Russia at war 1941-1945

Hitler is dragging Germany down the abyss... Look what is happening at the fronts; in the last seven months Germany's defeats are unparalleled in history: Stalingrad, the Don, the Caucasus, Libya, Tunis. Hitler, who is responsible for all this still stands at the head of our State and our Army... British and American troops are onthe threshold of Europe.

Look what is happening at home: through the allied bombings, Germany has

already become a theatre of war... Facts are inexorable: the war is lost. But the attempt to drag out the war at a fearful price can only lead to the catastrophe of the nation. But Germany must not die.

If the German people continue inertly to follow Hitler, then he can be overthrown only by the armies of the Coalition. But that would mean the end of our national

independence and the partition of our country.

If the German people have the courage to free Germany of Hitler... then Germany

will have won the right to decide her own fate, and other nations will respect her...

But no one will make peace with Hitler; therefore the formation of a genuine

National Government is an urgent task... Such a government can be formed only by

men who have risen against Hitler and are resolved to render harmless the enemies of the people—Hitler, his patrons and companions.

Such a Government will recall the troops to the German frontier. Only under such a government can Germany, as a sovereign state, discuss the conditions of peace.

The forces in the Army, true to their Fatherland, must play a decisive part in this.

Our aim is a Free Germany, i.e. a strong democratic power totally unlike the

impotent Weimar Republic...

The programme included the abrogation of anti-minority and racial laws, the restoration of trade unions, freedom of trade (i.e. no "bolshevisation"), the liberation of the victims of Nazi terror; the just and merciless trial of war criminals and war culprits.

German soldiers and officers (it concluded), you have the weapons in your hands.

German people! organise resistance units inside the country! For People and

Fatherland! For immediate Peace! For the Salvation of the German People! For a

Free Independent Germany!

The document was signed by Major Karl Hetz, Major Heinrich Homann, Major Stesslein,

several captains and lieutenants, dozens of NCO's and privates; Anton Ackermann, a

Chemnitz trade union official; Martha Arendsee, Reichstag Deputy; Johannes Becher,

writer, Willi Bredel, writer, Wilhelm Florin, Wilhelm Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, all

Reichstag deputies; Gustav Sobottka, trade union leader of Ruhr miners; and two more writers, Erich Weinert and Friedrich Wolf. (Weinert had just written a book of anti-Nazi poems, called Dank für Stalingrad, which was published in Moscow; much cf it was emotional German verse, with the then, in Russian eyes, somewhat unfashionable theme:

"My beloved German people, how law have you fallen! ")

Naturally, all this was not, strictly speaking, committing the Soviet Government in any way. It was the Free German Committee, without any authority, and not the Soviet