Archive/File: holocaust/germany/nuremberg conspire.001 Last-Modified: 1994/12/04 "Whatever the doubts about these two accounts [Hossbach memorandum and Hitler's Obersaltzburg speech on 22 August 1939] and the accuracy of the Hossback memorandum there could be no challenge to the validity of the minutes of the conference on 23 May 1939 when Hitler harangued fourteen of his military leaders. The same aims, the same attitudes were expressed, as Hitler talked about his views on the intended war with Poland. 'Danzig is not the subject of the dispute at all. It is a question of expanding our living space in the East and of securing our food supplies, of the settlement of the Baltic problem. Food supplies can only be expected from thinly-populated areas. Over and above the natural fertility, thoroughgoing German exploitation will enormously increase the surplus.' The provision of food would become even more vital 'if Fate brings us into conflict with the West'. Full details from the Barbarossa file were read in court. The plans to invade Russia had been perfected six months before the attack actually came and while the Non-Aggession Pact was repeatedly invoked. Hitler's words to his state secretaries on 2 May 1941 soared to new heights of callousness: 'The war can only be continued if all the Armed Forces are fed by Russia in the third year of the war ... There is no doubt that as a result, many millions of people will be starved to death if we take out of the country the things necessary for us.' Even the defendents were shocked by some of this evidence. Schirach called the Hossbach speech 'concentrated political madness' (whatever doubts others might cast, he at least recognized the authentic Hitlerian note). Seyss-Inquart insisted he would never have joined Hitler if he had known about the speech. Goering tried to rally them: 'What about the grabbing of California and Texas by the Americans? That was plain aggressive warfare for territorial expansion too.'<37> The Press quoted the evidence fully. As the 'New York Herald Tribune' put it they had been appalled by this first introduction to the inside story of ruthless planning for war; these documents 'should decisively undermine propaganda myths which hundreds of thousands of Germans and even people of other nations still believe' - that Germany was forced into a war of self-defense.<38>" (Tusa, 159-60) <37> Gilbert <38> New York Herald Tribune, 23 November. Work Cited Tusa, Ann & John. The Nuremberg Trial. Birmingham, Alabama: The Notable Trials Library, Division of Gryphon Editions, Inc., 1990
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