DOCSLIB.ORG

Translation of Sworn Statement by Karl Hermann Frank, Who Was Interrogated by Dr

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Translation of Sworn Statement by Karl Hermann Frank, Who Was Interrogated by Dr -A Translation of sworn statement by Karl Hermann Frank, who was interrogated by Dr. Bohuslav Ecer, Chief, Czechoslovak War Crimes Investigating Team, attached to 12th Army Group, on 29 May 1945, at Wiesbaden, Germany. WPWWW »f LUM'U • 1 My rank as Minister of the Reich In August L943 I was appointed Minister of State in the rank of a minister of the Reich. As such I have, however, never participated in the activities of the Government of the Reich. In my capacity of Minister of State for Bohemia and Moravia, I received several times drafts of laws for review concerning the Protectorate. My opinion was in some cases taken under conside­ ration, in some cases not. Party .and Stated There existed a continous fight especially in the Protecto­ rate between State and Party. The position of -he Party was legally stronger in the Reich proper than in the Protectorate, as compared to the State. I remember the la./ of 1933 for securing the unity of State and Party. This worked out in such a manner that, for instance, the "Gauleiter" /provincial leaders/, who were arty officials had at the-« same time certain state functions as for example "Reichsstatthaiter" national governor/, respecti- I vely "O'berpraesident" /provincial prefect/. In the Protectorate the situation was different, at least on paper; there was a decree signed by Rudolf Hess, in late 1^39, forbi .din,; the interference of the Party in the State administration of the Protectorate and assigning to the Party only the task of leading the German population. Territorially,four "Reichsgaue" /provinces of the Reich/ reached out into the area of the • Protectorate. They were the Sudetengau, headed by Konrad Henlein, SS Obergruppenfuehrer /translator's note : higher SS group leader equal to the rank of lietenant general/, the Bavarian Eastern province, heade . by Waechtler, S3-0bergruppenfuehrer, and Lower Danube, headed by SS-Obergruepenfuehrer Jury, all Gauleiter. I do not know whether Waechtler held a rank in the S3. As far- as these Gaue readied out into the Protectorate, they were supposed to be only party "gaue" /provinces/. But the following situation developed: The head of the party chancellery, Martin Bornian, established a party liaison office in Prague /Castle/, which served also the purpose to control the Reich Protector and later the Minister of State. This liaison office was established, to my knowledge, in early 1540. The chief was province leader Jury. The party interfered with all branches of the administration,of the Pro­ tectorate, respectively tried to interfere. This lead to a continuous right between myself and the party, which ended for me in a personal trage iy. For many weeks I tried in vain to obtain an audience with the Fuehrer in order to inform him of the harmful effects of the party infringements. Finally, in late 1942 or early 1943» 03 got a hearing, not with Adolf hitler, but with Martin Borman in the presence of about three gentlemen from the party chanc ;llery and of provincial leader Jury. In opposition - J - to the Party, I advocated the sten point ex resoed Lr Hess d c e. I consider it my _.. ..r..onul tra • .,/ :""' I now sit in the -.oel: before the Czech nation, although I ii : everything to rotect ana maintain its auto :omy. The int .i'view was stormy - Loi'::an pouded the table with his fist, called :.;e an en .-. y of he party ana ordei'ed i..c out oi' the room. Question : How do you explain that in spite o v being "- led a a party enemy, eve. heless you were appointed Minister oi' Stai : of the Protectorate in Au ust 1.,-j.J ?. Answer : I cannot explain this. I only rei.ark tl at the • quarrel between Harman an.; myself ended in the evening with a compromise. I I remember that Adolf Hitler defined the relation between party and state approximately as follows : it ia not the state which issues orders to the party, but on the contrary it is the party who -jives orders to the state. The primacy of the party was the axiom in tee ..eich and was to be :atablished also in the Protectorate, although it was contrary to the autonomy of the Protectorate. This primacy ..as then introduced loo de facto in the Protectorate in several instances. Apart trom Hitler a fun­ damental standpoint, there were constant fights between party and state, and besides that between the individual in power within the party; also a fight betv/een the Wehrmacht and the 33. The conflict between the Wehrruooht and S3 became more acute after the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life in July 1944. 