Armenian Quote - Contesting Interpretations

Contesting Interpretations

Dr. Kevork B. Bardakjian, in a publication entitled Hitler and the Armenian Genocide, published by the Armenian-American Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation, argues that the L-3 document originates in the notes secretly taken by Wilhelm Canaris during the meeting of August 22, 1939:

To conclude, although its author is unknown, L-3 and its unsigned counterparts 798-PS and 1014-PS originate from the notes Wilhelm Canaris took personally as Hitler spoke on 22 August 1939. ... Although not an “official” record, L-3 is a genuine document and is as sound as the other evidence submitted at Nuremberg.

Richard Albrecht (see de:Richard Albrecht), a Geman social researcher and political scientist,published a three-volume study (2006-08) on 20th century genocides, of which volume 2 (Armenozid, "Armenocide") relates to the Armenian genocide, and volume 3 ("Wer redet heute noch von der Vernichtung der Armenier?" Adolf Hitlers Geheimrede am 22. August 1939) is dedicated solely to Hitler's Armenian quote. Albrecht contained the document of the original German version of the Armenian quote (the L-3 text) for the first time. The book is summarized as "When discussing, and applying, all relevant features scholarly accepted as leading principles of classifying documents as authentic, the author not only works out that the L-3-document as translated and brought in a few days later at August 25th, 1939, by the US-newspaper man Louis P. Lochner (1887-1975) from Associated Press, and first published in 1942, whenever compared with any other version of the Hitlerspeech – above all the Nuremberg-documents 798-PS, 1014 PS, and Raeder-27, as produced by a dubious witness after realising the L-3-version, too – this version must be regarded as the one which most likely sums up and expresses what Hitler said – for what Hitler really said in his notorious second speech was only written down simultaneously during his speech by one of his auditors: Wilhelm Canaris (1887-1945), at that time chief of the military secret service within the Third Reich".

According to Margaret L. Anderson, professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, "we have no reason to doubt the remark is genuine, both attack and defense obscure an obvious reality" that the Armenian Genocide has achieved "iconic status... as the apex of horrors imaginable in 1939," and that Hitler used it to persuade the German military that committing genocide excited a great deal of "talk" but no serious consequences for a nation that perpetrates genocide.

According to Stanford University historian Norman Naimark, "There is no question that Hitler and the Nazi leadership were well aware of the Armenian genocide and its relatively innocuous effect on international affairs during the Great War and after."

According to German historian Winfried Baumgart, among the documents of Hitler's speech on 22 August 1938, 1014-PS is the one that contains the original notes taken that day by Wilhelm Canaris, the head of military intelligence. Therefore, in order to Baumgart, 1014-PS, which does not contain the Armenian quote, is superior to the other documents of Hitler's speech including L-3 which is the only source of the Armenian quote. According to Christopher Browning, American historian of the Holocaust, L-3 document, which contains the Armenian quote, is an "apocalyptic" version of Hitler's speech that day which was purposefully leaked to the British in order to gain their support to Poland.

According to Alan Whiticker, several historians examining Lochner's version of Hitler's speech (the L-3 document) concluded that it was a heavily distorted version designed to arouse a reaction against Hitler in various countries.