The favorable progress on the Eastern, Western and Southern fronts recalls a
suggestion made in a memorandum on June 3, 1944
[Page 528]
regarding a tripartite statement to the German Army.
You and your associate heads of Government may deem it advisable to give
this further consideration at this stage. For that reason a revised draft,
shortened and brought up to date, is attached.
If Churchill and Stalin are agreeable to the idea, I would suggest that the
views of the Russian and Anglo-American military leaders be obtained both as
to timing and substance.
[Annex]
Draft Statement by the President
Soldiers of Germany, attention! Our assaults from the East, West and
South continue relentlessly and with ever increasing force. 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. You know
now how wrong they were. You marched across Europe—to Narvik, to
Bordeaux, to Stalingrad, to Alamein. That was long ago. Since then you
have begun to feel the force of our overwhelming power. Your homes are
smoking ruins. Your comrades have died. You who have escaped from
Russia, from Africa, from Italy, from Normandy, have known the long and
bitter road of defeat. Where does that road end? You know the answer. It
ends in crushing, total defeat, and in your own homeland.
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?
Your only escape lies in unconditional surrender.
Soldiers of Germany, what fate awaits you and your country when you lay
down your arms?
We promise you nothing. Germany has 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 be [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.
[Page 529]
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.
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.
