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To the Citizens of the United States of America

Speech given by King Haakon VII to the Citizens of the United States of America over BBC radio 1941 (probably on 1 September).

I am glad to have this opportunity of talking to you on the day, when two years ago Hitler’s Germany let loose the hell of war to create what the Germans like to call a “New Order” or some sort of “The United States f Europe” under the leadership of Germany.

The United States of America is a constitution based on goodwill and freedom, - goodwill between the different states, - goodwill between nations and races, - and goodwill between men.

What the United States of Europe under the leadership of Hitler would mean we now know; so do the Norwegians and so do all the other nations of Europe, who have been overwhelmed by the German aggressors. Hitler and Hitlerism are hated from the bottom of the heart of the great majority of the people in the occupied countries and you, the citizens of the United States of America, will certainly agree, that the United States of Europe under the leadership of a despised nation is an impossibility.

The Germans can never be qualified to rule other people, because they completely lack the gift of understanding the mentality of other nations. The way the Germans have acted in Norway is the best proof of this. They pretended to come to our country as friends. Perhaps some of them believed it; that only proves their inability to fathom other people’s feelings. The Germans in Norway now at last seem to understand, that they have been wrong - that the Norwegian nation never asked for, and never wished for, the sort of German friendship practised in our unhappy country today.

The Norwegian people is fighting a stubborn and tough passive resistance against the aggressors. They need all the sympathy and assistance, which it is possible to give.

On behalf of the Norwegian people at home and abroad I take this opportunity to convey to the great people of the United States of America and to President Roosevelt the most sincere thanks for the many proofs of sympathy for Norway’s fight for freedom as well as for all the valuable assistance in different ways, which we have received and are receiving on an ever-increasing scale from your country.

 

01.09.1941

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