“Der Fuehrer’s Face” -- Spike Jones & His City Slickers
On 7 December 1941, the Empire of Japan entered into war with the United States. Four days later, Germany also elected to wage war on America. Why?
German News Footage Documenting
Hitler's Declaring War on the United States
Seemingly simple open-ended questions are often difficult to answer. That is especially true in this case. Entire volumes have been written explaining Hitler’s decision to stand before a cheering Reichstag on that fateful December evening and announce a new front in his homicidal war against humanity. All of these merit consideration, although that task remains to those having more knowledge and time than do I. I will but mention the more obvious.
Following Kristallnacht, the violent, vicious assaults on Jewish property, businesses, houses of worship, and individuals in November, 1938, the United States withdrew the American ambassador in protest. He would not return. His duties fell to the American Chargé d'Affaires, the individual traditionally empowered to act in the stead of an absent ambassador. Since October of the previous year, that post had been held by Leland B. Morris.
Joachim von Ribbentrop
German Foreign Minister (4 February 1938 – 30 April 1945)
Formalizing Hitler message to the Reichstag, Morris was summoned to the office of Joachim von Ribbentrop, Germany’s remarkably intelligent yet astonishingly blundering foreign minister. Speaking fluent English, the chief German diplomat read aloud the German declaration of hostilities. In Washington D.C., Morris’s German counterpart delivered to American Secretary of State Cordell Hull the declaration of war.
MR. CHARGE D'AFFAIRES:
The Government of the United States having violated in the most flagrant manner and in ever increasing measure all rules of neutrality in favor of the adversaries of Germany and having continually been guilty of the most severe provocations toward Germany ever since the outbreak of the European war, provoked by the British declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, has finally resorted to open military acts of aggression.
On September 11, 1941, the President of the United States publicly declared that he had ordered the American Navy and Air Force to shoot on sight at any German war vessel. In his speech of October 27, 1941, he once more expressly affirmed that this order was in force. Acting under this order, vessels of the American Navy, since early September 1941, have systematically attacked German naval forces. Thus, American destroyers, as for instance the Greer, the Kearney and the Reuben James, have opened fire on German submarines according to plan. The Secretary of the American Navy, Mr. Knox, himself confirmed that-American destroyers attacked German submarines.
Furthermore, the naval forces of the United States, under order of their Government and contrary to international law have treated and seized German merchant vessels on the high seas as enemy ships.
The German Government therefore establishes the following facts:
Although Germany on her part has strictly adhered to the rules of international law in her relations with the United States during every period of the present war, the Government of the United States from initial violations of neutrality has finally proceeded to open acts of war against Germany. The Government of the United States has thereby virtually created a state of war.
The German Government, consequently, discontinues diplomatic relations with the United States of America and declares that under these circumstances brought about by President Roosevelt Germany too, as from today, considers herself as being in a state of war with the United States of America.
Accept, Mr. Charge d'Affaires, the expression of my high consideration.
December 11, 1941.
RIBBENTROP.
Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag contained similar accusations of American naval assaults on German submarines and shipping. The complaint was not entirely without merit. For the previous three months, the United States Navy had conducted limited war on German submarines across the North Atlantic. But any existing German grievances over American impartiality on the high seas is only a very small part of this story, certainly not one sufficient to provoke Hitler into bringing the United States into the European theatre of war. No, long before he plunged Europe into the insane conflagration of world war, Hitler’s gaze had been firmly fixed on the vast horizon lying beyond Germany’s eastern frontier. Western Europe was but a sideshow in Hitler’s nightmarish fantasies: The future was to be found in Russia.
But when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941, that magical future failed to materialize. To be sure, the Wehrmacht had marched to the gates of Moscow itself, skillfully laying low to every Soviet force attempting to stem its advance, deftly sidestepping every obstacle in its path. Even so, like Napoleon before him, Hitler was never able to land the killing blow on his Russian prey. Come December, German forces found themselves ill-prepared for the harsh winters of the east, their supply lines were stretched perilously thin, and their rapid advance across the steppes had cost them irreplaceable matériel and personnel. Meanwhile, fierce and experienced Siberian divisions had moved westward to join those Soviets units already resisting the invaders.
As the war in Russia gelled into stalemate, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Ever the gambler, Hitler thought to use this to his advantage.
