Hitler's Armenian Genocide Quote is a paragraph from Hitler's alleged second speech to his Wehrmacht commanders, a week before the invasion of Poland in August 22, 1939. Since it's first appearance, the quote has been used by Armenian activists as just another reason to believe in the Armenian Genocide.
The quote, though has many similar translations is as follows:
Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had millions of women and children hunted down and killed, deliberately and with a gay heart. History sees in him only the great founder of States. What the weak Western European civilization alleges about me, does not matter. I have given the order—and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism—that the aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines, but in the enemies' physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in the east, I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?
The important part is the last sentence that Armenian activists seem to point as evidence for the genocide.
The Argument behind the quote
The goal here is to convince you that Hitler justified the Holocaust and extermination of Jews because no one cared about the genocide of the Armenians.
The argument they use with this quote, is a logical fallacy. If you don't punish the Turks for the Armenian Genocide, some crazy dictator like Hitler will see them get away with it, and thus will commit genocide himself. It's an appeal to emotion. It assumes that crazy people need rational justification or only do something evil because they saw someone else get away with it (like a child may steal a cookie from the jar because he saw dad do it).
Lack of Evidence suggests the Speech is False
Dr. Heath Lowry wrote after looking through the Nuremberg trials for proof of this quote:
The address was never accepted as evidence in this or any other session of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
There was an attempt to have the quote inserted into the Nuremberg Trials, but the tribunal rejected it because it was a incoherent merger of two Hitler speeches acquired from questionable sources.
Nuremberg trial officials located the true speeches of Hitler during this time and admitted it into evidence. None of them mention Armenians.
Motivation for Fabricating this Evidence
It doesn't take a genius to realize that since everyone equates Hitler and Nazi Germany with pure evil, tying your enemy to them, makes it very easy to force others to sympathize with you and to appeal to their emotions.
Since the popularity of this quote amongst the Armenian community, they have been using it to acquire more sympathy especially among Jewish communities. They have used it to involve themselves more in Holocaust studies and they try hard to relate them to each other.
The mere thought of equating the horrific suffering of Jews to the failed rebellion of the Armenians should enrage any Jewish person. The Jews never rebelled against the Nazis, they were singled out in Germany society and were forced to wear identifying Jewish badges in order to promote antisemitism by law. They were forced to live in ghettos. None of this happened to Armenians. There were many Armenians in leadership positions within the Ottoman government during the reign of the supposed "genocide perpetrators".
Even if we were to assume the speech is absolutely true
If we were to assume the speech is authentic and not question it, the wording of the speech is irrational. The last sentence doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the speech, it's as if, out of the blue, Hitler decides to talk about the plight of the Armenians.
The Speech was about Poland NOT the Holocaust
The speech was talking about the annihilation of the Polish people not the Jews. The Final Solution and the Wannsee Conference that established it, had not yet happened. The Polish people were indeed terrorized by the Nazis during the war, but they weren't exterminated "men, women, and children". Did Hitler's commanders ignore Hitler's command by not exterminating all Poles?
Hitler had to justify genocide to his own commanders?
The speech seems very far-fetched, why would the Fuhrer need to justify to his fascist subordinates about killing anyone by justifying it with past events? Why would he compare himself to the barbarian Genghis Khan?
If he is prepared to shoot anyone who utters "one word of criticism", why did he feel the need to justify killings by referencing Armenians?
Why is the Hitler quote being used as proof of genocide?
How is the word of one crazy dictator somehow evidence? This is like saying "this book says 2+4 = 263 is true, therefore, it must be true." If Hitler had a friend who kept telling him stories about the extermination of Armenians, does that mean Armenians actually faced extermination? Was Hitler a historian? The premise of the argument is that it is assumed the genocide is true when that has never been proven.
Everyday however, Armenians mention this quote as if it is absolute proof that the genocide was real and that others are using it to justify more genocide.
People are reluctant to question every detail, so fabricating new evidence may be discredited by historians but it if it is repeated enough times, even educated people will believe it to be true. Conspiracy theorists use this technique to flood the victim with false facts and false evidence in an effort to wear you down and make you believe.
Excellent article Robert, it still surprises me how many people still use this false quote. It doesn't even make any sense. It's simply more probable that this is false evidence introduced by someone with a political agenda.
