentality is as foreign to the true
spirit of Christianity as his
character was foreign to the great Founder of this new creed two
thousand years ago. And the
Founder of Christianity made no secret indeed of His estimation
of the Jewish people. When He
found it necessary He drove those enemies of the human race
out of the Temple of God; because
then, as always, they used religion as a means of advancing
their commercial interests. But at
that time Christ was nailed to the Cross for his attitude towards
the Jews; whereas our modern
Christians enter into party politics and when elections are being
held they debase themselves to
beg for Jewish votes. They even enter into political intrigues
with the atheistic Jewish parties
against the interests of their own Christian nation.

Anne Frank (1929-1945)
Diary
July 8th 1942: “At three o’clock (Hello had left but was
supposed to come back later), the
doorbell rang. I didn’t hear it, since I was out on the balcony,
lazily reading in the sun. A little
while later Margot appeared in the kitchen doorway looking
very agitated. “Father has
received a call-up notice from the SS,” she whispered. “Mother
has gone to see Mr. van Daan”
(Mr. van Daan is Father’s business partner and a good friend.) I
was stunned. A call-up:
everyone knows what that means. Visions of concentration
camps and lonely cells raced
through my head. How could we let Father go to such a fate?
“Of course he’s not going,”
declared Margot as we waited for Mother in the living room.
“Mother’s gone to Mr. van Daan
to ask whether we can move to our hiding place tomorrow. The
van Daans are going with us.
There will be seven of us altogether.” Silence. We couldn’t

speak. The thought of Father off
visiting someone in the Jewish Hospital and completely unaware
of what was happening, the
long wait for Mother, the heat, the suspense – all this reduced
us to silence.
July 9th 1942: “Here’s a description of the building… A
wooden staircase leads from the
downstairs hallway to the third floor. At the top of the stairs is
a landing, with doors on either
side. The door on the left takes you up to the spice storage area,
attic and loft in the front part
of the house. A typically Dutch, very steep, ankle-twisting
flight of stairs also runs from the
front part of the house to another door opening onto the street.
The door to the right of the
landing leads to the Secret Annex at the back of the house. No
one would ever suspect there
were so many rooms behind that plain grey door. There’s just
one small step in front of the
door, and then you’re inside. Straight ahead of you is a steep
flight of stairs. To the left is a
7

narrow hallway opening onto a room that serves as the Frank
family’s living room and
bedroom. Next door is a smaller room, the bedroom and study
of the two young ladies of the
family. To the right of the stairs is a windowless washroom with
a sink. The door in the corner
leads to the toilet and another one to Margot’s and my room…
Now I’ve introduced you to
the whole of our lovely Annex!”
August 21st 1942: “Now our Secret Annex has truly become
secret. Because so many houses
are being searched for hidden bicycles, Mr. Kugler thought it
would be better to have a
bookcase built in front of the entrance to our hiding place. It
swings out on its hinges and
opens like a door. Mr. Voskuijl did the carpentry work. (Mr.
Voskuijl has been told that the
seven of us are in hiding, and he’s been most helpful.) Now
whenever we want to go
downstairs we have to duck and then jump. After the first three
days we were all walking
around with bumps on our foreheads from banging our heads

against the low doorway. Then
Peter cushioned it by nailing a towel stuffed with wood
shavings to the doorframe. Let’s see
if it helps!”
October 9th 1942: “Today I have nothing but dismal and
depressing news to report. Our
many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in
droves. The Gestapo is
treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars
to Westerbork, the big camp
in Drenthe to which they’re sending all the Jews. Miep told us
about someone who’d managed
to escape from there. It must be terrible in Westerbork. The
people get almost nothing to eat,
much less to drink, as water is available only one hour a day,
and there’s only one toilet and
sink for several thousand people. Men and women sleep in the
same room, and women and
children often have their heads shaved. Escape is almost
impossible; many people look
Jewish, and they’re branded by their shorn heads. If it’s that
bad in Holland, what must it be
like in those faraway and uncivilized places where the Germans

are sending them? We assume
that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says
they’re being gassed. Perhaps
that’s the quickest way to die. I feel terrible. Miep’s accounts of
these horrors are so
heartrending… Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and
to think I’m actually one of
them! No, that’s not true, Hitler took away our nationality long
ago. And besides, there are
no greater enemies on earth than the Germans and Jews.”
October 20th 1942: “My hands still shaking, though it’s been
two hours since we had the
scare… The office staff stupidly forgot to warn us that the
carpenter, or whatever he’s called,
was coming to fill the extinguishers… After working for about
fifteen minutes, he laid his
hammer and some other tools on our bookcase (or so we
thought!) and banged on our door.
We turned white with fear. Had he heard something after all and
did he now want to check
out this mysterious looking bookcase? It seemed so, since he
kept knocking, pulling, pushing
and jerking on it. I was so scared I nearly fainted at the thought

of this total stranger managing
to discover our wonderful hiding place…”
November 19th 1942: “Mr. Dussel has told us much about the
outside world we’ve missed
for so long. He had sad news. Countless friends and
acquaintances have been taken off to a
dreadful fate. Night after night, green and grey military vehicles
cruise the streets. They knock
on every door, asking whether any Jews live there. If so, the
whole family is immediately
taken away. If not, they proceed to the next house. It’s
impossible to escape their clutches
8
unless you go into hiding. They often go around with lists,
knocking only on those doors
where they know there’s a big haul to be made. They frequently
offer a bounty, so much per
head. It’s like the slave hunts of the olden days… I feel wicked
sleeping in a warm bed, while
somewhere out there my dearest friends are dropping from
exhaustion or being knocked to

the ground. I get frightened myself when I think of close friends
who are now at the mercy of
the cruellest monsters ever to stalk the earth. And all because
they’re Jews.”
May 18th 1943: “All college students are being asked to sign an
official statement to the
effect that they ‘sympathize with the Germans and approve of
the New Order.” Eighty percent
have decided to obey the dictates of their conscience, but the
penalty will be severe. Any
student refusing to sign will be sent to a German labour camp.”
March 29th 1944: “Mr. Bolkestein, the Cabinet Minister,
speaking on the Dutch broadcast
from London, said that after the war a collection would be made
of diaries and letters dealing
with the war. Of course, everyone pounced on my diary.”
February 3rd 1944: “I’ve reached the point where I hardly care
whether I live or die. The
world will keep on turning without me, and I can’t do anything
to change events anyway. I’ll
just let matters take their course and concentrate on studying

and hope that everything will be
all right in the end.”
July 15th 1944: “It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life
on a foundation of chaos,
suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed
into a wilderness, I hear the
approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the
suffering of millions. And
yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everythi ng
will change for the better, that
this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquillity will return
once more. In the meantime, I
must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I’ll
be able to realize them.”

1 Winston Churchill (1874-1965) Speech 4 June 1940,

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1 Winston Churchill (1874-1965) Speech 4 June 1940,