Attached is a draft of a possible statement to be issued by you and
Mr. Churchill in the same way as you issued your statement jointly
with respect to the Italian situation.1
I am laying it before you, and you may or may not wish to use
it.2 In the event that you
both decided to make a statement along these lines, as it bears on
the German situation you might also wish to consider whether you
would not wish to have it sent to Stalin for his information and
comment before you gave it out. It seems to me that we should
probably all be careful these days to keep the Soviets informed of
anything we can with respect to moves of this kind.
[Attachment]
Draft Statement
Mussolini has fallen, Italy has disintegrated. The Axis thus
ceases to exist as a political and military instrument. The
forces of the United Nations stand inside Europe. They are
prepared to crush the German armies from the South, from the
East, from the West and from the North. They are prepared to
continue their shattering attacks by air upon your centers of
production and transportation. They are prepared to continue to
send your submarines to the bottom of the oceans.
The military end of the war is clear for all to see. You have
lost millions of men, your cities are being laid waste. You have
suffered terribly and grown poor under the Nazis. Hitler and his
accomplices and the National Socialist Party have terrorized
you, looted you,
[Page 509]
ruined you for ten long years. They have plunged you needlessly
into a terrible war which has earned Germany only hatred and
brought her only to the brink of disaster.
It is the inexorable intention of the United Nations to bring to
bear on Germany every ounce of the crushing, superior military
force which they control, to the end that the leaders of Germany
who have brought about this war may be destroyed. Those leaders
sought to impose their rule and their false doctrines upon the
democratic nations at a moment when the latter were militarily
weak. They sought by treachery to destroy their neighbors to the
east. But the moral strength of liberty and justice has proven
itself and the sword which was drawn by the Nazis has turned
back upon them.
The needless prolongation of your suffering and moral slavery
rests in your hands. The United Nations demand your honorable
surrender, your unconditional military surrender. Overthrow
Hitler and his corrupt colleagues, turn your arms against their
Gestapo and their SS. Thus will you speed the day of
Germany’s restoration to a position of respectability in the
family of nations.
The United Nations demand your surrender, not your destruction.
If you surrender now to the United Nations, Germany will not be
destroyed, the German people will not be destroyed. The United
Nations do intend to destroy Nazism, its
leaders, its organization, and its doctrine. They intend to put
an end to militarism and its destructive threat to the peace and
happiness of all peoples including the Germans.
These are the principles on which we fight. These are the
principles on which we base our appeal to you to surrender and
so to spare yourselves the agony of a continued struggle which
can only temporarily benefit the criminal leaders of your
country. The end is inevitable in the face of the overwhelming
power which confronts a Germany fighting alone. Regain your self
respect, rejoin the world of free men, and redeem Germany.
