“Truly these sixteen who fell have celebrated a resurrection unique in world history. The miracle is that from their sacrifice came Germany’s unity, the victory of a movement, of an idea, and the devotion of the entire people. All that we owe to these first men! If I had found no one then ready to risk his life, it would have been impossible to find them later. All the subsequent blood sacrifices were inspired by the sacrifice of these first men.
Therefore we raise them out of the darkness of forgetfulness and make them the center of attention of the German people forever.
For us they are not dead. This temple is no crypt, but an eternal watch. Here they stand for Germany, on guard for our people. Here they lie as true martyrs of our movement.
We celebrated this day each year in the past — not always in the same form during the years of persecution — and we are determined that it will be for all times a holiday for the German people. We do this not because sixteen men died. Thousands die daily, even more during an hour of war.
We do it because these sixteen men, with believing hearts, died in a way that helped the German people to rise again.”
Adolf Hitler
You dead heroes
Never were you nearer to us —,
Reminder, call, prayer —
As now when the Grim Reaper
Stands before us.
Never were you so necessary to us.
Towers in the storm of care.
Never were you as alive to us.
We are as acquainted with you as we are with death.
We listen for the call. And we hear
In the night, when all is silent
Your voices. They warn, they swear:
Not only victories! The victory!
As our flags sink
God goes as the wind through the field.
All our thanks and thoughts
Become deed.
—Gerhard Schumann
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