Posen speeches

Authorised by Himmler himself, this original page of the final edition of his speech made on 4 October 1943 bears the Reichsführer-SS's statements to his audience that the extermination of the Jews, a policy of the Nazi state, is being carried out.

The Posen speeches were two speeches made by Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS of Nazi Germany, on 4 and 6 October 1943 in the town hall of Posen (Poznań), in German-occupied Poland. The recordings are the first known documents in which a member of the Hitler Cabinet spoke of the ongoing extermination of the Jews in extermination camps. They demonstrate that the German government wanted, planned, and carried out the Holocaust.