Cambridge Speechwriter

One of the most famous speeches of the Nazi regime was Goebbels’ Total War speech which he delivered on 18^th February 1943. Germany had just lost the Battle of Stalingrad, and the morale in the country was at breaking point. Attempting to reboot the war effort, Joseph Goebbels, the notorious Nazi Minister of Propaganda, gave a riling speech to a rapturous audience of 14,000 specially selected Nazi-sympathising members of the public; teachers, farmers, cobblers and tailors were all present to listen to the momentous speech that was broadcast live across all of Germany. 

In the middle of the speech, Goebbels made a mistake. A tiny mistake that risked exposing a huge secret. It was so serious, that it was censored out of future broadcasts and transcripts of the speech.  

When speaking about Germany’s response to what he called the Jewish ‘threat’, Goebbels says that Germany will respond with ‘radikalster Ausr…-schaltung‘. It might not seem like much, but this tiny mistake was very significant. He began saying ‘ausrottung’ which is the German word for ‘exterminate’ and corrected himself to ‘ausschaltung’ which is the German word for ‘exclude’. He made this correction mid-word. Despite this, the original recordings still have the error included. 

When he said this, his audience cheered. He was, after all, speaking to an audience of 14,000 brainwashed antisemites. 

But in that brief moment, Goebbels almost let slip the atrocities being committed by the Nazi regime: the Holocaust.  

Goebbels’ speech was a resounding success. Private accounts from Goebbels’ associates tell us that, after the speech, he was boasting that he had full control of his audience. He said that had he told them to jump off of the very tall roof of the Sportpalast they would have done so.

This speech is a remarkable example that shows us just how powerful the language of evil can be. The Nazis systematically applied rhetoric to their speeches to indoctrinate and brainwash their audience. In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler even stated that the spoken word is the only way to truly move the masses.

In my upcoming book, The Language of Evil, I deconstruct the rhetoric behind the Total War speech to understand how Goebbels managed to drive an audience of civilians into a bloodthirsty frenzy which ended with a violent call to action.