But when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941, that magical future failed to materialize. To be sure, the Wehrmacht had marched to the gates of Moscow itself, skillfully laying low to every Soviet force attempting to stem its advance, deftly sidestepping every obstacle in its path. Even so, like Napoleon before him, Hitler was never able to land the killing blow on his Russian prey. Come December, German forces found themselves ill-prepared for the harsh winters of the east, their supply lines were stretched perilously thin, and their rapid advance across the steppes had cost them irreplaceable matériel and personnel. Meanwhile, fierce and experienced Siberian divisions had moved westward to join those Soviets units already resisting the invaders.
As the war in Russia gelled into stalemate, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Ever the gambler, Hitler thought to use this to his advantage.
Let’s step back for a moment to the summer of 1940. Representatives of Germany, Imperial Japan, and Italy had gathered in Berlin. The three aggressor nations discussed their respective spheres of influence and possible contingencies as the war progressed. The agreement achieved and signed into effect on 27 September 1940, the Tripartite Pact, contained mutual defence guarantees directed primarily at the United States although that nation was not specifically mentioned in the agreement itself. Neither Japan nor Germany sought war with the United States at this juncture, but both realized the growing conflict very possibly could or perhaps even inevitably would pull America into its constantly growing pool of combatants. The mutual defense obligations would be triggered only should a signatory nation be attacked by a hereunto neutral power. Should a member nation initiate the conflict -- as Germany did by invading the Soviet Union the following June or Japan with the raid on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 -- no obligation attached.
Representatives of Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan
Sign the Tripartite Pact (27 September 1940)
While both Axis powers thought war with American possible, even probable, in time, each took a very different view of their potential adversary. The military and political clique dominating Japan’s wartime government certainly misjudged the American reaction to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, but they certainly respected, even feared the dangerous industrial and military power of the enemy they provoked into war. Unlike Japan, Germany was not governed by a coterie of ambitious militarists. Rather, that nation subscribed to the Führerprinzip, the Führer Principle. A sole source of unquestioned authority underlay all questions of national, social, and even personal conduct -- the will of Adolph Hitler. Hitler lacked Japan’s respect for the danger the United States represented. He thought America to be a mongrelized bourgeois democracy rendered impotent by liberal sentiments, Jewish influence, hedonistic tendencies, and “negrofied” music. America lacked the discipline and authoritarian instincts required to present a viable military threat to German. In Japan, the decision to engage America in war was made by committee: In Germany, it was a choice made by Hitler alone.
While Germany, like America, did not anticipate the Pearl Harbor attack, it, again like the United States, suspected the US and Japan were on a path to confrontation. Hitler had already urged his Japanese allies to seize British holdings in the South Pacific so as to distract American attention from the UK. With Western Europe either firmly under German occupation save for a few nations friendly or even submissive to the Third Reich, America was Britain's lifeline. Were increased Japanese aggression to divert US attention to Asia, the UK might finally succumb to Hitler’s demands. Only days before Japanese bombs dropped like rain on Pearl Harbor, Japan’s ambassador in Berlin queried Ribbentrop, suggesting that his nation might invoke the Tripartite Pact by requesting a German declaration of war against the United States.
In one of the few instances in which the German foreign minister actually offered his master sage advice, Ribbentrop urged Hitler to resist bringing America into the European theatre of war by declaring war on the United States following Pearl Harbor attack. Ribbentrop correctly noted that German obligations to Japan under the Tripartite Pact to be triggered only had the United States initiated the conflict. Because Japan was the aggressor, no German duty to Japan existed. As usual, Hitler rejected the counsel of his own advisers and again relied on his gambler instincts. Rolling the dice, he elected to declare war on the United States.
While Hitler’s bombastic speech to the German Reichstag on 11 November certainly served the goal of distracting public attention from the quagmire-in-the-making that was now the East Front, Hitler might have hoped it would alter more than just perceptions of the Russian War. Japan had a grudge to settle with the Soviet Union. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 resulted in Imperial Japanese and Soviet troops facing each other down across the poorly defined border separating Manchukuo from Mongolia and the USSR. Numerous border skirmishes resulted eventually escalating to the status of undeclared war in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol (11 May to 15 September 1939).
In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, Japan inflicted a blistering defeat on Tsarist Russia in this same region. Without bothering to request permission from or even inform Japanese leadership in Tokyo of their plans, Imperial Army officers in Manchuria thought to deal with those troublesome Soviets in the same manner the prior generation of Japanese officers dispatched their Russian opponents. The Imperial Japanese Army launched a major offensive across the disputed border against Soviet forces along the Khalkhin Gol River. To their misfortune, the Japanese attackers discovered this generation of Russians to be made of sterner stuff than were those faced by their fathers in 1904-05. Georgy Zhukov, destined to become the most successful general of the Second World War, inflicted a devastating defeat on the Japanese invaders.