'i'he - 4 - fundamental principle of the national socialists state law was : The .J i ti . is an instrument of the party. The pergonal union of party and state was accomplished as follows : 1/ Leading party officials were taken into the government L1 u. t d with functions corresponding to their party functions. For insta ee, Jarre as a party official was "Reichsbautrnfuehrer" /Reich peasant lea .•/ anJ in the overnment he was Reich Minister for Pood and Agricul ture. Coebbels v,ras propaganda leader vor the Reich in the party and in the government Reich Minister of gro- paganua. Ribb< itrop was special commissioner of the Fuehrer for att t's of foreign policy in the "party ana in/ the government ich Minister 'or 'orcign Affair:-. Several persons, an "or instance Jchacht, S'-hworin-krcsigk, Ohnesorge, were, to my knowledge not members of the party. They hoa, h.owevor, to join tl . sarty . a DUO:! as thejf were appointed Reich ministers. On this occasion or late:1 they rece ved the Golden Party Badge; as acknowledgment for expert merits, Every member of the Reich government was thus a member of the National Socialist Party. The program of the party was binding for them. This personal union was systematically established also in lower positions and finally in ]\ jl it was established by the law concerning German civil servants that every official had to have only beliefs Ln accordance -.1 Lh the national socialistic program. 4o - 5 - In practice it load to a point where practically all civil servants were nationel socialists. 2/ According to the law, every appointment or promotion servants had to be approved by the warty chancellery 4tnade such an appointment or promotion impossible. This was practised also in. Lhe Protectorate, of course for German officials only. I remember that in individual cases, I wanted vo promote civil servants who were not national socialists, but whose expert knowledge made them fit for it. The party chancellery refused its approval. Aims of foreign policy of nationel socialism ana the 'Jj&rd Reich. Of these aims I knew only as much as was publicly said or written. I was not informed of the secret intentions of the highest party and state leaders, including Adolf Hitler. I can, for instance, remember that after yielding of the so-called Sudetenland in accordance with treaty of Munich, Adolf Hitler told me once during, a conversation that he h-ad created the greater German Reich and had no furt/er territorial claims. Besides, this cor^JSspondeu with his declaration given to Chamberlain shortly before the conclusion of the Munich treaty. The internal decision of the highest leadership were kept strictly secret. I know exactly that a decree of the Puehrei was issued during the war that those offices of the party, Wehr, acht or state which were ordered with the execution of a secret matter were not allowed to co. municate this to other such offices y 4i - ö — which were not concerned. The punishment for -transgression was to rny knowledge very severe. I was totally unaware that the high­ est party and state leadership had the intention to occupy Czechoslovakia as a whole. I was entirely surprised by the occupation of 15 March. My appointment as Secretary of State to the Reich protector tool: me also entirely by surprise. I was simply summoned to the Hotel Imperial in Vienna to Adolf Hitler on 17 or 18 March 1939* The entire high staff of the party was assembled in the lobby of the hotel. I then knew only a few of L,hem . I was summoned to see Adolf Hitler in his room, where VBaro n Konstantin von Neurath was present. I was told by the Fuehrer that Herr von Hour; th was appointed Reich protector of Bohemia and Moravia and I was appointed as his Secretary of StflitC As I have emphasized above I knew of the sir 13 in foreign policy of the party and of the Third Reich only what was publicly said or written. That was