I saw them mention the quote on 60 minutes, but the journalists didn't even bother verifying it's authenticity. They just showed Peter Balakian saying it's true (an Armenian English teacher), and some Turk saying it's false--no effort to look into it's authenticity. Such quotes would never be permissible in a court of law as it would taint the jury.
Heath Lowry's Article on this matter can be accessed by visiting following link:
http://www.ataa.org/reference/hitler-lowry.html
Lowry, "The U.S. Congress and Adolf Hitler on the Armenians" Prof. Heath W. Lowry, Political Communication and Persuasion, Volume 3, Number 2, 1985
Personally I don't even care about what Hitler said...It is very probable that Hitler knew nothing about 1915 and his perception was formed by the uprising activities of Armenians, directly or indirectly. Besides, a community complaining about "... Devam?n? Görgenocide" leans on the greatest maniac, a real genocider of 20th century to support themselves. A huge dilemma. The most powerful paradox I've ever seen.
to Anonymous:
I thought it was very self-evident, but since you seem a dilemma, I will explain it. There is no dilemma regarding this issue. Armenians are not leaning on the words of the word's "greatest maniac," as you have put it. Instead, they are using Hitler's words to demonstrate that it is extremely important for the world to condemn an act of genocide in order to be able to prevent it from happening again. History has shown that it takes much more than words on paper (U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide) to prevent an act of genocide. Hitler referred to the Armenian genocide to depict the fact that no one remembered what happened to Armenians in the 1915, so no one would remember the Holocaust either.
@Arevik Stepanyan
Except the for the fact that Hitler never said anything about the Armenians and that speech doesn't exist. And if you continue to argue it does, you should go and find the actual document that was accepted into Nuremberg trials--oh sorry, that's right, it was never accepted into evidence because it was a fake document put in there by Armenian propagandists to establish exactly what you just explained.
Please, respectfully, stop using this fake document to push your propaganda of genocide onto others. It has never worked before, and it just makes you lose credibility. The only way for Armenians to argue genocide is to discuss the details of the relocation orders, because there's no explicit evidence of orders of genocide.
Hitler's genocide was never forgotten and all the perpetrators were severely punished.
The Armenian Genocide, as Armenians think of it as proven, even that was remembered and punished, Talat Pasha was murdered by an Armenian activist, captured he was sent to trial, and in the trial, the German people did not give him a sentence and let him go, because they felt sympathy for the elaborate story of genocide that the defense presented. So the whole "we want justice" thing that Armenians keep chanting at protests is completely invalid.
Luckily, in civilized society today, even if you murder a convicted murderer you're likely to still get some sort of punishment--this is to prevent vigilantism and public lynching. Innocent until proven guilty, while Talat Pasha had his faults and was probably an incompetent ruler, the genocide was never proven.
@ Jonathan Wilson
First of all, my comment was not addressed to you article. As you can see, I was not arguing whether Hitler ever said such thing or not; my comment was directed to the Anonymous, who could not understand why Hitler's quote would be used in the first place. I personally never use this quote, because I don't need a "quote" to convince anyone that Armenian Genocide took place.
Secondly, you said, "the Armenian Genocide, as Armenians think of it as proven, even that was remembered and punished, Talat Pasha was murdered by an Armenian activist." wow...do you honestly think the murder of Talat Pasha constitutes a punishment for a genocide of a nation? That is very very very ignorant of you to say that Armenian people received justice through his murder. If we continue your line of logic, then we can say that if a Jew activist killed Hitler, it would settle all the Holocaust issues, which, obviously, is absurd.
It is needless to say that I do not support any act of violence, regardless of which side it comes from. However, let's not forget how many Armenian activists have been killed as well. Do you know anything about Hrant Dink, who was assassinated in Istanbul on January 19, 2007 by a student from University of Ankara? He was a Turkish-Armenian journalist, who was brave enough to write about issues regarding the Armenian Genocide and was forever silenced. You will say, the Turkish government shall not take responsibility for the act of a student. Maybe just a coincidence that he happened to kill the journalist who openly spoke about the Armenian Genocide. I don't think so. Now, if Turkish people are so confident in the fact that Turkey (Ottoman Empire) is not guilty of committing a genocide, why are they so "petrified" of the fact that someone might actually write about it, exercising his/her right to free speech? Why does this topic constitute a taboo and why does the Turkish government punish Turkish historians, who affirm the Armenian Genocide? Maybe out of the fear that the truth will eventually prevail Something to think about.
