Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Kotz Alfred
Title : SS leadership guide
Year : 1934

Link download : Kotz_Alfred_-_SS_leadership_guide.zip

First Published 1934. The time of the blazing storm of steel in the First World War had a good side. Where shells burst, there was nobody who did not totally belong to us. Whoever had the desire and opportunity to shirk duty, because he was cowardly, was no longer among us. Comrades, I know your yearning for everything to go forward. You don’t want anybody to march in our ranks who falsifies our community. You yearn for what we once had in the company : a piece of home, a piece of the homeland. You yearn for a company commander of the same type as the front officer. And you fear that something might, very quietly and unnoticed, sneak in, something that is not in accord with our essence; you fear that one day it might be there and cannot be wiped away. You worry that we might not keep what we had when the going was rough. You are concerned that we might not preserve what we achieved with great effort under Hitler’s victorious banner. The time of the receding red flood also had a good side. We all knew what to think of each other. Here, too, nobody was there who did not totally belong to us. How long has it been, actually, since we stood in one spot for five hours in the great Tennishalle meeting-hall to see our Führer, who went from man to man and looked each one in the eye? Those in power had forced the comrades to remove their boots, because they were a danger to the state. But the comrades did not waiver. They stood bare-foot even though it was winter. We had to hide our blue caps, because they were considered a „uniform“ and banned. Outside were police, masses of police. Inside were huge, closely packed columns of silent, faithful men. Hunger brought many a man to his knees, but he did not walk away, unless the medics carried him off. All hearts there beat as one. There were no „ifs and buts“. What did Adolf Hitler tell us then? „My comrades, one thing I know for sure : There is no coward among you!“ Those were blessed hours despite the discomfort. We knew that all who stood there belonged together in life and to the death. Comrades, now you are filled with hope that is remains so. It must and it will remain so, if we stand together in the spirit of the front. We must simply take care together, each in his own place. The man at the front did not fear death as much as the falseness of life : pretense, insolence, conceit and arrogance. The warrior who steps aside after he has done his share conceals all too easily the braggart as soon as the danger has passed. In 1918 we still sat in the bunkers. The inadequacy from the rear brought what had become unavoidable. All that still sits in our bones. We immediately feel the old fear and the old distrust as soon as something not genuine becomes visible. But there is a huge difference between the times. November 1918 : We stood before the emergence of the poisonous bloom of parties and corruption. Thus began the decay of state, folk and nation. And – a leader was lacking. January 1933 : We experienced the beginning of the end of the party system. Corruption and profiteering suddenly ceased. The state created a solid foundation for the reformation of folk and nation. The best sign of the difference between the years of misery and the new rise is our Führer. We verify : The front is good, for we ourselves know who we are and what is going on, and the leadership is good. If there is something needing correction between these poles, then the Führer will master it just like he mastered division and laziness. The greatest task has been accomplished. We still look at Adolf Hitler with complete confidence, always and everywhere ready to help with full effort to finish his huge work and again and again to secure and defend this work with our lives. This fact remains unalterable. Now let us become clear what must be done so that the final victory is not unnecessarily expensive. We understand each other quickly when I simply describe the Führer’s nature - things that you have already so often felt and thought yourselves. What I relate are obvious truths, but still not everybody knows them. ...