to break- away from the tre ty of Versailles and to unify all Germans in a greater German K ich. I knew notpng abode the plan to establish a world rule by the German nation and that for this purpose the Third Reich planned and prepared a war. I know only that at a lea er meeting o_ Sfe-Obergru_/penfuehrer , and p", which 1 attended," the date of which I do not remember, Himmler spoke if the necessity to create a great Germanic Reich. It was, at any rate, after the occupation of Norway and Denmark. I have no knowledge of a speech of Himmler delivered on 26 June 1T44 i-1- Bitch in Alsatia. Idid not know that the German Reich preparing the second V/orld ,<ar **"u. .. m'^ii.. >;• —,.»,.i.—; i, ;. iM.fi Oeuuan. ivieh woo—ppijj'Ui'ing—'0)1.0 «jtnoo»».* nui'Ii« n'mu and I id not know that the occup; ;io 0 Czechoslovakia was the .irst link of a chain of'fui'cherNof ag, ression ag inst neighbouring states.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • TRANSLATION. the Investigation of Karl Hermann Frank Continues On
    TRANSLATION. The investigation of Karl Hermann Frank continues on 10 June 1945» The investigating officer: The Judge Advocate Colonel Dr. B. Ecer. Present : Captain Hart, Hq 12th Array Group, JA , Section, War Crimes Branch. Dr. Ernest Hochwald. Question: Do you have any information concerning the fate of the two children of Professor Jaromir Samal, Jiri Samal, born 23 March 1933» and Alenka Samal, horn 5 March 1937» who or 17 July 1942 were arrested in the German Childrens;' Hospital and abducted therefrom, Answer: This is the first time I hear about this matter. • ,. Unfortunately, I cannot give any information which might \ lead to the discovery of the location CKC the children, i for until today I had no knowledge of the incident. Question: When and under what circumstances did you and your family leave Prague? Answer: Although many German women and children left the Protectorate during the last weeks preceding the surrender in order to seek an abode in the Reich territory, I had agreed with my wife that she and the children would stay with me to the end, lest a panic of flight be created. That is what we did. On 9 May 1945 at 2.30 AM we left together my official residence at 11 York Street in two armored passenger cars in order to drive toward the West direction PLZEN /PILSEN/ to meet the American troops. -2- I wanted to surrender to the Americans as a prisoner of war, but prior to that I wanted to accommodate my wife and children with a farmer somewhere in Bavarian territory, I do not have any acquaintances or friends in that region, .
    [Show full text]
  • Anatomy of a Crisis
    Page 7 Chapter 2 Munich: Anatomy of A Crisis eptember 28, 1938, “Black Wednesday,” dawned on a frightened Europe. Since the spring Adolf Hitler had spoken often about the Sudetenland, the western part of Czechoslovakia. Many of the 3 Smillion German-speaking people who lived there had complained that they were being badly mistreated by the Czechs and Slovaks. Cooperating closely with Sudeten Nazis, Hitler at first simply demanded that the Czechs give the German-speakers within their borders self-government. Then, he upped the ante. If the Czechs did not hand the Sudetenland to him by October 1, 1938, he would order his well-armed and trained soldiers to attack Czechoslovakia, destroy its army, and seize the Sudetenland. The Strategic Location of the Sudetenland Germany’s demand quickly reverberated throughout the European continent. Many countries, tied down by various commitments and alliances, pondered whether—and how—to respond to Hitler’s latest threat. France had signed a treaty to defend the Czechs and Britain had a treaty with France; the USSR had promised to defend Czechoslovakia against a German attack. Britain, in particular, found itself in an awkward position. To back the French and their Czech allies would almost guarantee the outbreak of an unpredictable and potentially ruinous continental war; yet to refrain from confronting Hitler over the Sudetenland would mean victory for the Germans. In an effort to avert the frightening possibilities, a group of European leaders converged at Munich Background to the Crisis The clash between Germany and Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland had its origins in the Versailles Treaty of 1919.
