Trial of the Major War Criminals before International Military Tribunal ...

the so-called Sudeten Germans was nothing but a pretext. When
HITLER decided to dominate Europe, he decided at the same time
that he must conquer Czechoslovakia. Without the conquest of
Czechoslovakia the conquest of Europe would be impossible. He
used for this purpose two pretexts:
a.a.) The so-called question of Sudeten Germans.
b.b.) The lie that Czechoslovakia is "Aufmarschgebiet" (territory
for the army to start military actions) for the Soviet Union.
The former Field-Marshal KEITEL admitted this indirectly in
his statement when interrogated by Col. Dr. B. ECER on August 4,
1945 in Mondorff. He stated that Czechoslovakia was considered as
"Aufmarschgebiet" for the Soviet Union with operatively dangerous
consequences. But it would be dangerous for HITLER to admit the
final aim, i.e. the conquest of Czechoslovakia at a time when he was
not yet prepared for aggressive war, thus he employed the method
of peaceful declarations and assurances towards Czechoslovakia.
(b) March 19 3 8. The first step towards the conquest of
Czechoslovakia was the occupation of Austria. To conceal the real
character of the occupation of Austria, as the first step towards the
conquest of Czechoslovakia, the Nazi leaders gave solemn assurances
to the Czechoslovak Government that they will respect the inde-
pendence and territorial
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integrity of Czechoslovakia. Neville HENDERSON, former Ambassador
of Great Britain in Berlin, states on page 128 of his book
"Failure of a Mission": "Yet at the moment of the march into Austria
the German Government had been profuse in its fair promises to
the Czechs. Any move on the part of the latter might gravely have
compromised the success of the Austrian coup." The fairness of
HENDERSON'S statement was confirmed by KEITEL when inter-
rogated on August 4, 1945 by Col. Dr. B. ECER. The interrogating
officer asked KEITEL: "Was the danger of Czechoslovak mobilisa-
tion discussed about the time of the march of the German troops into
Austria?" KEITEL answered: "I drew the attention of the Fuehrer
to the fact that when Czechoslovakia would mobilise, we were not
prepared against it and we could not occupy Austria."
In order to prevent any Czechoslovak mobilisation the Czech
Government was given assurances of peaceful intentions of Germany
towards Czechoslovakia. I quote again HENDERSON-p.128: "The
Czech Minister was accordingly given positive assurances of ~ermany's
benevolence towards his country. GOERING repeated these