Just two days before the start of Hanukkah and the day after Germany declared war on the United States, Hitler met with some of his officials, including Goebbels, in his private office at the Reich Chancellery.
Adolf Hitler’s comments on December 12, 1941, were notorious for their explicit and hostile rhetoric towards Jews. In this speech, which occurred just days after the United States entered World War II, Hitler declared the Jewish population as enemies of Germany and blamed them for the ongoing global conflict. He articulated his earlier threats of the “annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe,” a chilling forewarning of the Holocaust that was already underway.
Hitler’s speeches were characterized by intense anti-Semitism, which formed a core part of his ideological and political agenda. The December 12, 1941 speech is particularly significant as it marked a clear and public declaration of his intent to pursue the systematic extermination of Jews, which was a key component of the Holocaust. This speech is often cited as a critical moment in the history of the Holocaust, demonstrating Hitler’s explicit and public commitment to the genocide of the Jewish people.
Per Goebbels (as written his his diary): “Regarding the Jewish question, the Führer has decided to make a clean sweep. He prophesied to the Jews that, if they yet again brought about a world war, they would experience their own annihilation. That was not just a phrase. The world war is here, the annihilation of the Jews must be the necessary consequence.“
In the broader context of the Holocaust, Hitlers comments remain a haunting reminder of the darkness that had already descended on the Jews of Europe, and the world.
And the understanding that Light would – and did – overcome his evil.
DAVE DOES HISTORY 
Leave a comment