English Translation

C3 821 Address #on SS Group Leader State Secretary K.H. Frank on the occasion of the opening of the German Book Exhibition in Prague, October 31, 1940. romn aunede? The German book has for many years been one of the most important links between the Germanism of the Bohemian Moravian region and the Germandom of the Reich. When one connection after another had to be broken up under the pressure of Czech political terror, it was the German book smuggled over mountain ridges and border paths and hand-to-hand, and in particular the book of the leader "Mein Kampf", which repeatedly strengthened the belief in Great Germany and provided the knowledge necessary for the struggle for popularism. The book is versatile as life itself. It offers the fighter a weapon and it conveys the relaxing hours of contemplativeness. I warmly welcome the fact that the Reich Ministry for People's Enlightenment and Propaganda is also now holding a week of German Book in the middle of the Krie- ge, which attracts all the forces of the German people in the form of autumn events for the German literature. The exhibition shows that in addition to the sword as the symbol of defence and war, the book as a symbol of the spirit has maintained its old position. Just as countless German poets and writers have changed their place at the desk with the coat of arms, so the book has also become a messenger of the present war. It tells us about the fierce but victorious struggle of our people in the East, the West, the North, and it gives us the knowledge of the various world political problems.