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Did Hitler ever say :

"I would have killed all the Jews of the world, but I kept some to show the world why I killed them"?

This one and similar in meaning can be seen on many websites.

skept101
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smUsamaShah
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  • Upvoting, if for no other reason than informing me that people have used such a quote. – Andrew Grimm Jul 14 '14 at 23:27
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    I very much doubt it. Hitler tended to use euphemisms when talking about the "final solution", and this seems like something made up significantly later. – P_S Jul 15 '14 at 12:51
  • Although the "leave some around as a visible OTHER/ENEMY to keep the masses' hate focused" sounds like the kind of tactic he'd use... – Shadur Jul 16 '14 at 07:02
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    this was asked on [Quora](http://qr.ae/HCR7R) on the same day – warren Jul 25 '14 at 18:54
  • @warren I hope that is not forbidden in a policy. – smUsamaShah Aug 10 '14 at 20:03
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    @LifeH2O - it's not: I'm merely noting it was asked identically elsewhere, and therefore answers from one place may be helpful at the other :) – warren Aug 11 '14 at 14:07
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    Seeing as how his camps were running, full-blast, up to and even beyond his death, I'd guess his inability to exterminate all Jews is more related to his losing the war. More loss of opportunity than intent. With enemies closing in on all sides, it's unlikely he even knew to what extent his extermination attempts succeeded or failed, at the end. – PoloHoleSet Apr 17 '17 at 14:50

1 Answers1

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There is no evidence that Adolf Hitler ever spoke the quoted text. Furthermore, there is evidence that "I kept some (alive)" would have been against Hitler's beliefs and plans.

The earliest I could find as a source for this quote online was in the talk page for Wikipedia's article on Adolf Hitler.

i heard about a quote sayiing : "i would have killed all the jews of the world, but i kept some to show the world why i killed them", any one know the source of this ? [sic]

I thought he said that openly in the w:Reichstag_(institution). Andries 17:31, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

This source, and others online claim that the quote has come from one of Hitler's speeches to the Reichstag (German Legislative Branch), with some attributing it to 1939.

The full text of all of Hitler's speeches to the Reichstag are available here, and a Google Translation of the 1939 speech (the only one not available in English) is available here.

No where in any of these speeches does the quote appear. Furthermore, the way that Hitler talks about the Jews in his speeches is in direct contrast to this quote.

They have already spoken of the breaking up of the German Reich by next September, and with the help of this advance prophesy, and we say that the war will not end as the Jews imagine it will, namely, with the uprooting of the Aryans, but the result of this war will be the complete annihilation of the Jews.

-- Adolf Hitler Speech at the Berlin Sportspalast, January 30, 1942

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