dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. ALDERMAN: I now offer in evidence Document 2861-PS, an excerpt from the official British War Blue Book, at Page 24, and I offer it as Exhibit USA-ll9. This is an official document of the British Government, of which the Tribunal will take judicial notice under the provisions of Article 21 of the Charter . The part from which I read is a dispatch from the British Ambassador, Sir Nevile Henderson, describing a conversation with the Defendant Goering, in which the events of this early morning meeting are set forth. "Sir N. Henderson to Viscount Halifax, Berlin, May 28, 1939. "My Lord: I paid a short visit to Field Marshal Goering at Karinhall yesterday." Then I skip two paragraphs and begin reading with Paragraph 4. I am sorry, I think I better read all of those paragraphs: "Field Marshal Goering, who had obviously just been talking to someone else on the subject, began by inveighing against the attitude which was being adopted in England towards everything German and, particularly, in respect of the gold held there on behalf of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia. Before, however, I had time to reply, he was called to the telephone and on his return did not revert to this specific question. He complained, instead, of British hostility in general, of our political and economic encirclement of Germany and the activities of what he described as the war party in England.... "I told the Field Marshal that before speaking of British hostility, he must understand why the undoubted change of feeling towards Germany in England had taken place. As he knew quite well, the basis of all the discussions between Mr. Chamberlain and Herr Hitler last year had been to the effect that, once the Sudeten were allowed to enter the Reich, Germany would leave the Czechs alone and would do nothing to interfere with their independence. Herr Hitler had given a definite assurance to that effect in his letter to the Prime Minister of the 27th September. By yielding to the advice of his 'wild men' and deliberately annexing Bohemia and Moravia, Herr Hitler had not only broken his word to Mr.
MR. ALDERMAN: Chamberlain but had infringed the whole principle of self determination on which the Munich Agreement rested. "At this point, the Field Marshal interrupted me with a description of President Hacha's visit to Berlin. I told Field Marshal Goering that it was not possible to talk of free will when I understood that he himself had threatened to bombard Prague with his airplanes, if Doctor Hacha refused to sign. The Field Marshal did not deny the fact but explained how the point had arisen. According to him, Doctor Hacha had from the first been prepared to sign everything but had said that constitutionally he could not do so without reference first to Prague. After considerable difficulty, telephonic communication with Prague was obtained and the Czech Government had agreed, while adding that they could not guarantee that one Czech battalion at least would not fire on German troops. It was, he said, only at that stage that he had warned Doctor Hacha that, if German lives were lost, he would bombard Prague. The Field Marshal also repeated, in reply to some comment of mine, the story that the advance occupation of Vitkovice had been effected solely in order to forestall the Poles who, he said, were known to have the intention of seizing this valuable area at the first opportunity." I also invite the attention of the Tribunal and the judicial notice of the Tribunal, to Dispatch Number 77, in the French Official Yellow Book, at Page 96 of the book, identified as our Document 2943-PS, appearing in the Document Book under that number, and I ask that it be given an identifying number, Exhibit USA-114. This is a dispatch from M. Coulondre, the French Ambassador, and it gives another well-informed version of this same midnight meeting. The account, which I shall present to the Court, of the remainder of this meeting is drawn from these two sources, the British Blue Book and the French Yellow Book. I think the Court may be interested to read somewhat further at large, in those two books, which furnish a great deal of the background of all of these matters.
MR. ALDERMAN: When President Hacha left the conference room in the Reich Chancellery, he was in such a state of exhaustion that he needed medical attention from a physician who was conveniently on hand for that purpose, a German physician. When the two Czechs returned to the room, the Nazi conspirators again told them of the power and invincibility of the Wehrmacht. They reminded them that in 3 hours, at 6 in the morning . . .
THE PRESIDENT: You are not reading? I beg your pardon!
MR. ALDERMAN: I am not reading, I am summarizing.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on.
MR. ALDERMAN: They reminded them that in 3 hours, at 6 in the morning, the German Army would cross the border. The Defendant Goering boasted of what the Wehrmacht would do if the Czech forces dared to resist the invading Germans. If German lives were lost, Defendant Goering said, his Luftwaffe would blaze half of Prague into ruins in 2 hours and that, Goering said, would be only the beginning. Under this threat of imminent and merciless attack by land and air, the aged President of Czechoslovakia at 4:30 o'clock in the morning, signed the document with which the Nazi conspirators confronted him and which they had already had prepared. This Document is TC-49, the declaration of 15 March 1939, one of the series of documents which will be presented by the British prosecutor, and from it I quote this, on the assumption that it will subsequently be introduced. "The President of the Czechoslovakian State . . . entrusts with entire confidence the destiny of the Czech people and the Czech country to the hands of the Fuehrer of the German Reich" -really a rendezvous with destiny. While the Nazi officials were threatening and intimidating the representatives of the Czech Government, the Wehrmacht had in some areas already crossed the Czech border. I offer in evidence Document 2860-PS, another excerpt from the British Blue Book , of which I ask the Court to take judicial notice. This is a speech by Lord Halifax, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, from which I quote one passage: "It is to be observed" -and the fact is surely not without significance- "that the towns of Mahrisch-Ostrau and Vitkovice were actually occupied by German SS detachments on the evening of the 14th March, while the President and the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia were still on their way to Berlin and before any discussion had taken place." At dawn on March 15, German troops poured into Czechoslovakia from all sides.
