# Adolf Hitler's Own Book Mein Kampf (My Battle)/Chapter 27

Chapter XXVII
Right of Self-Defense
When we Germans laid down our arms in November, 1918, a policy was begun which seemed destined gradually to lead to unconditional submission—for history shows that when a nation surrenders too readily in battle, it is then willing to accept terrific humiliation rather than to make any subsequent stand based on force.
Conquest Step-by-Step
A shrewd victor will, whenever it 1s possible, impose his demands upon the vanquished only in installments.
The victor thus gradually weakens the character of the vanquished, making sure that no one demand is sufficient in itself to cause the vanquished to resort to arms in defiance. The more extortions that are accepted, the more unjustifiable violent defense seems to the victims, for no single outrage seems to warrant a struggle after so many outrages have been passed by in silence.
The destruction of Carthage was a terrible example of just such a gradual extermination brought about due to the weakness of the people who were finally exterminated.
    (Hitler carefully followed this course in his campaign against Czechoslovakia. During the spring and summer of 1938, the Czechoslovakian government, advised by the British, granted ever greater privileges to the German minority in Czechoslovakia; in September the Munich pact was signed in which a portion of Czechoslovakia was turned over to Hitler; then by March, 1939, the spirit of the Czechoslovakian state was so crushed that it offered no opposition to an invasion which they would have resisted with arms in September, and all Czechoslovakia was engulfed in the Nazi state, except the bit seized by Hungary.)
What has happened since 1918 proves that hope of winning a victor’s mercy and respect through willingness to accept whatever he demands is hopeless.
Just seven years after November, 1918, the Treaty of Locarno was signed!
After the Armistice was signed, no one had the courage to oppose whatever the enemy demanded; but the victors were too intelligent to make overwhelming demands at the very first. They carefully kept their demands within the bounds of what in their opinion—and in the opinion of the German leaders—would be tolerable enough not to provoke any real outburst of defiance among the German masses. As each added demand was piled upon us, signed and received, the less it seemed justified, because of just one more lone humiliation, to resist.
Thus Germany accepted disarmament and enslavement, then political suppression and economic robbery, so that finally the moral weakness that was created saw the Dawes Plan as a blessing, and the Treaty of Locarno as a success.
“Marriage must not be thought of as an end in itself, for it has one great design: propagation and preservation of the race. This is its sole meaning.”
Mein Kampf—Chapter X
Everyone should have understood at least by the winter of 1922-1928 that peace meant nothing, that France did not intend merely to accept payment for damage done, but intended utterly to dismember the German state, breaking it up into little pieces.
This, and this alone, was the purpose for which France fought, although in doing so she was really selling her people to international Jewry.
That the World War was fought in France rather than in Germany was the only thing that saved our nation. It is my staunch belief, one which sometimes causes me great anguish, that if the war had been fought along our German rivers and in our German cities, there would now be no German Reich, but only “German States.”
This is the sole reason why the blood of our friends and brothers was not shed in vain.
Peace Is Continuation Of War
When we collapsed in November, 1918, our soldiers were still deep in enemy territory. The first aim of France was not to destroy Germany, but to get the German armies out of France and Belgium as quickly as possible. Only after this was done could they turn to the accomplishment of those aims for which they really had fought, and a policy was adopted which caused Clemenceau to remark that to him peace was but a continuation of war.
If our leaders in the winter of 1922-1923 had realized what France was trying to do, and if they had chosen to do anything at all about it, there were two alternatives: Germany could try to wear out the French by harrassing them in every conceivable way, or else the great risk of armed resistance could be attempted.
I am convinced that the second way must come. I cannot believe that the French attitude to us will ever change. If I were a Frenchman myself, and the greatness of France was as dear to me as the greatness of Germany is, then I could and would act in no way other than that which Clemenceau did. Only by demolishing Germany can France maintain forever her present power in Europe.
Germany can go on abandoning one position after another to France, century after century. Or else Germany can unite for the purpose of a final settlement with France, and only in this way will Germany be able to end this eternal oppression of our nation. Only after this is accomplished will Germany be able even to consider expansion elsewhere.
A Century From Now…
To-day there are 80,000,000 Germans in Europe!
Only that foreign policy will be considered correct which conducts us to the point where, a century from now, 250,000,000 Germans will live on this Continent, not jammed together as factory slaves for the rest of the world, but as workers and peasants living and prospering together.
In December, 1922, there was a crisis in French-German relations. France thought that occupation of the Ruhr district would break the German will once and for all, and would in addition so injure our economic system that we would then be absolutely helpless.
The occupation of the Ruhr seemed horrible when it came, yet really it brought the possibility of an end to Germany’s torture.
The British were disgusted and alarmed by this French action, and in Italy, where there had been displeasure enough with France since Versailles, dislike now turned to hate. But Germany lacked the proper leadership to take advantage of this great opportunity to win allies from her former enemies.
French occupation of the Ruhr held promise for Germany’s future from the standpoint of internal as well as foreign affairs. Many of our “pacifists” had been going about saying that France was the great example of modern liberal progress, but in a flash they were disillusioned, just as our workers back in 1914 suddenly lost their ideas about international fraternity.
