Hitler & Mussolini Records

[PeterF]

Got it here:

http://98.130.146.204/78_rpm/audio/1925 ... solini.mp3


Thanks!

[Marco Gilardetti]

Here are the first 2 minutes. Please (anyone) ask if you find it interesting and would really like me to go ahead with transcription / translation. And please be serious with your request: I do it gladly but it's very time consuming. Actually, I didn't figure it was an 8 mins speech but thought it was just one side of a record!

Con vivo compiacimento e realizzando un mio autentico e non recente desiderio colgo l'opportunità di far giungere alla grande Nazione d'oltreoceano, ai suoi cittadini ed agli operosi emigrati italiani, la mia voce.
Ho per gli Stati Uniti l'amicizia piu' cordiale e trovo che con pochi paesi come con esso l'Italia moderna possiede stretti ed autentici legami. Difatti, sia i continui scambi commerciali sia l'affluire di grandi correnti umane sia anche un innegabile desiderio di conoscerci ed apprezzarci, hanno stabilito assidui rapporti tra i due paesi ed hanno fatto nascere una reciproca comprensione morale da cui è naturalmente scaturita una scambievole simpatia.
Entrambe le nazioni infatti hanno molti punti in comune. Come l'America, anche l'Italia di oggi è sana, semplice, piena di fiducia in sé stessa. Aggiungete a tutto ciò il fascino che le nostre due civiltà esercitano l'una sull'altra: l'attrazione americana per la nostra civiltà millenaria e sempre rifiorente, l'interesse italiano per la civiltà americana in pieno sviluppo rigoglioso. Io stesso sono di questa civiltà americana un sincero ammiratore: vedo in essa, nonostante le sue origini europee, una forza nuova, ricca di poderosi elementi del tutto proprî. La sua originalità più marcata e più seducente è l'avere come base il lavoro, inteso con una nuova e bella concezione. Il lavoro, infatti, non è più concepito come una specie di castigo che l'uomo è costretto a subire per un tragico e immutabile destino, ma è invece concepito come la vera finalità della vita. Ecco un punto di vista che ha veramente una grande importanza nella storia dell'umanità. Gli Stati Uniti ci offrono così l'esempio ammirevole di questo stimolo ardente e indomabile di lavoro, di quest'ansia di produrre ricchezza e di spanderla poi nel mondo, per la sua maggiore fecondità.
É accusata questa civiltà di essere dominata esclusivamente da fattori meccanici e materiali, e di essere imperniata solo sul desiderio del guadagno. Nulla di più falso. La civiltà nord-americana ha dato all'attività spirituale del mondo un contributo non lieve. Nella scienza ha prodotto la genialità di un Edison; nelle lettere e nella filosofia può vantare le glorie di Longfellow, Coopers (sic!), Whiteman (sic!), Emerson, Poe, London, Twain, James. E questa civiltà, io credo, ancora più darà nel futuro. Essa creerà immancabilmente un'arte nuova, giovane di spirito e fresca di forma, un'arte con caratteri veramente proprî, e che sarà rappresentativa dei sentimenti, del pensiero e della vita del popolo americano.
Frammisti alla società americana vi sono oggi milioni di italiani che si sono costituiti laggiù una nuova vita. Sono finanzieri, professionisti, industriali, operai, umili od oscuri, degni tutti del maggiore rispetto. Pur conservando intenso nel cuore l'amore per la patria lontana e il culto della terra ove son nati, essi sono profondamente e sinceramente attaccati alla grande nazione in cui vivono ed operano. Ed io, come non perdo occasione di elogiarli per la loro condotta che li ha fatti circondare d'affetto e da stima, così non cesso di raccomandare loro la disciplina e il massimo rispetto per le istituzioni locali, e la devozione per il paese che li ospita.
Animato da tali sentimenti, convinto dell'esistenza tra Stati Uniti e Italia dei profondi legami di cui ho parlato, ho veduto con grande compiacimento farsi sempre più strada nella grande repubblica stellata la conoscenza dell'Italia e la comprensione del fascismo. Ora, finalmente, tutti in America conoscono il popolo italiano non più come un elemento decorativo di paesaggi romantici, ma come un popolo ricco di patriottismo di operosità e di energia, disciplinato ed equilibrato, austero ed attivo. Tutti riconoscono il suo spirito nuovo in cui è moltiplicata ogni attività e in cui ognuno agisce mosso da un superiore fine nazionale. E quasi tutti oggi vedono nel regime fascista quel ch'esso realmente è: un movimento popolare che ha esaltato tutti i valori nazionali, un governo forte che ha riorganizzato la nazione moltiplicandone la produttività e l'energia, un sistema politico che ha creato uno stato veramente nuovo e moderno, un edificio politico-sociale organico e stabile in cui tutti i legittimi interessi sono equilibrati ed armonizzati.
Questo riconoscimento da parte degli Stati Uniti non poteva mancare. All'infuori infatti delle somiglianze spirituali che ho già ricordato, anche altri fattori hanno inevitabilmente concorso. Entrambi i popoli, infine, hanno uno perché da poco sorto, l'altro perché da poco risorto, il senso di doversi completare, assestare, direi quasi solidificare e la cognizione di dover anteporre a tutto le necessità di sviluppo della loro patria. Stati Uniti e Italia sono oggi insomma più vicini che mai: nati per intendersi a causa delle loro intime rassomiglianze, i due popoli si sono andati sempre più conoscendo e sempre più stimando. Non divisi da interessi discordi ma legati da continui rapporti si sono sempre più intimamente avvicinati. Entrambi, fieri d'una guerra combattuta insieme, traggono da essa, risolta ogni questione finanziaria, solo ragioni di compiacimento e ricordi di gloria. Produttori uno di lavoro e uno di lavoratori, trovano nei milioni di italiani immigrati perfetto esempio della fusione di due civiltà, un portentoso e proficuo tratto d'unione. Si è stabilito così un rapporto indissolubile di cordialità, d'amicizia e di collaborazione. D'ora in poi i due paesi potranno, ne sono certo, percorrere insieme un lungo cammino.
Concludendo: voglio che la mia voce dica oggi ai cittadini americani la mia ammirazione per le loro virtù e la mia simpatia per la loro patria, e dica ai miei connazionali immigrati il mio fervido ricordo e il mio elogio per la loro rettitudine e la loro infaticabile operosità.
Americani ed italiani d'America, io vi unisco tutti nello stesso caloroso saluto!


