"Ausrotten" can mean "to stamp out/to root out", but only figuratively, e.g., in contexts of concepts or ideals. In the context of living things (such as a people or race), "ausrotten" accordingly means destroying something so that it cannot return. David Irving considers the usage of the word "Ausrotten" vitally important and also agrees that the term was referring to eradication. He confirms this in an interview from 2007 when he compares its usage with Goebbels half-word "Ausrott..." during the Sportpalast speech from February 1943. In the subsequent paragraph, Himmler compares his disdain for individuals gaining personally (e.g. stealing) from Jewish victims, and the necessity to prevent this personal gain, to becoming sick and dying "from the same bacillus that we have exterminated" ("weil wir den Bazillus ausrotten, an dem Bazillus krank werden und sterben"). This use of "ausrotten" can be read as killing or extermination in the context of living things, because arguing for the deportation of bacteria would make no sense. The reference to a bacillus in this statement is figurative, however, in line with Nazi rhetoric that encouraged dehumanizing concepts of Jews as a pathogen or malignant presence, rather than people.