    [Show full text]
  • Clemency in a Nazi War Crimes Trial By: Allison Ernest
    Evading the Hangman’s Noose: Clemency in a Nazi War Crimes Trial By: Allison Ernest Ernest 2 Contents Introduction: The Foundations for a War Crimes Trial Program 3 Background and Historiography 10 Chapter 1: Investigations into Other Trials Erode the United States’ Resolve 17 Chapter 2: The Onset of Trial Fatigue Due to Public Outcry 25 Chapter 3: High Commissioner McCloy Authorizes Sentence Reviews 38 Chapter 4: McCloy and the United States Set the War Criminals Free 45 Conclusion: A Lesson to be Learned 52 Chart: A Complicated Timeline Simplified 57 Bibliography 58 Ernest 3 Introduction: The Foundations for a War Crimes Trial Program “There is a supervening affirmative duty to prosecute the doers of serious offenses that falls on those who are empowered to do so on behalf of a civilized community. This duty corresponds to our fundamental rights as citizens and as persons to receive and give respect to each other in view of our possession of such rights.” Such duty, outlined by contemporary philosopher Alan S. Rosenbaum, was no better exemplified than in the case of Nazi war criminals in the aftermath of World War II. Even before the floundering Axis powers of Germany and Japan declared their respective official surrenders in 1945, the leaders of the Allies prepared possible courses of action for the surviving criminals in the inevitable collapse of the Nazi regime. Since the beginning of the war in 1939, the Nazi regime in Germany implemented a policy of waging a war so barbaric in its execution that the total numbers of casualties rivaled whole populations of countries.
    [Show full text]
  • The Catholic Church in the Czech Lands During the Nazi
    STUDIA HUMANITATIS JOURNAL, 2021, 1 (1), pp. 192-208 ISSN: 2792-3967 DOI: https://doi.org/10.53701/shj.v1i1.22 Artículo / Article THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE CZECH LANDS DURING THE NAZI OCCUPATION IN 1939–1945 AND AFTER1 LA IGLESIA CATÓLICA EN LOS TERRITORIOS CHECOS DURANTE LA OCUPACIÓN NAZI ENTRE LOS AÑOS 1939–1945 Y DESPUÉS Marek Smid Charles University, Czech Republic ORCID: 0000-0001-8613-8673 [email protected] | Abstract | This study addresses the religious persecution in the Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia) during World War II, when these territories were part of the Bohemian and Moravian Protectorate being occupied by Nazi Germany. Its aim is to demonstrate how the Catholic Church, its hierarchy and its priests acted as relevant patriots who did not hesitate to stand up to the occupying forces and express their rejection of their procedures. Both the domestic Catholic camp and the ties abroad towards the Holy See and its representation will be analysed. There will also be presented the personalities of priests, who became the victims of the Nazi rampage in the Czech lands at the end of the study. The basic method consists of a descriptive analysis that takes into account the comparative approach of the spiritual life before and after the occupation. Furthermore, the analytical-synthetic method will be used, combined with the subsequent interpretation of the findings. An additional method, not always easy to apply, is hermeneutics, i.e., the interpretation of socio-historical phenomena in an effort to reveal the uniqueness of the analysed texts and sources and emphasize their singularity in the cultural and spiritual development of Czech Church history in the first half of the 20th century.
