Skip to content
quotesby

We won't waste much time on the Jews. It's great to get to grips with the Jewish race at last. The more that die the better; hitting them represents a victory for our Reich. The Jews should feel that we've arrived. We want to put half to three-quarters of all Jews east of the Vistula. We will crush these Jews wherever we can. Everything is at stake. Get the Jews out of the Reich, Vienna, everywhere. We have no use for Jews in the Reich. Probably the line of the Vistula, behind this line no more. We are the most important people here.

Heinrich Himmler#9

HistoryWarGenocideRacism

About this quote

What does it mean?
Expresses explicit intent to exterminate and expel Jewish people, framing genocide as a victory for the Reich.
In plain terms
We want to kill and remove all Jews because they are enemies of our state.
What can you take from it?
Genocide is framed as victory.

Where it applies

  • war propaganda
  • ethnic cleansing
  • state-sponsored murder

Putting it to work

  • identifying hate speech
  • analyzing propaganda
  • historical education

Questions to consider

  • How does language normalize mass murder?
  • What responsibilities do citizens have against such orders?

Another view

This is not a philosophical statement but a confession of crimes against humanity.

More from Heinrich Himmler

  1. Anti-Semitism is exactly the same as delousing. Getting rid of lice is not a question of ideology, it is a matter of cleanliness. In just this same way anti-Se…

    Permalink to quote #8
  2. I hope to see the very concept of Jewry completely obliterated.

    Permalink to quote #10
  3. Most of you know what it means when a hundred corpses are lying side by side, or five hundred, or a thousand. To have stuck it out, and at the same time - apar…

    Permalink to quote #7

Related quotes

  1. This war would be only a partial success if the whole lot of Jewry survived it, while we shed our best blood to save Europe. My attitude toward the Jews will t…

    Hans FrankHans Frank quote #3
  2. There can't be two smart peoples in the world. We're going to win the war, so only the Aryan race will stand.

    Josef MengeleJosef Mengele quote #2
  3. In the brief monthly reports of the Security Police, I only want figures on how many Jews have been shipped off and how many are currently left.

    Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Himmler quote #5