With vivid complacency and fulfilling an authentic and not recent desire of mine, I'm taking the chance to convey my voice to the grat overseas Nation, to its citizens and to the hardworking Italian emigrants.
I have the most hearty friendship towards the United States and I feel that with very few other countries modern Italy has strict and true ties as with it. Indeed, the ceaseless commercial trades as well as the stream of huge human flows as well as also an undeniable desire to know and appreciate each other, have estabilished assiduous relationships between the two countries and gave birth to a reciprocal moral comprehension, from which a reciprocated simpathy has spontaneously sprung.
The two nations have, as a matter of fact, many sides in common. Like America, nowadays Italy is healthy, simple, full of confidence in itself. Sum up to all this the charm that our two civilizations radiate on each other: the American attraction towards our millenary and ever blooming civilization, the Italian interest towards the American civilization in full flourishing development. I, myself, am a sincere admirer of this American civilization: I see in it, notwithstanding its European origins, a new strength, rich of powerful elements that are purely of its own. Its prominent and more charming originality consists in having the work at its roots, (work) intended in a new and beautiful conception. The work is, indeed, no longer conceived as a sort of punishment that the man is forced to suffer because of a tragic and immutable fate, but it's instead conceived as the true purpose of life. Here we have a point of view that has a truly big relevance in human history. The United States so offer the admirable model of this fierce and untamable urge to work, of this anxiety to produce richness and to spread it upon the world afterwards, to improve its fertility.
This civilization is accused of being ruled by mechanical and material factors only, and of being focused on the desire of profit only. Nothing is more false than this. The North-American civilization gave to the world's spiritual activity a remarkable contribution. In the science field it has produced the cleverness of Edison; in literature and philosophy it can claim the glories of Longfellow, Coopers (sic!), Whiteman (sic!), Emerson, Poe, London, Twain, James. And this civilization, I believe, will give even more in the future. It will unfailingly create a new art, young in spirit and fresh in form, an art with characters truly of its own, and which will depict the feelings, the thoughts and life of the American people.
Intermixed to the American society there are today millions of Italians who have built for themselves a new life down there. They are businessmen, professionals, industrialists, workmen, lowly and obscure ones, all deign of the higher respect. Although they preserve in their hearts the intense love for the far away motherland and the worship for the land where they were born, they are deeply and sincerely fond of the great nation in which they live and work. And I, as well as I never miss a chance to praise them for their behaviour that gained to them affection and respect, at the same time I never cease to advise them to have discipline and the highest respect towards local institutions, and devotion towards the country of which they are guests.
Moved by such sentiments, persuaded of the existence of deep connections between United States and Italy, about which I've spoken already, I saw with huge complacency the knowledge of Italy and the comprehennsion of fascism expand in the Great Starry Republic. Now, at last, everyone in America knows the Italian people no longer as a decorative complement of pictoresque landscapes, but as people rich in patriotism industriousness and energy, disciplined and balanced, stern and active. Everyone see its new spirit in which every activity is multiplied and in which everyone operates moved by a superior national aim. And almost everyone today sees in the fascist regime what it really is: a popular movement that exalted all national moral values, a strong government that reorganized the nation multiplying its productivity and energy, a political system that created a state truly new and modern, a political and social building organic and stable in which all legitimate interests are balanced and harmonised.
The United States couldn't fail to acknowledge that. Indeed, spiritual similarities that I have already recalled aside, also other factors unavoidably contributed. Finally, both civilizations, one because recently born, the other because recently re-born, feel the urge to complete themselves, settle themselves, I'd say almost solidify themselves, and the urge to place the development of their countries before everything else. United States and Italy are today, in short, closer than ever: born to understand each other because of their intimate similarities, the two peoples progressively grew up a reciprocated knowledge and respect. Not divided by clashing affairs but related by continuous relationships they have got more and more intimately closer. Both of them, proud of a war fought together, draw from it, every financial issue (finally) settled, only grounds of complacency and memories of glory. One producer of work and the other producer of workers, they find in the millions of Italian immigrants the perfect exemplification of the melting of two civilizations, a prodigious and fruitful binding knot. It has therefore established an unbreakable relationship of cordiality, friendship and cooperation. From now on the two countries will, I'm sure, travel a long path together.
In conclusion: I want my voice to tell today to the American citizens my admiration for their virtues and my sympathy for their homeland, and tell to my immigrated compatriots my fervent remembrance and my praise for their straightforwardness and unweary industriousness.
Americans and American Italians, I unite you all in the same hearty greeting!