    [Show full text]
  • NUREMBERG) Judgment of 1 October 1946
    INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL (NUREMBERG) Judgment of 1 October 1946 Page numbers in braces refer to IMT, judgment of 1 October 1946, in The Trial of German Major War Criminals. Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal sitting at Nuremberg, Germany , Part 22 (22nd August ,1946 to 1st October, 1946) 1 {iii} THE INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL IN SESSOIN AT NUREMBERG, GERMANY Before: THE RT. HON. SIR GEOFFREY LAWRENCE (member for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) President THE HON. SIR WILLIAM NORMAN BIRKETT (alternate member for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) MR. FRANCIS BIDDLE (member for the United States of America) JUDGE JOHN J. PARKER (alternate member for the United States of America) M. LE PROFESSEUR DONNEDIEU DE VABRES (member for the French Republic) M. LE CONSEILER FLACO (alternate member for the French Republic) MAJOR-GENERAL I. T. NIKITCHENKO (member for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) LT.-COLONEL A. F. VOLCHKOV (alternate member for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) {iv} THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, AND THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS Against: Hermann Wilhelm Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Robert Ley, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walter Funk, Hjalmar Schacht, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Martin
    [Show full text]
  • Filming the End of the Holocaust War, Culture and Society
    Filming the End of the Holocaust War, Culture and Society Series Editor: Stephen McVeigh, Associate Professor, Swansea University, UK Editorial Board: Paul Preston LSE, UK Joanna Bourke Birkbeck, University of London, UK Debra Kelly University of Westminster, UK Patricia Rae Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada James J. Weingartner Southern Illimois University, USA (Emeritus) Kurt Piehler Florida State University, USA Ian Scott University of Manchester, UK War, Culture and Society is a multi- and interdisciplinary series which encourages the parallel and complementary military, historical and sociocultural investigation of 20th- and 21st-century war and conflict. Published: The British Imperial Army in the Middle East, James Kitchen (2014) The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and the Two World Wars, Gajendra Singh (2014) South Africa’s “Border War,” Gary Baines (2014) Forthcoming: Cultural Responses to Occupation in Japan, Adam Broinowski (2015) 9/11 and the American Western, Stephen McVeigh (2015) Jewish Volunteers, the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War, Gerben Zaagsma (2015) Military Law, the State, and Citizenship in the Modern Age, Gerard Oram (2015) The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery During the China and Pacific Wars, Caroline Norma (2015) The Lost Cause of the Confederacy and American Civil War Memory, David J. Anderson (2015) Filming the End of the Holocaust Allied Documentaries, Nuremberg and the Liberation of the Concentration Camps John J. Michalczyk Bloomsbury Academic An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2014 Paperback edition fi rst published 2016 © John J.
    [Show full text]
  • An Incomplete Look at Appeasement
    Lindsay W. Michie. Portrait of an Appeaser: Robert Hadow, First Secretary in the British Foreign Office, 1931-1939. Westport, Conn. and London: Praeger, 1996. xiv + 166 pp. $57.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-275-95369-0. Reviewed by John E. Moser Published on H-Diplo (November, 1998) In Portrait of an Appeaser, Lindsay Michie of‐ the rise of Nazism in Germany with some con‐ fers readers a study of her grandfather, Robert cern, but saw it as an understandable reaction to Henry Hadow, a British diplomat who served in that country's diplomatic ostracism, economic de‐ Vienna, Prague, and London in the 1930s. As the pression, and the threat of Communism. More‐ title suggests, Hadow was unflinching in his sup‐ over, he downplayed the risk of Austrian absorp‐ port of appeasement of Germany. As Michie tion into Germany, claiming that "conservative, writes, "[Hadow] shared the majority of the char‐ nationalist and particularly Christian-Social politi‐ acteristics associated with appeasement and re‐ cal opinion" in Austria reacted negatively to "at‐ mained loyal to this policy through the outbreak tempts to dictate Austrian policy from Berlin" (pp. of war in 1939 ..., to the point of indiscretion and 18-19). risk to his position and career" (pp. 1-2). In 1934 Hadow was transferred to Czechoslo‐ Michie attributes Hadow's support for ap‐ vakia, where he quickly distinguished himself as peasement to his fear of war, distrust of the a strong critic of the Benes government (blaming French, his emotional attachment to the British Benes for creating a "war neurosis" among the Empire, and his hostility to Communism.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Teigrob, Four Days in Hitler's Germany
    127 Left History Robert Teigrob, Four Days in Hitler’s Germany: Mackenzie King’s Mission to Avert a Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019). 292 pp. Cloth $32.95. In June 1937, as the deteriorating political situation in Europe drew the world closer to another world war, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King trav- elled to Berlin to meet with Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials. Be- yond brief acknowledgments of the visit by historians, this striking episode in the history of Canadian foreign policy has never been explored fully. With Four Days in Hitler’s Germany, Robert Teigrob addresses this omission with an excellent account of King’s journey to Berlin. While focused primarily on the activities of Prime Min- ister King, we also learn much about the transformation of Berlin’s urban landscape in the postwar period. Well-illustrated with archival and contemporary photographs, the book provides readers with glimpses into German society in the 1930s, as wit- nessed by King. Teigrob carefully contextualizes King’s actions and opinions, avoiding the historicist trap. From our contemporary vantage point, King’s encounters with Hitler and his other Nazi hosts are cringingly disturbing. Is it possible, however, that the Prime Minister’s efforts at diplomatic conciliation and communication were useful and that King’s own understanding of Nazi Germany was much improved by personal contact between the two leaders? Clearly, Teigrob’s answer is no. From his experiences in Berlin, King developed a “spectacularly ill-informed image of Hitler and Nazism” (9). While other world leaders were duped by the German leader, Teigrob argues, “it would be difficult to find a democratic leader who missed the mark by a wider margin or held onto salutary views of the Fuhrer and his move- ment, in the face of outrage after outrage, more stubbornly or ingenuously” (10).
