Office of the Historian

President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)33

[Washington,] 22 November, 1944.

Number 655.

1. Apparently the Chiefs of SHAEF would like something done by top level to help break down German morale.

2. I can think of nothing except a joint statement from you and me and therefore suggest something along the line of the following:

“We have viewed the overall iron discipline of the Wehrmacht and strangle-hold of the Nazi party over the individuals of the German nation and we have considered the problem of getting the truth to the people of Germany, for they have been flooded with Nazi propaganda that the Allies seek the destruction of the German people and the devastation of Germany.

Once more we wish to make it clear to the German people that this war does not seek to devastate Germany or eliminate the German people.

Once more we want to make it clear to the people of Germany that we seek the elimination of Nazi control and the return of the German people to the civilization of the rest of the world.

We are winning. There is no question of that.

But we want to save lives and to save humanity.

We hope that this slaughter of Germans can be brought to an end hut we are going to bring this war to a conclusion which will satisfy civilization and seek to prevent future wars. The answer lies in the [Page 565] hands of the German people. They are being pressed the whole length of their boundaries on the Rhine. They are being pressed by overwhelming numbers and inexhaustible resources in Poland and Czechoslovakia and Hungary. German towns are daily being destroyed and your enemies draw closer in the closing of an inexorable ring. The simple fact remains that the Allies are united in demanding a complete military victory.

The choice lies with the German people and the German army. Bo not prolong the days of death and suffering and destruction. Join all the other people in Europe and Africa and America and Asia in this great effort for decency and peace among human beings.”

Roosevelt
  1. Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.↩