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If this had been taken as the keynote of the speech, Wall Street's war babies might have ceased to bounce, but the Führer also said: "We are all men who in their long struggle have been nothing but attacked. That only tended to increase the love of our followers. . . . [When Britons say] that this war will last three years, then I can only say my sympathies are with the French poilu. At present he knows that he will have to fight for at least three years. ... If it should last for three years then the word capitulation will not appear at the end of the third year, neither at the end of the fourth . . . and also not in the sixth or seventh year! The German people will not split up in this fight. . . ."
This was enough for Wall Street traders, the war babies promptly recovering their losses, some even bouncing fractionally higher than before Hitler went to Danzig.
Adolf to Joseph. The Führer, as a conqueror who had smashed the Polish State in 18 days, turned at Danzig to reassure Joseph Stalin and pave the way for the military partition of Poland by friendly Nazis and Reds (see p. 29). "I am happy now ... to refute . . . British statesmen who continually maintain that Germany intends to dominate Europe to the Ural Mountains. . . . Now, gentlemen of the British Empire, Germany's aims are very limited. We have discussed the matter with Russia . . . and if you are of the opinion that we might come to a conflict on the subject—we will not. . . . It will calm you to learn that Germany does not, and did not, want to conquer the Ukraine!"
While thus chumming up to Communist Stalin in a military sense, Nazi Hitler strove to keep a political line sharply drawn between the two regimes: "I want to give here an explanation: Russia remains what she is and Germany also remains what she is!"
Adolf to Neville & Edouard. Actual nub of the Hitler speech was an effort to undermine Allied morale by representing Poland as a Humpty Dumpty which just-cannot be put together again and by asking the Allies, who entered World War II avowedly to assist now crushed Poland, whether it is reasonable to fight on because they find Hitlerism intolerable.
"Such an utter lack of conscience!" cried Herr Hitler. "What would be said if one of us should say that the present regime in France or Britain does not suit us and consequently we are conducting a war? What immeasurable lack of conscience. . . . I have neither toward England nor France any war claims, nor has the German nation. . . . Poland never will rise again in the form of the Versailles treaty. That is guaranteed not only by Germany, but also . . . Russia.