Goebbels Sportpalast Speech - 18 February 1943

After the disaster of Stalingrad in late 1942/early 1943, the retreat in Africa and the loss of Kursk (8 February), Rostov-on-Don (14 February), and Kharkiv (16 February), the German public was shocked and was beginning to see that the war was turning against Germany. Joseph Goebbels held, as a reaction to these losses, two speeches in the Sportpalast (Sport palace), a large indoor hall in Berlin. The first one was on January 30th, the anniversary of the Seizing of power, and the second one, the one thats shown in this video, was held of February 18th, 1943. In it, Goebbels proposed three thesis to his audience: 1. If the Wehrmacht would not be able to stop the Red Army, Bolshevism would overrun Germany and then Europe. 2. Only the German Wehrmacht and its allies have the necessary strenght to stop the Red Army. 3. Danger is imminent. Action must be taken quickly and thoroughly, otherwise it will be too late. He then described the “total war“ measures that had bee