As the French marched into the Ruhr came Germany’s chance to whip up national passion. Military measures would have been insanity, but now was the psychological moment when preparation could be commenced for a future reckoning.
Our leaders showed great stupidity when, neither offering nor preparing to offer resistance, they took the stand: “We won’t negotiate.” It was still worse the way they later went to negotiate anyway, having made no preparations to do anything else—and so only going to the meeting table to be informed of decisions already made.
A Cry From Prison
In 1923 the situation was really exactly like that which it was in 1918: the first step in any sort of resistance, if it was to have the remotest possibility of success, was to cleanse the national body of its Marxist Jew poison. Any true nationalist government should at that time have sought out and turned to those forces within the nation determined to destroy Marxism. Such forces should have been allowed unlimited action. It was not the time to quibble about “law and order” while the enemy of the Fatherland was preparing our annihilation.
    (Hitler is complaining because when he staged his putsch against the Bavarian government, he was locked up for purposes of “law and order”—and not allowed to send brown-shirted bands about Germany attacking Jews, labor union members, and other “traitors to the Fatherland.”)
It should have been realized at that time that the bloodiest civil war has often created a strong, healthy national body, while artificial conditions of peace often protect national bodies that stink.
I argued until I was hoarse in those days trying to persuade at least the so-called “national” groups that the situation was desperate. I begged that our movement be allowed to deal with the Marxists—but I talked only to deaf ears. Everyone knew better—even the commander of national defenses.
So I saw that the German Bourgeoisie was through and could never be called upon to fulfill any important task. At last I understood that they really had no desire to destroy Marxism. They accepted ag inevitable the ultimate death of the Fatherland. They were merely struggling for positions in the funeral procession.
Praise for Il Duce
While all this was happening—and I admit it frankly—I developed a profound admiration for that great man south of the Alps, who, inspired by love of his people, was destroying Italy’s domestic enemies by every method. Mussolini must be ranked as one of the greatest of men for his determination not to share Italy with Marxism; how insignificant our present own leaders are compared to this leader who saved his nation by wiping out its enemies.
The day Marxism is destroyed in Germany will be the day our chains are forever broken. Never in history have we been vanquished by the force of our external enemies, but always by our own vices and by the enemy in our own camp.
Leadership was lacking in Germany in this vital hour—heaven presented us with Herr Cuno—who was no statesman, not even by birth. France marched into the Ruhr, and since coal was in the Ruhr Herr Cuno decided that it was only the coal that France was after, so he conceived the idea of a strike. I suppose it was presumed that this would cause the French to turn about and go back to France.
Of course, for the purposes of a strike the workers were needed—the Marxists workers—so now the Bourgeois and the workers blissfully joined hands. Everyone was delighted, for Herr Cuno received his united front of national fools and international villains, and the ​Marxists got government pay for ruining the national economy.
How Nations Are Liberated
This was certainly a flash of genius—this notion of saving a state with a subsidized strike!
Nations are not liberated by doing nothing—they can free themselves only by sacrifice.
Naturally, it was soon seen that the armies of occupation could not be driven out by passive resistance. Passive resistance really means nothing unless it is backed by cold determination to resume active resistance—if it is found necessary—by frontal opposition or guerilla warfare. For what is one to do if the enemy becomes bored by passive resistance and makes a violent attack?
Until late in the summer many people, even officers, could not believe how great our surrender was to be. It was widely believed that efforts would eventually be made to transform this French invasion into a turning point in German history. Only when the final capitulation came did millions of people suddenly understand that only a violent upheaval, and a purge of the ruling system, could save the Fatherland.
The moment was ripe, for while the nation was slowly starved economically, the government itself flaunted the laws, scorning the rights of its citizens, betraying the sacrifices of their most faithful sons, despoiling millions of their last penny. The hatred thus aroused was bound to lead to a change. I can only refer to the closing words of my last speech in the great trial held in the spring of 1924: “The judges of this state may condemn us, but History, the Goddess of a greater truth and of a more perfect law, will one day smile and tear up this verdict, absolving us of all guilt and sin.”
“The everlasting enemy of the Germany people is and remains France.”
Mein Kampf—Chapter XXV
She will then call to justice those who to-day crush justice and law, who have led our people into misery and destruction, loving themselves more than their Fatherland.
I shall not here portray the events which led up to November 8, 1923. I do not want to, for it would not help the future; and it is senseless to tear open wounds which are scarcely healed. And it is useless to discuss the guilt of people who, after all, are perhaps only misguided.
In view of the common tragedy of the Fatherland, I do not want to attack, or split, those who in the future must unite as the true citizens of Germany against our national enemy.
In closing, I want to recall those eighteen crusaders who sacrificed themselves for our sake.
    (A reference to the Nazis who fell in the 1923 putsch.)
They must call back again and again the weak and the uncertain to the fulfillment of duty, to the duty which they themselves fulfilled loyally in spite of all consequences.