    [Show full text]
  • The Japanese Race in the Nazi-German Perspective
    CHAPTER 10 Racism under Negotiation: The Japanese Race in the Nazi-German Perspective Gerhard Krebs As a blatant racist, Hitler disliked all non-European peoples. However, he made a slight exception insofar as the Japanese were concerned. He admired their military spirit, their victory over “Slavic” Russia in 1905 and their alleged racial purity.1 In his view they were unique by virtue of their supposed complete eth- nic homogeneity in comparison with the peoples of Europe, America and the rest of Asia, who were “bastardized” and for the most part polluted by Jewish blood.2 In Mein Kampf he acknowledged that although the Japanese as a race had neither created a culture (Ger. kulturbegründend) like the Aryans, nor destroyed other cultures (kulturzerstörend) like the Jews, they had neverthe- less “adopted and made use of cultures created by others” (kulturtragend).3 He repeated that view even after coming to power in January 1933.4 The Japanese, however, did not consider it a compliment to be placed some- where between the Aryans on the one hand and the Jews and “Negroes” on * Unpublished Documents include: AAPA = Auswärtiges Amt, Politisches Archiv: R 29452: Aufzeichnungen Staatssekretär von Bülow über Diplomatenbesuche A-K 1.4.32–31.10.33; R 85849: Abt. Pol. IV 707/3 Politische Beziehungen Deutschlands zu Japan, Vol. 5, 1.1.1933– 31.3.1934; R 85941: Abt. Pol. IV 725/4 Ostasien, Akten betreffend Pressewesen in Japan, Vol.3, January 1932-December 1934; Ser. No 82/60665–1071, Büro des Staatssekretärs, Akten betref- fend Japan, Vol. 5; R 99182: Inland I-Partei; D 0002–1: Botschaft Tokyo, Zu- und Abgänge 1936– 1939; D 0002–2: Botschaft Tokyo, Zu- und Abgänge 1940–45.
    [Show full text]
  • “80 Years Ago This Week, Hitler and Stalin Cut the Deal That Triggered
    “80 Years Ago This Week, Hitler and Stalin Cut the Deal That Triggered WWII” from The Daily Beast (English 1 Honors) Required Annotations Student-Created Annotations Summary / Questions / Reflection Student-created Required (bold) By the spring of 1939 Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich and Joseph Stalin’s USSR had been “pouring buckets of garbage on each other’s heads” for decades, as Stalin later said. During the 1920s and 1930s they vied for power in Europe, blaming each other for all economic and social ills, and battling through proxies in the Spanish Civil War. Their diametrically opposed far-left and far-right philosophies and economic strategies culminated in the German-led Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936-37 creating an alliance between the Third Reich, Imperial Japan and eventually Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italy against the spread of Communism, and more specifically the threat of a Soviet invasion. Early on, Hitler had feared that the USSR and the Western democracies would make an anti-Nazi alliance to curtail German expansion. He gave them three chances to do so, and they flubbed them all. In 1936 when Hitler “remilitarized” the Rhineland, an extant Russia-France pact could have been called into play and both countries could have invaded Germany. France did not insist on doing so, and its similar reluctance to pincer the Third Reich allowed Hitler’s Anschluss with Austria in early 1938 and the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland part of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Accord in October 1938. Stalin was irate at being excluded from the Munich talks.