MR. ALDERMAN: Hitler issued an order of the day to the Armed Forces and a proclamation to the German people, which stated distinctly, "Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist." On the following day, in- contravention of Article 81 of the Treaty of Versailles, Czechoslovakia was formally incorporated into the German Reich under the name of "The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia." The decree is Document TC-51, another of the documents which the British Delegation will present to the Tribunal later in this week. It was signed in Prague on 16 March 1939, by Hitler, Lammers, and the Defendants Frick and Von Ribbentrop. I should like to quote the first sentence of this decree, "The Bohemian and Moravian countries belonged for a millennium to the Lebensraum"-living space-"of the German people." The remainder of the decree sets forth in bleak detail the extent to which Czechoslovakia henceforth was subjected to Germany. A German Protector was to be appointed by the German Fuehrer for the socalled "Protectorate"-the Defendant Von Neurath. God deliver us from such protectors! The German Government assumed charge of their foreign affairs and of their customs and of their excises. It was specified that German garrisons and military establishments would be maintained in the Protectorate. At the same time the extremist leaders in Slovakia who, at German Nazi insistence, had done so much to undermine the Czech State, found that the independence of their week-old state was itself, in effect, qualified. I offer in evidence Document 1439-PS as Exhibit USA-I need not offer that. I think it is a decree in the Reichsgesetzblatt, of which I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice, and it is identified as our Document 1439-PS. It appears at Page 606, 1939, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part II.
MR. ALDERMAN: The covering declaration is signed by the Defendant Ribbentrop, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and then there is a heading: "Treaty of Protection to be extended by the German Reich to the State of Slovakia." "The German Government and the Slovakian Government have agreed, after the Slovakian State has placed itself under the protection of the German Reich, to regulate by treaty the consequences resulting from this fact. For this purpose, the undersigned representatives of the two governments have -agreed on the following provisions: "Article 1. The German Reich undertakes to protect the political independence of the State of Slovakia and integrity of its territory. "Article 2. For the purpose of making effective the protection undertaken by the German Reich, the German Armed Forces shall have the right, at all times, to construct military installations and to keep them garrisoned in the strength they deem necessary, in an area delimited on its western side by the frontiers of the State of Slovakia, and on its eastern side by a line formed by the eastern rims of the Lower Carpathians, the White Carpathians, and the Javornik Mountains."-Then I skip- "The Government of Slovakia will organize its military forces in close agreement with the German Armed Forces."
THE PRESIDENT: Wouldn't that be a convenient time to break off? I understand, too, that it would be for the convenience of the Defense Counsel if the Tribunal adjourn for an hour and a quarter rather than for an hour at midday, and accordingly, the Tribunal will retire at 12:45 and sit again at 2:00. [A recess was taken.]
MR. ALDERMAN: May it please the Tribunal, this secret protocol between Germany and Slovakia provided for close economic and financial collaboration between Germany an Slovakia. Mineral resources and subsoil rights were placed at the disposal of the German Government. I offer in evidence Document 2793-PS, Exhibit USA-120, an from it I read Paragraph 3: "Investigation, development, and utilization of the Slovak natural resources. In this respect the basic principle is that, insofar as they are not needed to meet Slovakia's own requirements, they should be placed in first line at Germany's disposal. The entire soil research"-"Bodenforschung" is the German word-"will be placed under the Reich Agency for soil research."-that is the Reichsstelle fur Bodenforschung-"The Government of the Slovak State will soon start an investigation to determine whether the present owners of concessions and privileges have fulfilled the industrial obligations prescribed by law and it will cancel concessions and privileges in cases where these duties have been neglected." In their private conversations the Nazi conspirators gave abundant evidence that they considered Slovakia a mere puppet state-in effect a German possession. I offer in evidence Document R-100 as Exhibit USA-121. This document is a memorandum of information given by Hitler to Von Brauchitsch on 25 March 1939. Much of it deals with problems arising from recently occupied Bohemia and Moravia and Slovakia. I quote, beginning at the sixth paragraph: "Colonel General Keitel shall inform Slovak Government via Foreign Office that it would not be allowed to keep or garrison armed Slovak units (Hlinka Guards) on this side of the border formed by the river Waag. They shall be transferred to the new Slovak territory. Hlinka Guards should be disarmed. "Slovakia shall be requested via Foreign Office to deliver to us, against payment, any arms we want and which are still kept in Slovakia. This request is to be based upon agreement made between Army and Czech troops.
