3
" They died out there, in countless numbers, not for government officials in Berlin, but for their old countries, gilded by the centuries, and for their common fatherland, Europe, the Europe of Virgil and Ronsard, the Europe of Erasmus and Nietzsche, of Raphael and Dürer, the Europe of St. Ignatius and St. Theresa, the Europe of Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. "
― Leon Degrelle , The Eastern Front: Memoirs of a Waffen SS Volunteer, 1941-1945
5
" At Dniepropetrovsk the Stalin regime had made great efforts in construction. We were at first impressed as we approached the suburbs of the city, where we saw outlined the large masonry blocks of the proletarian housing erected by the Soviets. Their lines were modern. The buildings were huge, and there were many of them. Undeniably, the Communist system had done something for the people. If the misery of the peasants was great, at least the worker seemed to have benefited from the new times. Still, it was necessary to visit and examine the buildings. We lived for six months in the Donets coal basin. We had plenty of time to test the conclusions that we had reached at the time of our entrance into Dniepropetrovsk. The buildings, so impressive from a distance, were just a gigantic hoax, intended to fool sightseers shepherded by Intourist [Soviet tourism agency] and the viewers of documentary films. Approaching those housing blocks you were sickened by the stench of mud and excrement that rose from the quagmires surrounding each of the buildings. Around them were neither sidewalks nor gravel nor paving stones. The Russian mud was everywhere, and everywhere the walls peeled and crumbled. The quality of the construction materials was of the lowest order. All the balconies had come loose, and already the cement stairways were worn and grooved, although the buildings were only a few years old. "
― Leon Degrelle , The Eastern Front: Memoirs of a Waffen SS Volunteer, 1941-1945
11
" The questions about frontiers, about material affairs didn't interest us very much. Living ceaselessly face to face with death, we came to understand to an intense degree the importance of spiritual forces. The front held only because at the front there were souls, souls which believed, which burned with ardor, which radiated strength. Our victories were won not only with weapons, but with virtues.
The problems of the post-war period would be identical. Economic victories would not be enough. Political reorganizations would not be enough. A great moral redemption would be necessary, which would cleanse away the blemishes of our time, which would restore our souls with the fresh air of passion and of unconditional service.
National revolution, yes. Social revolution, yes. European revolution, yes. But above all else a spiritual revolution a thousand times more necessary than external order, than external justice, than fraternity in words alone.
The world emerging from the killing and the hatred of the war would need, first, pure hearts, believing in their mission, dedicating themselves to it, pure hearts in whom the masses could believe and to whom they could devote themselves. "
― Leon Degrelle , The Eastern Front: Memoirs of a Waffen SS Volunteer, 1941-1945
15
" This time the war was really over.
We were alive. God had saved us.
My injuries themselves were a blessing.
I spent months in a hospital bed, but I had kept my strength and my faith.
I hadn't experienced the bitterness of falling uselessly into the hands of my enemies.
I remained, a witness to my soldiers' deeds. I could defend them from the lies of adversarie~ insensible to heroism. I could tell of their epic on the Donets and the Don, in the Caucasus and at Cherkassy, in Estonia, at Stargard, on the Oder.
One day the sacred names of our dead would be repeated with pride. Our people, hearing these tales of glory, would feel their blood quicken. And they would know their sons.
Certainly we had been beaten. We had been dispersed and pursued to the four corners of the world.
But we could look to the future with heads held high. History weighs the merit of men. Above worldly baseness, we had offered our youth against total immolation. We had fought for Europe, its faith, its civilization. We had reached the very height of sincerity and sacrifice. Sooner or later Europe and the world would have to recognize the justice of our cause and the purity of our gift.
For hate dies, dies suffocated by its own stupidity and mediocrity, but grandeur is eternal.
And we lived in grandeur. "
― Leon Degrelle , The Eastern Front: Memoirs of a Waffen SS Volunteer, 1941-1945
16
" I sometimes made huge mistakes. But what actually is a mistake in politics? And when I look back, I have only one sentiment: an enormous regret. Regret that we did not succeed, that we were not able to create this European world which would be the master of the universe for all time, which made the white race the first race, with the great mastery of the spirit.
And when we see what there is on the other side, what 30 years of the others’ victory has given, this anarchy in the world, this rout of the white world, this desertion throughout the universe; when we see in our own countries the decay of morals, the fall of the fatherland, the fall of the family, the fall of social order; when we see this appetite for material goods which has replaced the great flame of the ideal which animated us, well then, truly, between the two we chose the right side. The small, miserable Europe of today, of this impoverished Common Market, cannot give happiness to men. Consumer society poisons humanity rather than elevating it.
So, for our part, we dreamed of something great, and we have only one desire, that this spirit be reborn. And with all my might, up to the last moment of my existence, I will fight for this. So that what was our struggle and our martyrdom, will one day be the resurrection. "
― Leon Degrelle
18
" I loved the life of a soldier, simple as could be, free of worldly concerns, ambitions, and interests.
It had been months since I'd received the least bit of news of the scuffle of the Forum. The viperous swarm of office seekers, the temptations and dishonesties of the political arena sickened me. I preferred my filthy isba to the ministerial palaces, my worn trooper's jacket to the stifling comfort of middle class mediocrity. As I looked at the pure eyes of my soldiers, cleansed by sacrifice, I felt rising toward me the wholesome gift of their ideal. I gave them, from my side, all that burned in my heart. "
― Leon Degrelle , The Eastern Front: Memoirs of a Waffen SS Volunteer, 1941-1945
19
" To Arms for Europe
Speech delivered at Paris, March 5, 1944, at the Palais de Chaillot
It is no longer possible for these hundreds of thousands of men to be dead, borne by the most sublime virtues, so that we can then return to the dunghill of mediocrity, baseness, and vileness. The front creates not only the forces of salvation on the military ground, the revolutionary forces that will pass through everything tomorrow, but it prepares the revolution that is most necessary to Europe: the spiritual revolution. We need straight and pure men, who know that the highest joys of man are in the soul. We will no longer admit the mediocrity of souls, we will no longer admit that men live for sordid joys, for their egoism, in a narrow atmosphere. We want to raise. peoples, restore their appetite, greatness. We want people to have these sovereign joys to rise above everyday life.
That is why, my dear comrades, we must be united. Europe set against communism, to defend our civilization, our spiritual patrimony and our old cities, must be united, and each people deserve its place, not by adding the past, but by giving the blood that is washing and who purifies. Europe must be united to realize, under the sign of the SS, the national socialist revolution, and to bring to souls, the revolution of souls. "
― Leon Degrelle
