The quote, though has many similar translations is as follows:
Quote:
Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had millions of women and children hunted down and killed, deliberately and with a gay heart. History sees in him only the great founder of States. What the weak Western European civilization alleges about me, does not matter. I have given the order—and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism—that the aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines, but in the enemies' physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in the east, I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?
The important part is the last sentence that Armenian activists seem to point as evidence for the genocide.
The Argument behind the quote
The goal here is to convince you that Hitler justified the Holocaust and extermination of Jews because no one cared about the genocide of the Armenians.
The argument they use with this quote, is a logical fallacy. If you don't punish the Turks for the Armenian Genocide, some crazy dictator like Hitler will see them get away with it, and thus will commit genocide himself. It's an appeal to emotion. It assumes that crazy people need rational justification or only do something evil because they saw someone else get away with it (like a child may steal a cookie from the jar because he saw dad do it).
Lack of Evidence suggests the Speech is False
Dr. Heath Lowry wrote after looking through the Nuremberg trials for proof of this quote:
Dr. Heath Lowry wrote:
The address was never accepted as evidence in this or any other session of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
There was an attempt to have the quote inserted into the Nuremberg Trials, but the tribunal rejected it because it was a incoherent merger of two Hitler speeches acquired from questionable sources.
Nuremberg trial officials located the true speeches of Hitler during this time and admitted it into evidence. None of them mention Armenians.
Motivation for Fabricating this Evidence
It doesn't take a genius to realize that since everyone equates Hitler and Nazi Germany with pure evil, tying your enemy to them, makes it very easy to force others to sympathize with you and to appeal to their emotions.
Since the popularity of this quote amongst the Armenian community, they have been using it to acquire more sympathy especially among Jewish communities. They have used it to involve themselves more in Holocaust studies and they try hard to relate them to each other.
The mere thought of equating the horrific suffering of Jews to the failed rebellion of the Armenians should enrage any Jewish person. The Jews never rebelled against the Nazis, they were singled out in Germany society and were forced to wear identifying Jewish badges in order to promote antisemitism by law.
They were forced to live in ghettos. None of this happened to Armenians. There were many Armenians in leadership positions within the Ottoman government during the reign of the supposed "genocide perpetrators".
Even if we were to assume the speech is absolutely true
If we were to assume the speech is authentic and not question it, the wording of the speech is irrational. The last sentence doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the speech, it's as if, out of the blue, Hitler decides to talk about the plight of the Armenians.
The Speech was about Poland NOT the Holocaust
The speech was talking about the annihilation of the Polish people not the Jews. The Final Solution and the Wannsee Conference that established it, had not yet happened. The Polish people were indeed terrorized by the Nazis during the war, but they weren't exterminated "men, women, and children". Did Hitler's commanders ignore Hitler's command by not exterminating all Poles?
Hitler had to justify genocide to his own commanders?
The speech seems very far-fetched, why would the Fuhrer need to justify to his fascist subordinates about killing anyone by justifying it with past events? Why would he compare himself to the barbarian Genghis Khan?
If he is prepared to shoot anyone who utters "one word of criticism", why did he feel the need to justify killings by referencing Armenians?
Why is the Hitler quote being used as proof of genocide?
How is the word of one crazy dictator somehow evidence? This is like saying "this book says 2+4 = 263 is true, therefore, it must be true." If Hitler had a friend who kept telling him stories about the extermination of Armenians, does that mean Armenians actually faced extermination? Was Hitler a historian? The premise of the argument is that it is assumed the genocide is true when that has yet to be proven.
Everyday however, Armenians mention this quote as if it is absolute proof that the genocide was real and that others are using it to justify more genocide.
People are reluctant to question every detail, so fabricating new evidence may be discredited by historians but it if it is repeated enough times, even educated people will believe it to be true. Conspiracy theorists use this technique to flood the victim with false facts and false evidence in an effort to wear you down and make you believe.
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