We feel strongly that some such statement should be issued. General
Eisenhower feels likewise. Ambassador Phillips, who has given considerable
thought to it, has recently submitted a draft prepared jointly by him, Mr.
Sherwood30 and
officers of General Eisenhower’s staff and placing more emphasis on military
factors. We have accordingly prepared a new draft, which takes into account
Mr. Phillips’ and other suggestions and which is directed specifically at
the German Army. A copy is enclosed herewith for your consideration.
If this statement meets with your approval, we would suggest submitting it to
the Prime Minister and probably also to Stalin. We feel it would be wise to
invite them to join with you in making it or to follow it with statements of
their own, as they may think best. We realize, of course, that a Russian
call for the German Army to surrender would not have much appeal but Stalin
might consider such a message by you alone or by you and Churchill as an
attempt to lighten only the task of our Armies in the west.
We believe the best timing for the statement would be as soon after D-Day as
substantial progress has been made on the various fronts.
[Annex]
Draft Statement by the President31
Soldiers of Germany, attention! The first assaults from the West have
begun. The assaults from the East and South continue relentlessly. New
blows will fall.
Your defeat is inevitable. In your hearts you know this is true. You know
that you have nothing to hope for from prolonging the struggle. Nothing
you can do can change the outcome.
Your Nazi leaders led you into war to satisfy their lust for power and
conquest. They told you it would be a quick and easy victory.
[Page 521]
You know now how wrong they
were. Your Nazi leaders caused you to bomb unprepared and unprotected
peoples. For what? You have begun to learn what our bombs, which Goering
and Hitler boasted could never touch the Reich, mean to you and to your
loved ones. You marched across Europe—to Narvik, to Bordeaux, to
Stalingrad, to Alamein. For what? Your comrades have died. For what? You
who have escaped from Russia, from Africa, from Italy, have known the
long and bitter road of defeat. You have begun to tread the same road
back from the West. Where does that road end? You know the answer. It
ends in crushing, total defeat, and in your own homeland.
Your leaders foolishly believed that they could conquer the free
countries one by one before we could unite to forge our overwhelming
strength. You have only begun to feel the weight of that limitless
strength. It grows day by day while that of Germany is shattered and
bled away.
Your leaders have one remaining hope. It is that they can get a
compromise peace if you can be made to resist long enough. How utterly
senseless. The Allied leaders—Churchill, Stalin and I—have said again
and again that we will accept from Germany nothing less than
unconditional surrender. I say it again. The leaders of the German army
must surrender unconditionally.
Every German life lost from now on, soldier or civilian, is a needless
loss. You who will die will die without hope, without faith in your
cause. For what?
Allied life, too, will be lost, but our men will die strong in the
certainty that their cause is just and that their sacrifice brings
nearer the day of certain, overwhelming victory.
Soldiers of Germany, what fate awaits you and your country when you lay
down your arms?
We promise you nothing. Germany made terrible and disastrous mistakes.
Germany must atone for the wanton destruction of lives and property she
has caused. That atonement will be hard. The false philosophy of
Naziism, whose falsity, evil and futility must by now be very clear to
you, must be totally destroyed. I repeat, we promise you nothing, but I
tell you again certain fundamental things.
The Allied leaders—Stalin, Churchill and I, have made it abundantly clear
that we do not seek the destruction of the German people. I repeat, we
do not seek the destruction of the German people.
We seek the goal of human freedom, for all men—a greater true
liberty—intellectual, political and religious; and a greater justice,
social and economic. We seek a world in which all men may live and work
together in freedom and in peace. In that free and peaceful world,
Germany, in due time and as she makes and proves herself worthy, will
have her place.
[Page 522]
Until you cease your hopeless fight, until your leaders surrender
unconditionally, the blows of the Americans, the British, the Russians
and our associates will increase in number and in intensity by land, by
sea and by air until our inevitable victory is complete.
