September's victories at Leningrad and Kiev persuaded Adolf Hitler, it was still possible

to capture Moscow and perhaps end the war against the USSR before the end of 1941. Welcome to the

history of the 20th century. Episode 348, 5 minutes to midnight.

On October 3, 1941,

Adolf Hitler returned to Berlin to deliver a speech at the Schwarzpollast.

Now, I've mentioned the Schwarzpollest before, but I've never explained exactly what it was,

so let me take a moment to remedy that. The Sportpalast is an indoor arena in Berlin. It was built in

1910. It ceded 14,000, making it the largest indoor venue in the city.

In the past, it had hosted hockey and ice skating, bicycle races, boxing matches, and beer festivals, this being Germany.

During the Weimar Republic era, all of the major political parties, including the Nazis,

hosted political rallies at the Sportpalist. Those other political parties were gone now,

but Hitler and the Nazis still used it for that purpose. In years to come, the Schportpalist

would host concerts by Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Hendrix,

and Pink Floyd, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This would be Hitler's first public speech since the one he gave at the successful conclusion

of the Balkan campaign. He'd been holed up at the Wolfslair for three months,

preoccupied with the war against the USSR, and his propaganda minister, Yosef Goebbels, expressed

some concern over whether Hitler still had it after all this time with no public appearances.

He needn't have worried. Hitler was as sharp as ever,

declaring that the war was forced on Germany by a conspiracy of Democrats, Jewish people, and

freemasons, and that the invasion of the Soviet Union was a necessary preemptive strike

made to prevent an attack on Germany.

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