against their liquidation (16–23 August), and the Danes helped most of the Danish Jews planned for arrest to escape. Speech of 4 October 1943 Himmler did not prepare most of his speeches beforehand, but used terse handwritten notes instead. Since the end of 1942 his verbal lectures were no longer documented in shorthand, but recorded via phonograph onto wax master plates. These recordings were then typed up by SS-Untersturmführer Werner Alfred Wenn, who corrected obvious grammatical errors and supplemented missing words. Himmler then added his own handwritten corrections, and the thus authorised version was copied up via typewriter in large characters and then filed away. Of Himmler's three-hour speech of 4 October 1943, 115 pages of the final typewritten edition (one page was lost) were discovered among SS files and submitted to the Nuremberg Trials as document 1919-PS. On day 23 of the hearing, a passage (which however did not concern the Holocaust) was read out. A live recording of this speech survives, allowing for the differences between the spoken and the copyedited version to be examined. They are minor, and in no case distortionary. Addressees, reason and purpose Himmler gave the first speech in the town hall of Posen, and not in the imperial palace as is often erroneously assumed. Of the SS's leadership cadre, 33 Obergruppenführer, 51 Gruppenführer and eight Brigadeführer from the whole of the Reich were present. Many of these came from areas of occupied eastern Europe. Large parts of the speech therefore concerned the increasingly precarious situation on the Eastern Front, while attempting to explain Soviet military successes as being due to a claimed combination of Communist ruthlessness and the weaknesses of Germany's allies. Only about two minutes of the speech concerns the destruction of the Jews. Himmler assumes that his audience is experienced with mass shootings, ghetto liquidations and extermination camps, and accordingly, already possesses knowledge of them. The speech is to justify the crimes already perpetrated, and to commit its listeners to the "higher purpose" bestowed upon them. Around 50 officers not present were sent a copy of the speech and had to confirm their acknowledgment of it. On the course of war After a tribute to the war dead, Himmler gave his view of the war so far. The tough Soviet resistance could be attributed to the political commissars, the German Invasion of the Soviet Union was a preemptive strike and due