Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression [Page 763]
Therefore it is held to be essential to obtain the
opinion of the Army as to the conditions under which an
occupation of this area could be carried out and how
long it would take, and in this case it would be
necessary to reassess the commitment against Great
Britain." (375-PS)
It was apparently assumed by the staff officer who prepared
this document, and assumed quite rightly, that the leaders
of the German nation and the High Command would not pay the
smallest attention to the fact that Germany had given her
word not to invade Holland or Belgium. It was recommended as
a militarily advantageous thing to do, with the knowledge
that, if the commanders and the Fuehrer agreed with that
view, treaties would be completely ignored. Such was the
honor of the German Government and of its leaders.
In March of 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia had been
peacefully annexed, and the time had come for further
guarantees. Assurances which were accordingly given to
Belgium and the Netherlands on 28 April 1939 (TC-30). A
guarantee was also made to Luxembourg in a speech by Hitler
in the Reichstag, in which he dealt with a communication
from Mr. Roosevelt, who was feeling a little uneasy as to
Hitler's intentions (TC-42-A). In "The Nazi Plan," a motion
picture shown to the Tribunal by the American prosecution
(3054-PS), the delivery by Hitler of this part of this
speech was shown. Hitler appeared in one of his jocular
moods, as his words were greeted and delivered in a jocular
vein; The film shows that Goering, who sits above Hitler in
the Reichstag, appreciated very much the joke, the joke
being this: That it is an absurd suggestion to make that
Germany could possibly go to war with any of its neighbors.
In this speech Hitler declared:
"Finally Mr. Roosevelt demands the readiness to give
him an assurance that the German fighting forces will
not attack the territory or possessions of the
following independent nations, and above all, that they
will not march into them. And he goes on to name the
following as the countries in question: Finland,
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
Holland, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, France,
Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia,
Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iraq, Arabia, Syria,
Palestine, Egypt, and Iran.
"Answer: I started o by taking the trouble to find out
in the case of the countries listed, firstly, whether
they feel themselves threatened, and secondly and
particularly, whether this question Mr. Roosevelt has
asked us was put as
[Page 764]
the result of a demarche by them or at least with their
consent.
"The answer was a general negative, which in some cases
took-the form of a blunt rejection. Actually, this
counter-question of mine could not be conveyed to some
of the states and nations listed, since they are not at
present in possession of their liberty (as for instance
Syria), but are occupied by the military forces of
democratic states, and therefore, deprived of all their
rights.
"Thirdly, apart from that, all the states bordering on
Germany have received much more binding assurances and,
above all, much more binding proposals than Mr.
Roosevelt asked of me in his peculiar telegram." (TC-42-A)
Although that is sneering at Mr. Roosevelt, it is suggesting
in the presence, among others, of Goering, as being quite
absurd that Germany should nurture any warlike feeling
'against its neighbors. The hollow falsity of that
declaration and of the preceding guarantee is shown by the
minutes of Hitler's conference of the 23rd of May (79). The
first page shows that those present included the Fuehrer,
Goering, Raeder, von Brauchitsch, Keitel, Warlimont (Jodl's
deputy), and various others. The purpose of the conference
was an analysis of the situation, which proceeded in this
fashion:
"What will this struggle be like?"
*******
"The Dutch and Belgian air bases must be occupied by
armed force. Declarations of neutrality must be
ignored."
*******
"Therefore, if England intends to intervene in the
Polish war, we must occupy Holland with lightning
speed. We must aim at securing a new defense line on
Dutch soil up to the Zuider Zee." (L-79)
In Hitler's speech on 22 August, the following passage
occurred:
"Attack from the West from the Maginot Line: I consider
this impossible.
"Another possibility is the violation of Dutch,
Belgium, and Swiss neutrality. I have no doubts that
all these states as well as Scandinavia will defend
their neutrality by all available means. England and
France will not violate the neutrality of these
countries." (798-PS)
Nevertheless, a further assurance was given by the
Ambassador of Germany to the Belgian Government:
"In view of the gravity of the international situation,
I am
[Page 765]
expressly instructed by the Head of the German Reich to
transmit to Your Majesty the following communication:
"Though the German Government is at present doing
everything in its power to arrive at a peaceful
solution of the questions at issue between the Reich
and Poland, it nevertheless desires to define clearly,
here and now, the attitude which it proposes to adopt
towards Belgium should a conflict in Europe become
inevitable.
"The German Government is firmly determined to abide by
the terms of the declaration contained in the German
note of 13 October 1937. This provides in effect that
Germany will in no circumstances impair the
inviolability of Belgium and will at all times respect
Belgium territory. The German Government renews this
undertaking; however, in the expectation that the
Belgium Government, for its part, will observe an
attitude of strict neutrality and that Belgium will
tolerate no violations on the part of a third power,
but that, on the contrary, she will oppose it with all
the forces at her disposal. It goes without saying that
if the Belgium Government were to adopt a different
attitude, the German Government would naturally be
compelled to defend its interests in conformity with
the new situation thus created." (TC-36)
It seems likely that the decision having been made to
violate Belgian neutrality, those last words were put in to
afford some excuse in the future.
A similar document assurance was communicated to Her Majesty
the Queen of the Netherlands on the same day, 26 August 1939
(TC-40). Likewise assurances were given to Luxembourg at the
same time. - It is in the same terms as the other two
assurances, and amounts to a complete guarantee with the
sting in the tail (TC-42). Poland was occupied by means of a
lightning victory, and in October 1939 German armed forces
were free for other tasks. The first step that was taken, so
far as the Netherlands and Belgium are concerned, was a
German assurance on 6 October 1939, as follows:
"Immediately after I had taken over the affairs of the
state I tried to create friendly relations with
Belgium. I renounced any revision or any desire for
revision. The Reich has not made any demands which
would in any way be likely to be considered in Belgium
as a threat." (TC-32)
A similar assurance was made to the Netherlands on the same
day:
"The new Reich has endeavored to continue the
traditional
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Volume
I Chapter IX
Aggression Against Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg
(Part 2 of 6)