MR. ALDERMAN: For this payment those millions should be used which we will pour anyhow into Slovakia. "Czech Protectorate: "H. Gr."-the translator's note indicates that that probably means army groups, but I can't vouch for it-"shall be asked again whether the request shall be repeated again for the delivery of all arms within a stated time limit and under the threat of severe penalties. "We take all war material of former Czechoslovakia without paying for it. The guns bought by contract before 15 February, though, shall be paid for.... Bohemia and Moravia have to make annual contributions to the German Treasury. Their amount shall be fixed on the basis of the expenses earmarked formerly for the Czech Army." The German conquest of Czechoslovakia, in direct contravention of the Munich Agreement, was the occasion for the formal protest by the British and French Governments. These documents, Numbers TC-52 and TC-53, dated 17 March 1939, will be presented to the Tribunal by the British prosecutor. On the same day, 17 March 1939, the Acting Secretary of State of the United States Government issued a statement, which I will offer in evidence and I invite the Court to take judicial notice of the entire volume, Document 2862-PS as Exhibit USA-122, which is an excerpt from the official volume entitled Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931-1941 issued under the seal of the Department of State of the United States of America. Incidentally, this volume which happens to be my own copy-and I hope I can get another one-I am placing in evidence, because I am quite certain that in its study of the background of this whole case, the Court will be very much interested in this volume, which is a detailed chronological history of all the diplomatic events leading up to and through the second World War of 1941.
MR. ALDERMAN: But what I am actually offering in evidence at the moment appears on Pages 454 and 455 of the volume, a statement by the Acting Secretary of State Welles, dated 17 March 1939: "The Government of the United States has on frequent occasions stated its conviction that only through international support of a program of order based upon law can world peace be assured. "This Government, founded upon and dedicated to the principles of human liberty and of democracy, cannot refrain from making known this country's condemnation of the acts which have resulted in the temporary extinguishment of the liberties of a free and independent people with whom, from the day when the Republic of Czechoslovakia attained its independence, the people of the United States have maintained specially close and friendly relations. "The position of the Government of the United States has been made consistently clear. It has emphasized the need for respect for the sanctity of treaties and of the pledged word, and for non-intervention by any nation in the domestic affairs of other nations; and it has on repeated occasions expressed its condemnation of a policy of military aggression. "It is manifest that acts of wanton lawlessness and of arbitrary force are threatening the world peace and the very structure of modern civilization. The imperative need for the observance of the principles advocated by this Government has been clearly demonstrated by the developments which have taken place during the past 3 days." With Czechoslovakia in German hands, the Nazi conspirators had accomplished the program they had set themselves in the meeting in Berlin on 5 November 1937. You will recall that this program of conquest was intended to shorten their frontiers, to increase their industrial and food reserves, and to place them in a position, both industrially and strategically, from which they could launch more ambitious and more devastating campaigns of aggression.
MR. ALDERMAN: In less than a year and a half this program had been carried through to the satisfaction of the Nazi leaders, and at that point I would again invite the Court's attention to the large chart on the wall. I think it is no mere figure of speech to make reference to the wolf's head, what is known in Anglo-American law as caput lupinum . The lower jaw formed near Austria was taken-the red part on the first chart-12 March 1938. Czechoslovakia thereby was encircled, and the next step was the absorption of the mountainous part, the Sudetenland, indicated on the second chart in red. On 1 October 1938 Czechoslovakia was further encircled and its defenses weakened, and then the jaws clamped in, or the pincers, as I believe General Keitel or General Jodl called them-I believe it was General Jodl's diary-and you see what they did to Czechoslovakia. On 15 March 1939 the borders were shortened, new bases were acquired, and then Czechoslovakia was destroyed. Bohemia and Moravia are in black and Slovakia in what might be called light tan. But I have read to you the documents which showed in what condition Slovakia was left; and with the German military installations in Slovakia, you see how completely the southern border of Poland was flanked, as well as the western border, the stage being set for the next aggression, which the British prosecutor will describe to you. Of all the Nazi conspirators the Defendant Goering was the most aware of the economic and strategic advantages which would accrue from the possession by Germany of Czechoslovakia. I now offer in evidence Document 1301-PS, which is a rather large file, and we offer particularly Item 10 of the document, at Page 25 of the English translation. I offer it as Exhibit USA-123; Page 25 of the English translation contained the top-secret minutes of a conference with Goering in the Luftwaffe Ministry (the Air Ministry). The meeting which was held on 14 October 1938, just 2 weeks after the occupation of the Sudetenland, was devoted to the discussion of economic problems.
