Background: Allied air attacks were heavy by June 1943. Here
Goebbels is speaking to a memorial service for people killed by
a bombing attack in Wuppertal. He uses the occasion to proclaim
that Germany is innocent, and the Allies guilty. The speech was
given on 18 June 1943. The source: “In vorderster Reihe. Rede
auf der Trauerkundgebung in der Elberfelder Stadthalle,” Der
steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1944), pp.
323-330. In the Front Ranks A sad and moving occasion brings me
back today to the city of my youth. I stand here as the
representative of the Führer and of the entire German people to
bid farewell to the dead of Wuppertal, victims in the ruins left
by British air terror. Before the front and the homeland, I bow
with pride and sorrow to the civilian dead who paid for their
loyalty to the Reich with their lives. This moving ceremony is
particularly sad for me, since it affects a city in which I
spent the best years of my political struggle. Countless proud
memories bind me to this