Interview with Rudel on youtube

[Sivodsi]

Apologies if this has been posted before, but does anybody know if a translation exists?

[Krautman]

I could give it a try. Please note that I am anything but a skilled translator. Furthermore, there are some key terms which I didn't understand due to the bad quality, so the actual meaning could be very different.

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POMPOUS NAZI PROPAGANDA VOICE: The German Wochenschau (~Weekly News) visits Colonel Rudel in an Air Force military hospital.

DOCTOR: I wanted to inquire as to the state of your health.

RUDEL: I'm feeling excellent.

DOCTOR: It's your leg (or) what about you leg (not really intelligible)?

RUDEL: It's okay, I just hope I can fly again soon.

DOCTOR: Yes Colonel, that (=your ability to fly an airplane) will soon come again.

RUDEL: I hope it (the recovery) will take a short amount of time.

NURSE or maybe PROPAGANDA GIRL: (Some nice chit-chat, unintelligible to me, I think she talks about him marrying or something)

RUDEL: Yes, you women are of the opinion that I am (???).

NURSE/PROPAGANDA GIRL: Well, we're happy that you are in good hands here.

OFFICER/PROPAGANDA GUY: Now, Colonel, what happened (meaning the events leading to his injury)?

RUDEL: Well, I got hit quite badly ["es hat mich ziemlich erheblich erwischt"]. Responsible were the first tanks crossing the Oder (the river), which of course I wanted to destroy (the tanks- not the Oder...), and, well, considering the tanks driving to (or: into, inside?) Germany, we have changed our tactics with regard to the conditions of defense.

[i think with the 'conditions of defense'/"Abwehrbedingungen" he means the state of the war, with no more space to be given up. This demands new tactics]

The guys (enemy soldiers) are always/with all means/recklessly attacked.

["Die Leute werden hundertprozentig angegriffen" as I understand. I'm not sure about the key term "hundertprozentig", though].

In this case, the (AA?) defense was quite strong, and, during my last approach on a Stalin [iS tank?], I was hit by a 4cm Flak, and, well, the plane became aflame and I got the(se) leg injury(ies). I flew for another couple of minutes and finally managed an adequate landing on friendly territory. (The Knight's Cross is shown)

The only thing which is really annoying about my injury is that I am unable to fly in this critical situation and have to let my comrades, my squadron, fly without me. I will in the near future be able to fly again, I assume it is only a matter of a very short amount of time.

This time it is not about personal sacrifices. We all have to clench our teeth and to willingly accept these hardships, and eventually, our people [Volk], which has hitherto fought so bravely and clenched their teeth, will gain the final victory.

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Nice Nazi propaganda to make more people eager to get crippled or killed. My personal impression of Rudel after having seen this short clip is that he perhaps ain't a man of great rhetorical skill, i.e. the way he speaks sounds a bit awkward to me. His language style is in some instances rather colloquial, and then there are the passages which sound as if you could print them. Most likely, the Wochenschau guys did some nice rehearsal with Rudel... Why is such stuff allowed on Youtube?

[ April 17, 2008, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Krautman ]

[Sivodsi]

Hey thanks man, that's really interesting.

I wonder how widely this was released? I'm not sure about the propaganda value of letting the public know that the enemy have crossed the Oder.

Interesting comments about his style of speaking. Maybe explained partly by being juiced up on morphine? Or perhaps he was reading from an autocue or something.

[JasonC]

I want Stukas that can destroy rivers! Just by strafing. And a nurse...

(lol)