Posen speeches

The Posen speeches were two secret speeches made by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on 4 and 6 October 1943 in the town hall of Posen (Polish: Poznań), in German Nazi-occupied Poland. The recordings are the first known documents in which a high-ranking German member of the Nazi government spoke of the ongoing extermination of the Jews in extermination camps. They demonstrate that the German government wanted, planned and carried out the Holocaust.

The Posen speeches of October 1943 are two of 132 speeches obtained in various forms, which Himmler conducted before officials of the Nazi party. The first speech was given before 92 SS officers, the second before Reichsleiters and Gauleiters, as well as other government representatives. They constitute some of the most important of Himmler's speeches during the war, as they demonstrate Himmler's role as "Architect of the Final Solution" and a visionary of an elite race to be henceforth supported by the SS state.

Although the genocide of the Jews was not the central topic in either of them, both carry historical significance in reference to it. Himmler did away with the usual camouflage terms and spoke explicitly of the extermination of the Jews via mass murder, which he depicted as a historical mission of the Nazis. This connection became clear in five further speeches made between December 1943 and June 1944 to commanders of the Wehrmacht.

In the literature, only the first speech was known as the "Posen Speech" until 1970. The second speech, uncovered at that time, is often mistaken as the first or equated with it.

Himmler gave the speeches at a time when the German war effort sustained constant setbacks, which the Nazi leaders found increasingly disconcerting. At the Casablanca Conference in January, 1943, the Allies had decided that the only acceptable outcome of the war was Germany's unconditional surrender. The Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad on 2 February 1943 was a turning point in the war. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the prosecution of those mainly responsible for war and genocide on 12 February, which the US Congress agreed to on 18 March. US and British troops landed on Sicily on 7 July 1943 and, after the Italian armistice on 8 September, gradually advanced northward. On 1 October, Naples was freed from German occupation.

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