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imprisonment of German citizens in concentration cemps, therefore in the   
furthest parts of the German nation a feeling of lack of rights, yes, of   
cowardly fear, has already taken hold, which is causing great harm to  
                   German national unity.                   
 
                                                            
 
 
The obligations of my episcopal office to protect moral order, and the   
obligation of the oath which I took before God and the representative of   
the Reich Government in which I promised to prevent with all my power any   
harm which might threaten the German State, force me in face of the deeds   
 of the Gestapo to pronounce this fact in a public warning. 
 
                                                            
 
 
My Christians: It may be said against me that by this frank speech I am   
weakening the internal Front of the German people now in this time of war.   
In reply I state: It is not I who am the cause of any weakening of the   
internal front, but those who, regardless of war, regardless of external   
tribulation, here in Munster at the end of a terrible week of grim enemy   
attacks, impose heavy punishment on innocent citizens without sentence and   
without the chance to defend themselves, robbing our fellow-countrymen, our  
brothers and sisters, of their property, throwing them into the street and   
hunting them from the country| They destroy the security of Right they   
undermine the consciousness of right, they destroy faith in the government   
of our State| I therefore, in the name of the upright German people, in   
the name of the Majesty of Justice, in the interests of peace and  
the unity of the internal front, raise my voice; therefore I call aloud as   
a German man, as an honourable citizen, as representative of the Christian   
religion,