I read in one of the comments that you had written that those Turkish historians that have affirmed the Armenian Genocide did it because they were paid by the Armenian government. Do you have any facts to prove these allegations? If we are making assumptions here, I can very well assume that you are getting paid by the Turkish government to write these articles.
@Arevik Stepanyan
Alright, I understand your point about replying to Anonymous.
The death of one person is never justice for any number of people that may have been killed. Hitler died, but justice didn't come to the Jews who suffered. Talat Pasha was killed without proof of his crimes, but to Armenians, justice has not come yet.
What should we draw from this? No new death will satisfy humanity's demand for justice. All top Nazi leaders were arrested, tried, and many hung. Has justice come? In some form yes, but it doesn't bring back the dead. The damage is done.
What I said wasn't ignorant. I was stating the fact that since Armenians single out Talat Pasha as the architect of the Armenian Genocide, then his death would have meant justice, but they continue to demand justice, without ever defining what justice is. There is no satisfying the human need for revenge or justice. That's the point of my argument. If justice could be satisfied then the architect of the crime being killed would be enough, but no one is satisfied.
...on to your other arguments...
There's been many articles on Hrant Dink, even on this site, perhaps you should take a look. However, I don't see the relevance to this debate or why you brought it up. Of course it was wrong what happened to him, it's a tragic event that many Turks protested and spoke out against. The actions of the murderer does not represent everyone in Turkey, perhaps a small extremist minority.
Now onto your baseless accusations. There is no fear in Turkey of those speaking about the Armenian Genocide. Everyone in Turkey is free to discuss the Armenian Genocide. The controversial and silly Article 301 cannot be applied to discussions of Armenian Genocide, a lawyer tried it once on Hrant Dink and lost.
Many newspapers constantly debate the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, some even supporting the Armenian side, albeit a small minority but they are not persecuted for it. If it was such a crime in Turkey, then Taner Akcam one of the biggest supporters of Armenian Genocide would be instantly arrested for his vast propaganda (and yet he's been to Turkey many times even though he's an escaped convict).
I don't think there is any Turkish historian that acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. Unless you actually consider Taner Akcam a historian, even though he's only a sociologist. In that case, Taner Akcam may or may not be payed by Armenian government, but most likely, he's exacting his revenge for being jailed in Turkey. Anyone who is criticizing a country that jailed him should not be called credible in terms of that country's history.
You can assume whatever you like about myself. However, if the Turkish government funded us, we'd have advertisements all over Google and thousands of other websites. However, we don't have a single advertisement, the hosting is personally funded by historians not governments.
That "who is paid by who" argument is moot. Both Armenian and Turkish governments fund a lot of things related to the genocide debate. Armenian and Turkish organizations too fund various things for nationalistic purposes, but we have no tendency for that. Nationalism is irrational and we do not promote Turkey here nor do we demonize Armenia.
Mr. Wilson:
I need look no further than my grandparents (one on each side of my family escaped the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turks) to know what happend.
They are gone now but not forgotten. The Turks on the other hand will wait it out until all who could bear 1st person witness to these events, are dead. Then they will full court press with all the self rightiousness of the appear to be innocent victim...."we did no such thing" ..."where is your proof" in an attempt to claim moral high ground just as you attempted to do to Mr. Stepanyan regarding the quote from Hitler.... BTW- Show me proof its not authentic. Many have seen this clip and translated it.....
Beyond the advice of Mr. Stepanyan regarding the lessons learned from history, so that they won't be repeated......... We also need to adress the fact that no people should ever have to endure their existence/diaspora be not even a footnote in a history book, that is edited out...... Possibly for all time. Accuracy for accuracy's sake, is more important that the Turkish claims that this never happend. If the situation was reversed, I would say the same.
Please also note that Turkey fights so hard on this issue for another reason......... They are most favored trading partners with Israel........ Israel does not want any linkage from the Armenian Genocide to interfere with the Holocaust dominating every discussion of Genocide the world over........