[alang]

Marco,
Thank you very much for your translation. I find it very interesting, a view into the politics before the craziness of war. While I do know that it is time consuming and tedious to translate a revord like that, I would be very interested in reading the rest of it.
Thanks again
Andreas

[Marco Gilardetti]

All right, will try to find the time to go ahead tomorrow!

Indeed, before the crazy strict alliance between Mussolini and Hitler and all the warfare that followed, there were excellent relationships between Italy and USA, and the fascist regime was seen with great simpathy by many American politicians and businessmen. And by common people as well. All to be completely reverted in the few following years.

[PeterF]

Yes, Marco, please continue - this is fascinating. Thanks!

[marcapra]

Marco,

This looks like a difficult translation! The speech is very wordy with very long, convoluted sentences. I know that Google Translates would make a verbal mess out of that speech:

With great pleasure and realizing my true desire and recently I take this opportunity to convey to the great nation overseas, its citizens and the hard-working Italian immigrants, my voice.
I for the US friendship more 'friendly and I find that with a few countries like Italy and it has modern and authentic close ties. In fact, it is the continuous trade is the flow of large current human is also an undeniable desire to know each other and appreciate each other, they have established regular relations between the two countries and gave birth to a mutual understanding of morality which is naturally led to a mutual sympathy.
Both nations fact have much in common. Like America, also Italy today is healthy, simple, full of self-confidence. Add to that the charm that our two civilizations exert on one another: the attraction for our American civilization thousands of years and still flourishing, the interest for Italian American civilization booming lush. I am myself of this American civilization a sincere admirer: I see in it, despite its European origins, a new force, full of powerful elements of all their. Its originality stronger and more seductive is having as basis the work, understood in a new and beautiful design.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I have edited the above transcription/translation, which now contains the whole message.

Indeed it was not a simple task, and I'm admired by how an automatic translator could anyway deliver a comprehensible message. More or less, that's the sense of the sentences. Considered the operation took probably few seconds while I needed some hours, I feel like I've lost the match somehow.

[PeterF]

Thanks so much, Marco! Very interesting.

Nothing like a little fascism with one's morning coffee.

[alang]

Thank you very much Marco! It is always interesting to see parts and tidbits of history that are otherwise forgotten in the big picture view. I think these little insights into our past show that like today nothing is ever just black or white, there are always nuances that may or may not lead to historic events. Why would anyone back then have suspected anything evil coming after a friendly message like that?

Andreas

[Marco Gilardetti]

Indeed, you're right. And once you've made your mind up that someone is a good and friendly man, it takes much more to reckon how evil he is instead.

That's actually a non negligible side of "being evil" - showing a gentle side, and later a violent one.

It has not to be forgotten, however, that at the time in which this message was recorded and delivered, the United States had also many sides that might be called fascist. The authoritarian way in which president Roosevelt reacted (or better: didn't react) to the Hoover's Dam workers requests, reducing them and their families basically to starvation, is often cited as an enlightning example. Probably this was the kind of "friendship" that Mussolini had in mind.