Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The chastising sword of Divine Justice has come down on the Soviet regime and its enablers and sympathizers.
The Christ-loving Fuehrer of the German People has summoned his victorious army to a new struggle, to that struggle which we had already awaited: a sacred struggle against the theomachists, tormentors and violators who have taken up their seat in the Moscow Kremlin and have been spreading from this ancient holy place the poison of Bolshevism, which is eroding all the religious, spiritual, moral, cultural and legal foundations of state, national, social and family life. In truth, a new crusade has begun in the name of saving the peoples [of the world] from the power of the antichrist.
For a long time, over twenty years of torment, we have been awaiting this day. As implacable enemies of Bolshevism, we have found here in the West like-minded people of conviction, who have sympathized with us, yet alas! often have we been met with indifference, incomprehension, spiritual blindness, and often have faced overt Bolshevik sympathizers. Many of you have been filled at times with inspired hope, at others with agonizing despondency and bitter disappointment, some of you at times even with abject hopelessness, yet all the same, the majority of you have been sure that sooner or later, the day of vengeance would come.
Your faith has finally been justified. God’s promise has been fulfilled: “let none that wait on thee be ashamed” (Ps. 49:29 [Psalm 49 does not have a 29th verse; this sounds to me more like Ps. 24:3]). The Lord has heard our prayers for our dear, insulted and bloodied fatherland to be delivered from the demonic power of the atheists. The day already approaches when our most evil enemies shall be cast down, when we shall prevail over this mystery of iniquity and the truth and righteousness of God shall triumph. The Golgotha of the Holy Church of Christ and your long-suffering people is already coming to an end. The sun of the Paschal dawn is already shining for all those who, over the course of long years, have undergone physical and moral suffering, Bolshevik confinements, exile, forced hard labor fit for slaves, lawlessness, destitution, insults to the holy object of the heart, and other immeasurable torments and deprivations.
The note of the German Government transmitted to the Soviet regime says: “The Soviet government in Moscow has not heeded the voice of the Russian people, which wished honestly to live in peace and friendship with the German people.” In other words, the German army is not fighting against your people, but rather against a regime that has instigated persecution of the Church and the Faith, which has desecrated, devastated and destroyed your holy things and places, turned our Motherland into the laughing-stock of all peoples, poisoned the spirit of the people with its planned diabolical anti-religious and communist propaganda and wanted, ultimately, to turn the whole world into a Golgotha, a den of servitude and a kingdom of slaves.
Now, our Holy Church and all of Europe, your Motherland, your native people, and even each of us is standing at the threshold of a new period of history.
In these crucial days, when the fate of all that is holy and dearest to you – the Church and the Motherland – is being decided, the Lord Almighty and Judge of the Earth, the Lord who is zealous for Faith and Righteousness, God who is the Advocate of sufferers and the aggrieved, God who is Helper and Protector of all those who fight for a holy, righteous cause, calls on you, too, to take part in a decisive new struggle. Now, more than ever, equanimity is treason, indifference betrayal, and inaction a crime.
Through the mouth of he who, in the hope of Divine succor, is calling the German army to a new struggle and new victories, God, Church and Country are calling you, as well.
Therefore, as the First Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in Germany, I appeal to you thus:
Be participants in this new struggle, because this struggle is ours, a continuation of the struggle that was begun back in 1917, yet, alas! ended in tragedy, principally as a consequence of the betrayal of your former allies who, in our day, have taken up arms against the German people.
Each of us can find a place for himself on the new anti-Bolshevik front.
Each can make an effort to assist in the overthrow of the Soviet regime and the liberation of the Motherland from the Red dictatorship.
Seek a place for yourselves in this new arena of combat and service to the Motherland.
Make use of every opportunity in order to transform your anti-Bolshevik conviction and attitude and your love for your native land into an active heroic and sacrificial effort.
Take part selflessly in the holy cause of aiding war victims. By donating generously to the Red Cross, you can assist in alleviating the suffering of the wounded and maimed, for the bold warriors of the German army are spilling their blood for the salvation of your brothers and sisters.
Intensify your prayer to the Lord God, to whom the pious Fuehrer of the German people has entrusted his host.
Finally, awaken the conscience and national self-awareness of those who are still standing off to the side of this universal uprising, everyone who is indifferent, vacillating, not yet infused with an awareness of their Christian and national duty. And drive any defeatists out of your midst.
The “salvation of all” about with Adolf Hitler speaks in his address to the German people is your salvation, too, the fulfillment of your efforts and hopes of many years.
The final decisive battle has come.
May the Lord bless the new wartime effort of all the anti-Bolshevik fighters and bestow upon them victory and make them to prevail over their enemies.
May He enlighten your hearts with new hope and awaken in you faith, courage, and sacrifice.
May the God and Lord of the great ascetics, heroes, and grievers for your long-suffering people, the God of your pious ancestors, the God who has granted you to see the dawn of the liberation of your Motherland, be with you all. Amen.
