The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

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    III. ORGANISATION AND EXECUTION OF AGGRESSION AGAINST
           CZECHOSLOVAKIA, POLAND, AND YUGOSLAVIA

The Defendants Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Raeder,
Rosenberg, Kaltenbrunner, Frank, Frick, Doenitz, Fritzsche
and others are charged with the organisation of a conspiracy
to establish by force the domination of German imperialism
and the setting up of the Fascist regime in all European
countries, and, later, throughout the world.

The core of this plan was the organisation of aggressive
wars and the rearrangement of the map of the whole world by
use of force. In execution of this plan for aggression, the
criminal Hitlerite Government and the German General Staff
prepared and executed the seizure of Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France, Poland,
Greece and Yugoslavia. They also prepared and undertook a
predatory military campaign against the Soviet Union.

                                                  [Page 171]

My colleagues of the American, British and French
prosecution have already submitted to the Tribunal weighty
and irrefutable evidence which establishes the fact of
German aggression against their own countries, as well as
against Belgium, Holland, Greece, and a number of the other
States which had become victims of the predatory Hitlerite
imperialism.

May it please your Honours, I will now produce proofs of the
monstrous crimes of the defendants in the preparation and
initiation of aggressive wars against freedom-loving
peoples.

              (a) The Attack on Czechoslovakia

The document submitted in this case and known as "Directive
Gruen," contains a plan for an attack on the Czechoslovak
Republic. This directive, signed by Hitler, was distributed,
together with a covering note bearing the signatures of
Keitel. The directive begins with "Political Prerequisites,"
which read precisely as follows:

     "My unalterable decision is that Czechoslovakia should
     be smashed in the immediate future by means of a single
     military operation. To abide the time, and to create a
     suitable political and military situation -- this is
     the task of political leadership. The inevitable
     development of conditions within Czechoslovakia or
     other political events in Europe, which might never
     again bring about a similar situation, may force my
     hand even before the chosen date. The proper choice and
     the resolute exploitation of the opportune moment are
     the surest guaranties of success. Accordingly, all
     preparations should be made immediately."
     
Turning to the exposition of the political possibilities and
prerequisites regarding the initiation of the attack, Hitler
cynically disclosed these prerequisites:

     a) A suitable military pretext and in this connection -
     -
     
     b) a satisfactory political justification, and
     
     c) a surprise action which should take the enemy, as
     far as possible, unawares.
     
It was Hitler's idea that the most propitious action, both
from the military and political point of view, would be a
lightning, secretly prepared German attack under the pretext
of some incident which could morally justify the use of
military force, at least in the eyes of a certain portion of
the public opinion of the world.

The directive envisaged the actual preparation for an attack
on Czechoslovakia to be executed by certain branches of the
Armed Forces.

Thus the "Directive Gruen," which bears as early a date as
May, 1938, clearly and definitely testifies to the fact of a
carefully planned preparation for the seizure of
Czechoslovakia.

The Soviet prosecution will submit documents taken from the
files of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs which reveal
the criminal methods used by the Hitlerites in preparing for
the seizure of Czechoslovakia.

You, your Honours, as well as the entire world, well know
how methodically and ruthlessly this criminal scheme was
executed by the predatory imperialism of the Hitlerites.

Having set up in occupied Czechoslovakia an insufferable
regime of terrorism, the Hitlerites drove into German
slavery many thousands of Czechoslovak citizens, showing no
mercy even to children, who were sent to industrial plants,
farms, and mines.

The youth of Czechoslovakia was deprived of all
opportunities for education. When in 1942 a Czech delegation
appealed to Frank for permission to reopen the higher
Czechoslovak educational institutions he cynically replied:
"Should

                                                  [Page 172]
                                                            
the war be won by England, you will reopen your schools
yourselves; should Germany win, then five-grade elementary
schools will be enough for you."

Everyone remembers the sanguinary reprisals of the Hitlerite
hangmen committed against the Czechoslovak population. One
of the numerous cases of such monstrous outrages against the
peaceful population was made public in the German newspaper,
"Der Neue Tag" of 11th June, 1942:

     "During the search for the murderer of SS
     Obergruppenfuehrer of the S.S. Heydrich, it was
     incontestably proved that the inhabitants of the
     village of Lidice, near Kladno, were aiding and
     abetting the perpetrators of the crime. This has been
     proven in spite of the fact that the population denies
     any such assistance. The attitude of the population in
     regard to such crimes is also evidenced by other
     hostile acts against the Reich. There were discovered,
     for instance, subversive literature, stores of arms and
     ammunition, as well as the existence of a radio
     transmitter and a large quantity of rationed goods held
     in unlawful possession. The entire adult male
     population was executed by firing squads. Women were
     deported to concentration camps and children were sent
     to proper places for their further upbringing. All
     buildings in this village were levelled to the ground
     and the name of the village was done away with."
     
The prosecution has at its disposal official data collected
by the Czechoslovak Government on the shocking crimes which
were perpetrated by the Hitlerite invaders on the territory
of Czechoslovakia. In the report of the Czechoslovak
Government, which to a large extent is devoted to the
description of the regime established by the Hitlerites in
Czechoslovakia during the occupation, are cited numerous
cases of terrorism: shooting of hostages, mass deportations
to concentration camps, murder of women and children.

That is how "Directive Gruen" worked.

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