    [Show full text]
  • "DON't ACCEPT" HITLER TELLS HENLEIN? Weather FINAL FORECAST—COOLER EDITION Winnipeg Wheat OCTOBER CLOSE 59 VOL
    "DON'T ACCEPT" HITLER TELLS HENLEIN? Weather FINAL FORECAST—COOLER EDITION Winnipeg Wheat OCTOBER CLOSE 59 VOL. XXXI.—No. 226. LETHBEIDGE, ALBERTA, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 193S 12 PAGES NEGOTIATIONS BROKEN OFF Hold Out For Breakdown More Advice Caused By Of Dictator? Border Clash High Nazi Government Spokesman at Nuremberg Sudeten Deputies Reported to Have Been Assaulted Gives Purport of Hitler's Admonition to the by Czech Police — No Further Negotiations Sudeten German Leader—Deputy Leaves Pending Thorough Investigation—Situ­ for Conference With Fuehrer ation Out of Goverment's Hands Marseilles Dockworkers Mobilized Czech Border Guards Fired Upon PARIS, Sept. 7.— (A.P.)—The government tonight announced PRAHA, Sept. 7.—(C.P.-Havas)—Press reports from Linhartox, mobilization of all dockworkers at the Mediterranean port of Mar­ in the Jaegernsdorf district of Czechoslovakia, tonight said Czecho­ seilles, vital link in the French system of defence. slovak frontier guards were fired upon by five men they discovered This step, placing an estimated 5,000 longshoremen under military attempting to cross into the republic from Germany. discipline and control, followed a cabinet decree patting the port under military jurisdiction. News of the alleged incident arrived here almost simultaneausly The mobilization of workers will be effected under the law for with reports, not officially confirmed, that 300 Germans had been the organization of France in time of war which was voted by parlia­ surprised last night while smuggling arms across the frontier near ment on July 11. Moravska Ostrava. Fifty-three were said to have been arrested. UREMBERG, Germany, Sept. 7—(A.P.)—A high gov­ RAHA, Sept.
    [Show full text]
  • Securitas Im Perii
    STUDIES Jiří Plachý The Rutha affair and the trial against the Werner Weiss group in autumn 1937 On 13 August 1937, Liberec police detained the young Sudetendeutsche Partei (Su- securitas imperii deten German Party – SdP) radical Wilhelm Purm.1 A search of his home revealed a number of subversive documents including material to prepare boys for induc- tion into the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) as well as the organisation’s belt and knife. Seeing as he served as a youth instructor for the Deutscher Turnverband (German Gymnastics Union – DTV), there were justified grounds for believing he was illegal- ly providing the young men under his tutelage with paramilitary training. For this reason, he was charged under paragraph 2 of Law No. 50/1923 Sb. on the Protection of the Republic with the criminal offence of making preparations for a plot against the state. The penalty ranged from one to five years’ imprisonment, or from five to ten years if the crime had been committed in particularly aggravating circumstances. The young SdP paramilitary – who despite a full police record had only ever spent 24 hours behind bars – was evidently taken aback by the prospect of such a long sentence. During questioning on 25 August, he denied accusations of homosexual activity – at that time a crime – which he was accused of indulging in as a member of the DTV. In his emphatic denials, however, he informed the police that during a DTV gathering in 1935 he had been told by a person whose identity was unknown to him that the then leader of the Jeschenken­‑Iser Turngau (the Ještěd­‑Jizera chapter of the DTV), an architect by the name of Heinrich Rutha, was ein warmer Bruder, literally a “warm brother” – German slang for an older gay man who makes advances on younger men.2 1 Wilhelm Purm, born 27 April 1918 in Mladá Boleslav.
    [Show full text]