I thought I'd take a break from today from posting modern news articles. So here is an oldie I found in my archives which I thought was appropriate with the upcoming anniversary of 9 May, Victory Day. It's a classic piece of NVA Agitprop.
DEFENSE MINISTER SPEAKS AT SEELOW HEIGHTS
East Berlin NEUES DEUTSCHLAND 17 Apr 85 p 3
[Speech given by GDR National Defense Minister Army General Heinz Hoffman at Seelow Heights rally on 16 April 1985, dedicating memorial and commemorating beginning of the Soviet Army's Berlin operation in World War II]
Dear Comrades and friends; esteemed Soviet comrades; distinguished guests: We are standing at a historic place, on the site of one of those many, embittered and sacrificial battles waged by the glorious Soviet Army in World War II to liberate its fatherland, the European peoples, and also our people from fascist barbarism.
Forty years ago today, in the morning hours of 16 April 1945, the Berlin operation of the Soviet Army, the last big battle of World War II in Europe, began here on the Oder River. The armies of the 1st Belorussian Front under Marshal Zhukov forged ahead in the direction of Berlin, those of the neighboring fronts under Marshals Konev and Rokosovskiy advanced to the Elbe and the Baltic Sea. The Soviet Army rescued tens of thousands of antifascists from the concentration camps and prisons of Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrueck and Brandenburg. It liberated hundreds of thousands of people from all European nations who had been dragged to Germany to perform slave labor. The Soviet Army saved the lives of millions of Germans whom the Hitler clique had intended to sweep along with its inevitable decline.
Hundreds of Populated Places From Kienitz to Berlin Freed in Combat
The fascist troops offered stubborn resistance. Thus the Soviet Army was com¬pelled to free by fighting the territory of our republic, beginning with the Village of Kienitz in Oderbruch on 31 January 1945, through hundreds of villages and towns to the center of Berlin, literally one kilometer after another.
The assertion of our party general secretary, Comrade Erich Honecker, that the foundations of our state were laid in the battles of the Great Patriotic War particularly applies to those months of the spring of 1945 in the most literal sense.
The liberation of our people, the crushing of Hitler fascism and of its Wehrmacht, something for which the Soviet people made the heaviest sacrifices and won the greatest victories, was the starting point for all that our people, under the leadership of the party of the workers class, subsequently achieved and for all that it has produced in the spirit of progress and peace, for the happiness and secure future of the people.
And there has not been any sector in the development of our country since that time which would have been thinkable without the friendly advice and fraternal assistance of the Soviet comrades, without the increasingly closer collaboration between our two states, peoples and armies. And this friendship has taken deep roots and has grown into a strong tree in the past 40 years.
When we today—together with our Soviet comrades—are dedicating to the public this newly fashioned memorial, this monument of the victory and liberation, we are doing this with profound feelings of gratitude to those Soviet soldiers who lost their lives here in the final battle of World War II.
Filled with respect, we bow our heads to the 20 million Soviet citizens who were murdered by the fascists or fell in a heroic struggle against the fascists.
At the same time we are today displaying our determination never again to permit what happened at that time. Never again must a war spring from German soil—a war that under the present conditions would lead to an unimaginable catastrophe.
It is on a historic site that we declare our will to guard like the apple of the eye the alliance of class and arms with the Soviet Union and with its glorious army. With the Soviet Union forever and never otherwise—this is the decisive legacy of liberation day, of 8 May 1945, for the GDR people and for its soldiers.
Unforgotten Help of Red Army Men
Unforgotten will remain the deeds of friendship of the Soviet fighters and comrades who helped our people after 8 May 1945 to take history into its own hands, who declared our path into the future and protected our young antifascist democratic system from imperialist interventions.
But also unforgotten shall remain the authors and culprits of World War II, the armament concerns and militarists, the leaders and obsequious followers of German imperialism, whose aspirations for profit and greed for conquest led to the conflagration that swept over Europe for 6 years, destroyed 55 million people, and left behind 90 million people injured or maimed for a lifetime.
We must not and will not efface from our memory the causes, the imperialist aspirations for world domination and anticommunism, all the more so because the old clamor for revenge is resounding West of our borders with renewed vociferousness.