The spotlight that shines so brightly on their most unfortunate time in history moving to the original architects of Genocide would be more than the powerbrokers who keep that light focused where it is, could bear...... Israel buys good s from a Muslim nation as a bribe to continue the denial efforts till 1st person accountability is in the grave.... Now we see the relations starting to freeze between these two countries, why? Because the Armenians who witnessed the atrocities have died off.
So as you can see, the Turks are pawns in a much larger game....Go figure....
@Mr. Babigian,
If you only look at what your grandparents and parents say, then you are not looking at this subject objectively. What about those Turkish grandparents who died to Armenian rebel armies massacring village by ville and burning mosques? To them, it was a Turkish Genocide committed by Armenians. You see how opinions can be faulty?
There is video recorded by Turkish historians who interview 90+ 100+ year old villagers who survived 1915 massacres. Many of them describe horrific tales of Armenian rebels massacring Muslims. One of them even described Armenian rebels putting babies in fireplaces.
Witnessed horror stories exist for both Armenians and Turks--they are not always reliable.
The Hitler quote about Armenians is false, it's never been proven as an authentic document by anyone. The quote itself doesn't make much sense either. The Nuremberg Trials rejected it due to it being falsified evidence. It was written on a piece of paper and inserted by an Armenian.
You seem to be under the incorrect impression that witness testimonies are what prove genocide. If genocide happened, the proof is in the documents (orders given to kill a group of people; plans of genocide; meeting transcripts or events) and in primary sources that are confirmed by multiple parties.
The Holocaust has all of this--this is why it's a proven genocide. The Armenian Genocide has not one single shred of archived evidence proving genocide.
Before the widespread use of DNA, many people went to prison due to faulty witness testimony. We have to assume innocence and then prove the guilt rather than assume guilt and prove innocence.
@ Mr. Wilson:
Sorry just saw your response today..... I will agree that there were probably Armenian Rebels operating independently and in retaliation to what the Turkish Govt. did to Armenians.
My grandparents were not the only people I heard recount the atrocities of the Ottoman Empire. They were just the closest to me. There were many others, who have since passed away.
Again. to insinuate that disjointed bands of bands of Armenians can cause the same damage as the Ottoman Empire's premeditated plan to exterminate Armenians from the earth ludacris. You are obviously a pretty intelligent individual, but your refusal to see things as they actually are/as they were, hints at a less than honorable agenda.
My grandfather was an honorable man, that came to this country and never let his past dictate his future. He was kind even keeled and we respected by the community he lived in. He had no agenda, and no reason to skew the truth as he was a simple man not looking to advance his world view at the expense of others... T him, it was just what happened.
You sir may have the motivation, time and resources to develop alternative theories and you are welcome to your opinion however polished it may be. I do not. Its not my lifes work to advance a theory. I
n the end I have heard 1st person accounts from people of the highest integrity and honor, who have not profited from any of their experiences. I have seen the effects of their experiences that have lasted through their lives, and I will stick with this viewpoint, as I am guess most of readers of this blog.
@Mr. Babigian
I don't have any hidden agenda either. There's no fame or money or glory in rejecting or confirming any historical theory.
You seem to not realize the extent of the Armenian rebellion but the Armenian rebellion is well documented. The Russians used the Armenian rebel armies to great extent to invade Ottoman Turkey. They documented how many Armenians were in their armies. They documented their brutality and hatred of Muslims.
There were 100,000+ Armenians in the Russian army as volunteers. Thousands more as part of Andranik Toros Ozanian army. This is no simple 'disjointed gang', this is an organized army with a command structure strategically attacking the weakened, exhausted, and now ill-equipped Ottoman army.
Remember that the Ottoman army was being attacked from all 3 fronts: The Balkans/Dardanelles/West (British ANZAC, Greek), the South (by British ANZAC and Indian/Arab troops, and French army who also had Armenian volunteer units), and the East (Armenian rebel armies, Russian army with Armenian volunteers).
This was world war, and the 'sick man of Europe' Ottoman empire was losing badly. It was very easy for the Armenians to gather weapons from Russia and rise up against such a weakened army. They did quite a lot of damage. They also used guerilla tactics to destroy telegraph lines, the only form of communication between the command structure and the local armies of the Ottomans.
This was not an insignificant war effort by the Armenians. It was very effective.
Your grandfather may have been an honorable man, and I'm sure there were many other honorable Armenians. However, we cannot forget that the majority of the Armenian population wanted their own nation without Muslim rule.