Original WWII German Propaganda for Germans! – Deutsche Volksgenossen! – Fully Translated – Rare

Description

The leaflet is addressed to “Deutsche Volksgenossen!” (German compatriots!) and was designed to instruct civilians in occupied or soon-to-be occupied territories on how to behave when Allied forces advanced into their towns and cities.

German Comrades!

Although our heroically fighting soldiers have done everything in heavy battles and exemplary bravery to repel the enemy, he has penetrated into our Lower Rhenish homeland.
If you now have to live under foreign occupation, then be aware that you have great duties towards your people and Führer, your fighting sons and fathers.

The entire nation looks to you!
The fallen call upon you!

Ask yourselves, in every difficult situation, what is expected of you, and then act as is right.

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What is expected of you?

How should you behave?

1. You must uphold the honor of your great nation.
If the enemy proclaims: “Germany will collapse the moment our soldiers set foot across its borders,” then he has deceived himself.
Prove to the enemy that you will never surrender your honor.
Whoever forgets dignity and honor is despised not only by us but even more so by the enemy.

2. Whoever cooperates with the enemy, whoever gives voluntary assistance to the hostile military power, commits treason against Germany.

3. No German will consider the enemy worthy of even a glance, none will converse with him, none will associate with him.

4. Should anyone be found who betrays his honor, he will be despised and treated worse than the enemy himself, for he is a traitor.

5. If they force you under duress to perform services, remember the names of the units, officers, and officials; in due time they will not escape just punishment.

6. When you see the ruins of your cities and villages and see the enemy soldiers, then you see the criminals at the scene of the crime. If the enemy asks you the way, show him the way to the cemeteries where thousands of Rhineland men, women, and children are buried, murdered by this very enemy. If anyone says that the English and Americans are innocent, remember how many innocent women and children were horribly killed under their carpet bombings and in the infernos of fire.

7. If the enemy demands services from you, you have the right to refuse. You can rely on international law, the Hague Convention of October 18, 1907, signed by all states. The article reads:
“Services and deliveries can be demanded from municipalities or inhabitants only for the needs of the occupying army. They must be proportionate to the resources of the country and of such a nature that they do not force the population to take part in military actions against their homeland.”
You must therefore refuse any service that would aid the enemy army in its war against Germany.

8. Do not look at newspapers, leaflets, or printed matter distributed by the enemy. Do not listen to his radio. Let his films roll before empty benches, despise every amusement and distraction with which the enemy wants to ingratiate himself with you. For every hour that you indulge in such things, German soldiers and civilians are dying under his bombs and shells.

9. Do not grant the enemy any applause when he stages a military spectacle. Every hostile column must pass through a gauntlet of contempt. Not a single enemy soldier should feel comfortable for even one hour in our land.

No one among you should allow it to be said that the Germans fight like lions in the field but behave like tame lambs at home.

10. No woman and no girl must ever show the enemy the slightest kindness. Above all, her honor must remain untouchable, for the honor of the woman is the honor of the entire nation.

11. The more sharply you reject the enemy, the more you close ranks as Germans. Help one another in your distress.

Stand by each other as you have done in the nights of bombing, without orders, without command, and without reminder.

The enemy has refused to believe that we were a united, content, socially advancing people. Prove to him how united we are and how unbreakable our cohesion is. Let it be read on our foreheads and in the eyes of every German person that no word of the enemy penetrates our hearts.

We have a cause to defend, for which millions of Germans have already given their lives, and for which an entire people continues to fight.

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So be worthy and fight on!

Our heroically fighting soldiers will return!

Long live Germany!
Long live the Führer!