To Do Everything Possible To Strengthen the Homeland
In view of the existence of tremendous weapons of mass destructions in the hands of the imperialists, in view of the continued deployment of U.S. missiles in Western Europe that are aimed at the Soviet Union and the other states of the Warsaw Pact, it is particularly threatening that the lessons of World War II are being disregarded, falsified, and that people's feelings are being poisoned with anticommunism.
He who wishes to commemorate 8 May as a day of mourning in the West would have rather preferred to see the fascist villains win! And we will watch out for those imperialist politicians and strategists in the future! This is what we owe to the millions of victims of World War II, including those Soviet soldiers who were killed here in the struggle for the Seelow Heights.
And this we also owe to the living, to our working people and children. Securing peace, mankind's supreme asset, and doing everything for this end that we are capable of doing to strengthen our homeland, our socialist state, our fraternal alliance with the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries and to make it invincible for all time—this is our most important pledge on the 40th anniversary of victory and liberation.
The party-state leadership, the entire GDR working people and their soldiers will precisely in this aggravated international situation intensify their efforts to help insure that the course of the United States, the FRG, and other NATO states which seek to achieve military superiority has no chance of success. It is important to strengthen socialism because this is the most important prerequisite for insuring peace. It is important worldwide to unite all the forces of common sense, realism, and good will against the dangerous arms drive and confrontational course of the Reagan administration.
The GDR party-state leadership, our working people and army members have with particular emphasis backed the latest Soviet peace initiative expounded by Comrade Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, in his interview with PRAVDA on 7 April 1985.
Comrade Erich Honecker stated verbatim: "This is another message from Moscow to avert the danger of an all-destructive nuclear war, to consolidate general security and to safeguard a stable peace. It becomes convincingly clear how seriously the Soviet Union, in keeping with the interests of mankind, is struggling not to start an arms race in space, to put an end to the race on earth, and to embark on a radical reduction of nuclear arms, with their complete elimination as the ultimate goal."
High Responsibility of National People's Army Soldiers
Being aware of our great co responsibility for defending socialism and consolidating peace, the members of the National People's Army are doing all they can to honorably fulfill the legacy of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
Long live German-Soviet friendship! Long live socialism and the happy future of our people! Long live peace for all the peoples of this earth!
DEFENSE MINISTER SPEAKS AT SEELOW HEIGHTS
East Berlin NEUES DEUTSCHLAND 17 Apr 85 p 3
[Speech given by GDR National Defense Minister Army General Heinz Hoffman at Seelow Heights rally on 16 April 1985, dedicating memorial and commemorating beginning of the Soviet Army's Berlin operation in World War II]
Dear Comrades and friends; esteemed Soviet comrades; distinguished guests: We are standing at a historic place, on the site of one of those many, embittered and sacrificial battles waged by the glorious Soviet Army in World War II to liberate its fatherland, the European peoples, and also our people from fascist barbarism.
Forty years ago today, in the morning hours of 16 April 1945, the Berlin operation of the Soviet Army, the last big battle of World War II in Europe, began here on the Oder River. The armies of the 1st Belorussian Front under Marshal Zhukov forged ahead in the direction of Berlin, those of the neighboring fronts under Marshals Konev and Rokosovskiy advanced to the Elbe and the Baltic Sea. The Soviet Army rescued tens of thousands of antifascists from the concentration camps and prisons of Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrueck and Brandenburg. It liberated hundreds of thousands of people from all European nations who had been dragged to Germany to perform slave labor. The Soviet Army saved the lives of millions of Germans whom the Hitler clique had intended to sweep along with its inevitable decline.
Hundreds of Populated Places From Kienitz to Berlin Freed in Combat
The fascist troops offered stubborn resistance. Thus the Soviet Army was com¬pelled to free by fighting the territory of our republic, beginning with the Village of Kienitz in Oderbruch on 31 January 1945, through hundreds of villages and towns to the center of Berlin, literally one kilometer after another.
The assertion of our party general secretary, Comrade Erich Honecker, that the foundations of our state were laid in the battles of the Great Patriotic War particularly applies to those months of the spring of 1945 in the most literal sense.
