[Page 55].

During the years from 1933 to 1939 everything necessary had been done in secrecy [in aller Stille] that seemed necessary to the conservation of the nation in the anticipated clash with an envious surrounding world. As always, when taking precautionary defense measures in a newly-won field, it was not possible here either to plan in a way that would be satisfactory. It was necessary to check what was on hand, and build with that the most essential and the momentarily most useful. It could not be obviated that the result, measured with the yardstick of what had been planned for the future, would appear modest and perhaps even inadequate.

It has not always been simple for those charged with practical social work to master satisfactorily the juxtaposition of old, scantily mended institutions and new ones. But certainly it was even more difficult for the biggest part of the people to see how the effort supported by it was, year after year, applied to tasks which initially necessitated renunciation after renunciation. After all, it seemed like a small matter to apply the energies released by the National Socialist revolution to the improvement of social conditions desired for so long. Instead the leadership chosen by the people and over again confirmed by it, channeled all its strength into armaments [Wehrhaftigkeit]. And-won the consent especially of those sections of the people who had had to suffer most from social conditions prevailing up to then.