The Seizure Of Czechoslovakia
[Page 21]
On 31st August, 1938 Hitler approved a memorandum by Jodl
dated 24th August, 1938, concerning the timing of the order
for the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the question of
defense measures. This memorandum contained the following:
These facts demonstrate that the occupation of
Czechoslovakia had been planned in detail long before the
Munich Conference.
In the month of September, 1938, the conferences and talks
with military leaders continued. In view of the
extraordinarily critical situation which had arisen, the
British Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, flew to Munich and
then went to Berchtesgaden to see Hitler. On the 22
September Mr. Chamberlain met Hitler for further discussions
at Bad Godesberg. On the 26th September, 1938, Hitler said
in a speech in Berlin, with reference to his conversation:
On the 29th September, 1938, after a conference between
Hitler and Mussolini and the British and French Prime
Ministers in Munich, the Munich Pact was signed, by which
Czechoslovakia was required to acquiesce in the cession of
the Sudetenland to Germany. The "piece of paper" which the
British Prime Minister brought back to London signed by
himself and Hitler, expressed the hope that for the future
Britain and Germany might live without war. That Hitler
never intended to adhere to the Munich Agreement is shown by
the fact that a little later he asked the defendant Keitel
for information with regard to the military force which in
his opinion would be required to break all Czech resistance
in Bohemia and Moravia. Keitel gave his reply on the 11th
October, 1938. On the 11th October, 1938 a directive was
issued by Hitler, and countersigned by the Defendant Keitel,
to the Armed Forces on their future tasks, which stated:
On the 14th March, 1939, the Czech President Hacha and his
Foreign Minister Chvalkovsky came to Berlin at the
suggestion of Hitler, and attended a meeting at which the
Defendants Ribbentrop, Goering, and Keitel were present,
with others. The proposal was made to Hacha that if he would
sign an agreement consenting to the incorporation of the
Czech people in the German Reich at once, Bohemia and
Moravia would be saved from destruction. He was informed
that German troops had already received orders to march and
that any resistance would be broken with physical force. The
Defendant Goering added the threat that he would destroy
Prague completely from the air. Faced by this dreadful
alternative, Hacha and his Foreign Minister put their
signatures to the necessary agreement at 4:30 in the
morning, and Hitler and Ribbentrop signed on behalf of
Germany.
[Page 22]
On the 15 March German troops occupied Bohemia and Moravia,
and on 16 March the German decree was issued incorporating
Bohemia and Moravia into the Reich as a protectorate, and
this decree was signed by the Defendants Ribbentrop and
Frick.
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(Part 2
of 2)
"Operation Gruen will be set in motion by means of
an 'incident' in Czechoslovakia, which will give
Germany provocation for military intervention. The
fixing of the exact time for this incident is of
the utmost importance."
"I assured him, moreover, and I repeat it here,
that when this problem is solved there will be no
more territorial problems for Germany in Europe;
and I further assured him that from the moment
when Czechoslovakia solves its other problems that
is to say, when the Czechs have come to an
arrangement with their other minorities,
peacefully and without oppression, I will be no
longer interested in the Czech State, and that as
far as I am concerned I will guarantee it. We
don't want any Czechs."
"Liquidation of the remainder of Czechoslovakia.
It must be possible to smash at any time the
remainder of Czechoslovakia if her policy should
become hostile towards Germany."
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