While Hitler’s bombastic speech to the German Reichstag on 11 November certainly served the goal of distracting public attention from the quagmire-in-the-making that was now the East Front, Hitler might have hoped it would alter more than just perceptions of the Russian War. Japan had a grudge to settle with the Soviet Union. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 resulted in Imperial Japanese and Soviet troops facing each other down across the poorly defined border separating Manchukuo from Mongolia and the USSR. Numerous border skirmishes resulted eventually escalating to the status of undeclared war in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol (11 May to 15 September 1939).
In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, Japan inflicted a blistering defeat on Tsarist Russia in this same region. Without bothering to request permission from or even inform Japanese leadership in Tokyo of their plans, Imperial Army officers in Manchuria thought to deal with those troublesome Soviets in the same manner the prior generation of Japanese officers dispatched their Russian opponents. The Imperial Japanese Army launched a major offensive across the disputed border against Soviet forces along the Khalkhin Gol River. To their misfortune, the Japanese attackers discovered this generation of Russians to be made of sterner stuff than were those faced by their fathers in 1904-05. Georgy Zhukov, destined to become the most successful general of the Second World War, inflicted a devastating defeat on the Japanese invaders.
Georgy Zhukov on the Cover of Life Magazine
31 January 1944
Now, with Soviet forces diverted from Mongolia to face the German threat, Hitler hoped Japan might wish to revisit the results of that defeat and again launch a cross border attack, forcing the Soviets to withdraw troops currently fighting Germans to defend their eastern frontiers. Japanese leaders, however, having already experienced the sting of the Red Army, declined to accept the challenge.
While Hitler and his Japanese allies possessed remarkably differing views on America’s capacity for waging war, both labored under one fatal misconception. Germany and Japan leadership alike thought it impossible for the United States to mobilize its military and industrial capacities in time to impact the course of the war. Both believed by the time Americans were sufficiently prepared to actually enter the war, Germany and Japan would have accomplished their war aims and present the United States with a fait accompli she would have no choice but to accept.
Hitler’s gamble that the United States would be too pressed by Japanese aggression across the South Pacific to respond to events in Europe proved as delusional as his fantasy of a Nazi empire of a thousand-years duration. Not only did American rapidly mobilize military and industry, but correctly recognizing the Nazi regime as the more dangerous foe, allocated only about 15% of its deployed resources the South Pacific. The remainder went to the European Theatre of Operations to roll back German forces across Western Europe.
Prior to Hitler’s declaration of war, the American populace was divided. World War I and its aftermath had soured many Americans on intervention in yet another major European war. Isolationism ran strong on both the left and right. Furthermore, many Republicans viewed Hitler’s war against Bolshevism with approval. And many Democrats of Irish ancestry regarded England’s distress with a certain sense of schadenfreude. Antisemitism ran strong among American conservatives, and not a few sympathized with Hitler’s anti-Jewish proclamations. Many on the left had been conditioned by the failed settlement of the Great War to think pacifism as the best option in the face of another general conflict.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s subsequent naming of America as an intended victim of Nazi aggression largely healed these schisms. The American public with few exceptions united in support of entry into the Second World War. The entertainment industry certainly did its share. The always irreverent Spike Jones, for example, held a place in the Top Ten from October 1942 to January 1943 with a wacky parody of the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ("Horst Wessel Song"), the anthem of Hitler’s National Socialist Party and co-anthem of Nazi Germany.
“Der Fuehrer’s Face” -- Spike Jones & His City Slickers
When der Führer says we is de master race
We heil heil right in der Führer's face
Not to love der Führer is a great disgrace
So we heil heil right in der Führer's face
When Herr Goebbels says we own the world and space
We heil heil right in Herr Goebbels' face
When Herr Goring says they'll never bomb this place
We heil heil right in Herr Goring's face
Are we not he supermen Aryan pure supermen
Ja we are the supermen (super duper supermen)
Is this Nazi land so good
Would you leave it if you could
Ja this Nazi land is good
We would leave it if we could
We bring the world new order
Heil Hitler's world to order
Everyone of foreign race
Will love der Führer's face
When we bring to the world disorder
When der Führer says we is de master race
We heil heil right in der Führer's face
Not to love der Führer is a great disgrace
So we heil heil right in der Führer's face
[Instrumental interlude]
When der Führer says we is de master race
We heil heil right in der Führer's face
Not to love der Führer is a great disgrace
So we heil heil right in der Führer's face
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