Welcome to our collection of Famous Quotations from politicians and military commanders from 1933 to 1945. This section offers a glimpse into the minds of the leaders who shaped the course of history during one of the most tumultuous periods of the 20th century. You will find stirring speeches that rallied nations, and poignant reflections on the horrors of war, capturing the essence of the era. Explore the words of figures like Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin to gain a deeper understanding of the motivations, fears, and hopes driving their actions. Whether you're a history enthusiast or simply curious about the past, these quotations will provide valuable insight into the period immediately before and during World War 2.
Joseph Goebbels
Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
15th March 1933
"Propaganda is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. If the means achieves the end then the means is good. The new Ministry has no other aim than to unite the nation behind the ideal of the national revolution."
Benito Mussolini
Prime Minister and Duce of Italy
1935
"The press of Italy is free, freer than the press of any other country, so long as it supports the regime"
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor and Führer of Germany
12th March 1936
"The forty-eight hours after the march into the Rhineland were the most nerve-racking in my life. If the French had then marched into the Rhineland, we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs."
Joseph Stalin
Premier of the Soviet Union
"To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plan minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed... There is nothing sweeter in the world."
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor and Führer of Germany
30th May 1938
"It is my unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future"
Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
4th July 1938
"In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers."
Maxim Litvinov
Foreign Commissar
Speaking to the League of Nations on 21st September 1938
"You, fearing the supposed danger of war, don't put up any resistance to the aggressor and capitulate yourselves, as well as force others to capitulate. We don't want actual war and therefore resist the aggressor and call upon you to do the same. You think that the aggressor can be appeased with things not belonging to you, and that he will spare your factories, your land and your independence. We consider that the aggressor only understands force"
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor and Führer of Germany
26th September 1938
"This is my last territorial demand in Europe"
Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speaking to the crowd after exiting his plane on the 30th September 1938
"The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved, is in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you perhaps, have already heard what it contains. But I would just like to read it to you, We, the German Fuhrer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for the two countries and for Europe. We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe."
Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speaking in front of Downing Street on the 30th September 1938
"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time...Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."
Lord Halifax
United Kingdom Foreign Minister
1937
"I often think how much easier the world would have been to manage if Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini had been at Oxford."
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor and Führer of Germany
Speaking to the Reichstag on the 30th January 1939
"I want today to be a prophet again: if international Jewry inside and outside of Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth and therefore the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor and Führer of Germany
1st September 1939
"This night for the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our own territory. We have now been returning the fire since 5:45 a.m.! Henceforth, bomb will be met with bomb."
Edouard Daladier
Prime Minister of France
2nd September 1939
"If the blood of France and of Germany flows again, as it did twenty-five years ago, in a longer and even more murderous war, each of the two peoples will fight with confidence in its own victory, but the most certain victors will be the forces of destruction and barbarism."
Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Radio Broadcast to the British People on the 3rd September 1939
"I am speaking to you from the cabinet room at 10 Downing Street. This morning the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany."
Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Radio Broadcast to the British People on the 3rd September 1939
"It is evil things we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution."
Winston Churchill
First Lord of the Admiralty
Speaking to Parliament on the 3rd September 1939
"In this solemn hour it is a consolation to recall and to dwell upon our repeated efforts for peace. All have been ill-starred, but all have been faithful and sincere."
General Mieczysław Smorawiński
Polish Army
17th September 1939
"We will fight to the last man, to the last bullet, for our freedom, for our independence."
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor and Führer of Germany
19th September 1939
"Not only you experience this moment with deepest emotion, nay, the entire German nation experiences it with you, and I, too, am aware of the greatness of the hour when I, for the first time, tread on the soil which German settlers occupied five centuries ago and which for five centuries was German, and which henceforth you may rest assured will remain German...."
William Borah
U.S. Senator
September 1939
"There is something phoney about this war."
Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
October 1939
"We have to kill one another just to satisfy that accursed madman."
Joseph Stalin
Premier of the Soviet Union
1939
"Since we cannot move Leningrad ... then we must move the border."
Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Finnish Commander-in-Chief
1st December 1939
"We have no other choice but to fight for our independence, for our freedom, and for our homes."
Winston Churchill
First Lord of the Admiralty
Speaking to Parliament on the 20th January 1940
"Finland alone, in danger of death, superb, sublime Finland, shows what free men can do"
Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
4th April 1940
"Whatever reason Hitler had for not making an immediate endeavour to overwhelm us, one thing is certain - he has missed the bus... Those seven months delay have enabled us to remove weaknesses and so enormously add to our fighting strength that the future can be faced with a calm mind"
Dirk Jan de Geer
Dutch Prime Minister
10th May 1940
"We shall resist the aggressor and safeguard our nation's sovereignty"
King Leopold III
King of Belgium
10th May 1940
"Belgium will defend its neutrality and stand firm against any aggression"
Charles De Gaulle
Leader of Free French Forces
3rd August 1940
"France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war."
Franklin Roosevelt
President of the United States
Speech to Congress on the 6th January 1941
"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job."
Winston Churchill
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
9th February 1941
"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job."
Benito Mussolini
Prime Minister and Duce of Italy
23rd February 1941
"It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do."
Franklin Roosevelt
President of the United States
8th December 1941
"Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God."
Hideki Tojo
Prime Minister of Japan
19th February 1942
"Australia and New Zealand are now threatened by the might of the Imperial Japanese forces, and both of them should know that any resistance is futile."
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor and Führer of Germany
Speech to the Reichstag on the 26th April 1942
"This war no longer bears the characteristics of former inter-European conflicts. It is one of those elemental conflicts which usher in a new millennium and which shake the world once in a thousand years."
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