MR. ALDERMAN: As of that date, the Defendant Goering's remarks were somewhat prophetic. I quote from the third paragraph, from the bottom of Page 26 of the English translation: "The Sudetenland has to be exploited by every means. General Field Marshal-Goering counts upon a complete industrial assimilation of Slovakia. Czech and Slovakia would become German dominions. Everything possible must be taken out. The Oder-Danube Canal has to be speeded up. Searches for oil and ore have to be conducted in Slovakia, notably by State Secretary Keppler." In the summer of 1939, after the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia into the German Reich, Defendant Goering again revealed the great interest of the Nazi leaders in the Czech economic potential. I offer in evidence Document R-133 as Exhibit USA-124. This document is the minutes, dated Berlin, 27 July 1939, signed by Mueller, of a conference between Goering and a group of officials from the OKW and from other agencies of the German Government concerned with war production. This meeting had been held 2 days previously, on 25 July. I read the first part of the account of this meeting. "In a rather long statement the Field Marshal explained that the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia into the German economy had taken place, among other reasons, to increase the German war potential, by exploitation of the industry there. Directives, such as the decree of the Reich Minister for Economics (S 10 402/39 of 10 July 1939) as well as a letter with similar meaning to the Junkers firm, which might possibly lower the kind and extent of the armament measures in the Protectorate are contrary to this principle. If it is necessary to issue such directives, this should be done only with his consent.
MR. ALDERMAN: In any case, he insists,"-that is Defendant Goering insists-"in agreement with the directive by Hitler, that the war potential of the Protectorate is definitely to be exploited in part or in full and is to be directed towards mobilization as soon as possible." In addition to strengthening the Nazi economic potential for the following wars of aggression, the conquest of Czechoslovakia provided the Nazis with new bases from which to wage their next war of aggression, the attack on Poland. You will recall the minutes of the conference between Goering and a pro-Nazi Slovak delegation in the winter of 1938-1939. Those minutes are Document 2801-PS, which I introduced into evidence earlier, as Exhibit USA-109. You will recall the last sentence of those minutes, a statement of Defendant Goering's conclusions. I quote this sentence again, "Air bases in Slovakia are of great importance for the German Air Force for use against the East." I now offer in evidence Document 1874-PS, as Exhibit USA-125. This document is the German minutes of a conference which Defendant Goering held with Mussolini and Ciano on 15 April 1939, one month after the conquest of Czechoslovakia. In this conference, Goering told his junior partners in the Axis of the progress of German preparations for war. He compared the strength of Germany with the strength of England and France. Not unnaturally, he mentioned the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in this connection. I read two paragraphs of these thoughts, on Page 4, Paragraph 2, of the German minutes. "However, the heavy armament of Czechoslovakia shows, in any case, how dangerous this could have been, even after Munich, in the event of a serious conflict. Because of German action, the situation of both Axis countries was ameliorated- among other reasons-because of the economic possibilities which resulted from the transfer to Germany of the great production capacity of Czechoslovakia. That contributes toward a considerable strengthening of the Axis against the Western Powers.
MR. ALDERMAN: "Furthermore, Germany now need not keep ready a single division for protection against that country in case of bigger conflict. This, too, is an advantage by which both Axis countries will, in the last analysis, benefit." Then on Page 5, Paragraph 2, of the German version: "The action taken by Germany in Czechoslovakia is to be viewed as an advantage for the Axis in case Poland should finally join the enemies of the Axis powers. Germany could then attack this country from two flanks and would be within only 25 minutes flying distance from the new Polish industrial center, which had been moved further into the interior of the country, nearer to the other Polish industrial districts because of its proximity to the border. Now, by the turn of events, it is located again in the proximity of the border." And that flanking on two fronts is illustrated on the four-segment chart. I think the chart itself demonstrates, better than any oral argument, the logic and cold calculation, the deliberation of each step to this point of the German aggression. More than that, it demonstrates what I might call the master fight of the aggressive war case, that is, that each conquest of the Nazi conspirators was deliberately planned, as a stepping stone to new and more ambitious aggression. You will recall the words of Hitler, at the conference in the Reich Chancellery on 23 May 1939, when he was planning the Polish campaign, Document L-79, Exhibit Number USA-27: I quote from it: "The period which lies behind us has, indeed, been put to good use. All measures have been taken in the correct sequence and in harmony with our aims." It is appropriate to refer to two other speeches of the Nazi leaders.