English Translation

hban//09 21/9.1940. -8- To the day of death TGM speaks now His Excellency, President Dr. Eduard Ben e s c h : "Today there are three 'ahre' that I described his life, His ideas and his ideals in a speech at the coffin of the President en on the Prague bUrg. I promised damsl in the name of the people that we will remain faithful to his legacy. Masaryk devoted his life to the struggle for human dignity, the fight for freedom and justice, in political, social and national terms, the struggle against religious and cultural prejudices, the campaign against the war, the battle against the strong against the weak, he always fought for humane and thus real democracy. - Towards the end of my speech at Masaryk's tomb, I said that Masar k's life had reached its peak in the world, we are looking at this world war today, the most powerful revolution since Napoleon ..... MasaryK, this great moral and moral personality suddenly faced a problem that had to resolve our fate, right at the beginning of the world war. He stood, as a philosopher who had dealt so much with the history of the Czech people, suddenly before the eventualities - namely the imminent freedom of the people or - further slavery. At this crucial moment Masaryk stood on his palitic post and showed the firm decision to fulfill his political and moral duty. He fought against evil, against the victory of a policy which would have caused further misfortune to our people and Europe. The 2o years of our republic were only a continuation of this war. If we pursue the history of our Republic, we can see that it was constantly the continuation of the Krigges and the revolution. Today we fight against the same violence of evil that Masaryk fought all his life against, against which he organized a legion from London and finally won over. Until his last day he had the book of Konrad Heiden "Hitler!" on his table. Not because the person of Hitler would have interested him. He himself had made a bad judgment of this, rather than of a brutal, barbaric and abnormal human being. In his opinion, the people who could accept this monster and leader and ruler were equally morsque and decadent. In constant reflections and discussions with us, he asked himself: What is this monster of the last kind supposed to express in Europe? what these uncultural fascist governments are. what is National Socialist, Pangermanist barbarism and what can it mean? what does this international criminality mean, which was built up as a system and is embodied by the German people? His part, which he told us after these considerations, was therefore devastating, whatever it may be, it means persevering and not fading in the fight against this evil and destroying it to the root! If Masaryk were still alive today, he would be on our side in the struggle we are fighting. I myself stood at MasaryK until his death. Today I stand in this European tragedy, which I have been expecting since Munich, and which I prepared myself and my friends for, where Masaryks stood. I concluded my speech at his grave with the words: pi -6-