The liberation of our people, the crushing of Hitler fascism and of its Wehrmacht, something for which the Soviet people made the heaviest sacrifices and won the greatest victories, was the starting point for all that our people, under the leadership of the party of the workers class, subsequently achieved and for all that it has produced in the spirit of progress and peace, for the happiness and secure future of the people.
And there has not been any sector in the development of our country since that time which would have been thinkable without the friendly advice and fraternal assistance of the Soviet comrades, without the increasingly closer collaboration between our two states, peoples and armies. And this friendship has taken deep roots and has grown into a strong tree in the past 40 years.
When we today—together with our Soviet comrades—are dedicating to the public this newly fashioned memorial, this monument of the victory and liberation, we are doing this with profound feelings of gratitude to those Soviet soldiers who lost their lives here in the final battle of World War II.
Filled with respect, we bow our heads to the 20 million Soviet citizens who were murdered by the fascists or fell in a heroic struggle against the fascists.
At the same time we are today displaying our determination never again to permit what happened at that time. Never again must a war spring from German soil—a war that under the present conditions would lead to an unimaginable catastrophe.
It is on a historic site that we declare our will to guard like the apple of the eye the alliance of class and arms with the Soviet Union and with its glorious army. With the Soviet Union forever and never otherwise—this is the decisive legacy of liberation day, of 8 May 1945, for the GDR people and for its soldiers.
Unforgotten Help of Red Army Men
Unforgotten will remain the deeds of friendship of the Soviet fighters and comrades who helped our people after 8 May 1945 to take history into its own hands, who declared our path into the future and protected our young antifascist democratic system from imperialist interventions.
But also unforgotten shall remain the authors and culprits of World War II, the armament concerns and militarists, the leaders and obsequious followers of German imperialism, whose aspirations for profit and greed for conquest led to the conflagration that swept over Europe for 6 years, destroyed 55 million people, and left behind 90 million people injured or maimed for a lifetime.
We must not and will not efface from our memory the causes, the imperialist aspirations for world domination and anticommunism, all the more so because the old clamor for revenge is resounding West of our borders with renewed vociferousness.
To Do Everything Possible To Strengthen the Homeland
In view of the existence of tremendous weapons of mass destructions in the hands of the imperialists, in view of the continued deployment of U.S. missiles in Western Europe that are aimed at the Soviet Union and the other states of the Warsaw Pact, it is particularly threatening that the lessons of World War II are being disregarded, falsified, and that people's feelings are being poisoned with anticommunism.
He who wishes to commemorate 8 May as a day of mourning in the West would have rather preferred to see the fascist villains win! And we will watch out for those imperialist politicians and strategists in the future! This is what we owe to the millions of victims of World War II, including those Soviet soldiers who were killed here in the struggle for the Seelow Heights.
And this we also owe to the living, to our working people and children. Securing peace, mankind's supreme asset, and doing everything for this end that we are capable of doing to strengthen our homeland, our socialist state, our fraternal alliance with the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries and to make it invincible for all time—this is our most important pledge on the 40th anniversary of victory and liberation.
The party-state leadership, the entire GDR working people and their soldiers will precisely in this aggravated international situation intensify their efforts to help insure that the course of the United States, the FRG, and other NATO states which seek to achieve military superiority has no chance of success. It is important to strengthen socialism because this is the most important prerequisite for insuring peace. It is important worldwide to unite all the forces of common sense, realism, and good will against the dangerous arms drive and confrontational course of the Reagan administration.
The GDR party-state leadership, our working people and army members have with particular emphasis backed the latest Soviet peace initiative expounded by Comrade Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, in his interview with PRAVDA on 7 April 1985.
Comrade Erich Honecker stated verbatim: "This is another message from Moscow to avert the danger of an all-destructive nuclear war, to consolidate general security and to safeguard a stable peace. It becomes convincingly clear how seriously the Soviet Union, in keeping with the interests of mankind, is struggling not to start an arms race in space, to put an end to the race on earth, and to embark on a radical reduction of nuclear arms, with their complete elimination as the ultimate goal."
High Responsibility of National People's Army Soldiers
Being aware of our great co responsibility for defending socialism and consolidating peace, the members of the National People's Army are doing all they can to honorably fulfill the legacy of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
Long live German-Soviet friendship! Long live socialism and the happy future of our people! Long live peace for all the peoples of this earth!
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