Within his speech, who does Himmler blame for the mass murders his organization committed, and who does he identify as the beneficiaries of these murderous actions?

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Chapter1: The Science Of Psychology
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Within his speech, who does Himmler blame for the mass murders his organization committed, and who does he identify as the beneficiaries of these murderous actions?

SOURCES FROM THE PAST
After reviewing the "Sources from the Past: "We Will Never Speak about it in Public" feature, answer the following
questions.
SOURCES FROM THE PAST
"We Will Never Speak about It in Public"
On 4 October 1943, Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS and chief of the German police, gave a three-hour speech to on
assembly of SS generals in the city of Posen (Poznan), in what is now Poland. In the following excerpt, Himmler justified Nazi
anti-Jewish policies that culminoted in mass murder. The speech, recorded on tope and in handwritten notes, was entered
into evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1945.
I also want to speak to you here, in complete frankness, of a really grave chapter. Amongst ourselves, for once, it shall be said
quite openly, but all the same we will never speak about it in public....
I am referring here to the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people. This is one of the things
that is easily said: "The Jewish people are going to be exterminated," that's what every Party member says, "sure, it's in
our program, elimination of the Jews, extermination-it'll be done." And then they
all come along, the 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his one
decent Jew. Of course, the others are swine, but this one, he is a first-rate Jew. Of all-
those who talk like that, not one has seen it happen, not one has had to go through
with it. Most of you men know what it is like to see 100 corpses side by side, or 500
or 1,000. To have stood fast through this and except for cases of human weakness to have stayed decent, that has made.
us hard. This is an unwritten and never-to-be-written page of glory in our history....
The wealth they possessed we took from them. I gave a strict order, which has been carried out by SS Obergruppenfuehrer
Pohl, that this wealth will of course be turned over to the Reich in its entirety. We have taken none of it for ourselves. Individuals
who have erred will be punished in accordance with the order given by me at the start, threatening that anyone who takes as
much as a single Mark of this money is a dead man. A number of SS men, they are not very many, committed this offense, and
they shall die. There will be no mercy. We had the moral right, we had the duty towards our people, to destroy this people that
wanted to destroy us. But we do not have the right to enrich ourselves by so much as a
fur, as a watch, by one Mark or a cigarette or anything else. We do not want, in the end,
because we destroyed a bacillus, to be infected by this bacillus and to die. I will never
stand by and watch while even a small rotten spot develops or takes hold. Wherever it-
may form we will together burn it away. All in all, however, we can say that we have car-
ried out this most difficult of tasks in a spirit of love for our people. And we have suffered
no harm to our inner being, our soul, our character....
What was Himmler's point here
about "decent" Jews?
Why was it so important to
Himmler that individual Germans
not take the wealth of murdered
Jews?
For Further Reflection
Himmler argued that SS officers and soldiers "stayed decent" while overseeing the extermination of the Jews; how,
according to him, was this possible?
Source: Heinrich Himmler, "We Will Never Speak about it in Public" (The Complete Text of the Poznan Speech), October 4, 1943, Translation used
with permission of the Holocaust History Project (www.holocaust-history.org).
Heinrich Himmler, "We Will Never Speak about it in Public (The Complete Text of the Poznan Speech), October 4, 1943, Translation used with permission of the
Transcribed Image Text:SOURCES FROM THE PAST After reviewing the "Sources from the Past: "We Will Never Speak about it in Public" feature, answer the following questions. SOURCES FROM THE PAST "We Will Never Speak about It in Public" On 4 October 1943, Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS and chief of the German police, gave a three-hour speech to on assembly of SS generals in the city of Posen (Poznan), in what is now Poland. In the following excerpt, Himmler justified Nazi anti-Jewish policies that culminoted in mass murder. The speech, recorded on tope and in handwritten notes, was entered into evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1945. I also want to speak to you here, in complete frankness, of a really grave chapter. Amongst ourselves, for once, it shall be said quite openly, but all the same we will never speak about it in public.... I am referring here to the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people. This is one of the things that is easily said: "The Jewish people are going to be exterminated," that's what every Party member says, "sure, it's in our program, elimination of the Jews, extermination-it'll be done." And then they all come along, the 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his one decent Jew. Of course, the others are swine, but this one, he is a first-rate Jew. Of all- those who talk like that, not one has seen it happen, not one has had to go through with it. Most of you men know what it is like to see 100 corpses side by side, or 500 or 1,000. To have stood fast through this and except for cases of human weakness to have stayed decent, that has made. us hard. This is an unwritten and never-to-be-written page of glory in our history.... The wealth they possessed we took from them. I gave a strict order, which has been carried out by SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, that this wealth will of course be turned over to the Reich in its entirety. We have taken none of it for ourselves. Individuals who have erred will be punished in accordance with the order given by me at the start, threatening that anyone who takes as much as a single Mark of this money is a dead man. A number of SS men, they are not very many, committed this offense, and they shall die. There will be no mercy. We had the moral right, we had the duty towards our people, to destroy this people that wanted to destroy us. But we do not have the right to enrich ourselves by so much as a fur, as a watch, by one Mark or a cigarette or anything else. We do not want, in the end, because we destroyed a bacillus, to be infected by this bacillus and to die. I will never stand by and watch while even a small rotten spot develops or takes hold. Wherever it- may form we will together burn it away. All in all, however, we can say that we have car- ried out this most difficult of tasks in a spirit of love for our people. And we have suffered no harm to our inner being, our soul, our character.... What was Himmler's point here about "decent" Jews? Why was it so important to Himmler that individual Germans not take the wealth of murdered Jews? For Further Reflection Himmler argued that SS officers and soldiers "stayed decent" while overseeing the extermination of the Jews; how, according to him, was this possible? Source: Heinrich Himmler, "We Will Never Speak about it in Public" (The Complete Text of the Poznan Speech), October 4, 1943, Translation used with permission of the Holocaust History Project (www.holocaust-history.org). Heinrich Himmler, "We Will Never Speak about it in Public (The Complete Text of the Poznan Speech), October 4, 1943, Translation used with permission of the
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