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Excerpts from Hitler’s Speech before the first "Greater German Reichstag" (January 30, 1939)

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The nations no longer wish to die on the battlefield so that this rootless international race can profit from the business of war and satisfy its Old-Testament lust for vengeance. The Jewish slogan, ‘Proletarians of all countries, unite,’ will be defeated by a higher realization, namely: ‘Working members of all nations, recognize your common enemy!’

Among the charges leveled against Germany in the so-called democracies is that National Socialist Germany is a state that is hostile to religion. Regarding this point, I would like to make the following, solemn declaration before the entire German Volk:

1. In Germany, nobody has hitherto been persecuted for his religious beliefs, and no one will be persecuted for them.

2. Since January 30, 1933, the National Socialist state has provided both churches the following sums from public tax revenues through its state organizations:

in fiscal year 1933: 130 Million Reichsmark
in fiscal year 1934: 170 Million Reichsmark
in fiscal year 1935: 250 Million Reichsmark
in fiscal year 1936: 320 Million Reichsmark
in fiscal year 1937: 400 Million Reichsmark
in fiscal year 1938: 500 Million Reichsmark

Added to this are another 85 million Reichsmark in subsidies from the states and about 7 million Reichsmark in subsidies from communities and communal organizations.

Apart from that, the churches are the largest landowners next to the state. The value of their agricultural and forestry property exceeds 10 billion Reichsmark. The income from this property should be estimated at more than 300 million a year.

To this are added the countless donations, testamentary bequests, and, above all, the yield of church collections. Moreover, the church in the National Socialist state enjoys tax benefits in various areas and is exempt from taxes on donations, bequests, etc. It is therefore – to put it mildly – an outrage when foreign politicians, in particular, have the nerve to speak of hostility to religion in the Third Reich.

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