“Duty”

From Faith and Action (1938) by Helmut Stellrecht for the Hitler Youth:


Duty is a hard word as long as one has not done it. Duty is a pleasant word as soon as one has done it.

§ Duty is the “you should” that you feel inside. Duty is that which family, people and the state demand of you. Doing one’s duty does not mean being controlled by the reins that rule a horse, but rather doing one’s duty means that one does it with joy, no matter how hard.

§ The fatherland grew from the duty done by our fathers and forefathers. From the duty we all do grows the present state and the future both of the individual and the whole.

§ Duty can also mean sacrifice, the sacrifice of one’s own life. Your people can demand of you what it has given you. But what does demand mean? The state, the fatherland dwell in your own breast. You demand it of yourself, and the path of highest duty is the way of greatest happiness, even if it leads to your death.

§ Justice comes from fulfilled duty. There is no other justice in the National Socialist state, just as there is no pay without labor. The greater the duty, the greater the justice. He who does the most for Germany has the greatest right to guide Germany and determine its fate. He is the Führer of the Reich, and others follow him according to the duty they have fulfilled.

§ A worker on the street can stand higher in the ranks than a government minister if he has better done his duty.

§ Fulfilling one’s duty to the utmost is required of each of us. Who will wait until the demand comes, until it is required? He who does his duty of his own free will, he is a free man and not a slave.