rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-william-shirer-pdf

350 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHthat the British, French and Czech governments have agreed to the transferof the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany?” Hitler asked. ∗ He wasastounded as he later told Chamberlain, that the concessions to him had goneso far and so fast. ”Yes,” replied the Prime Minister, smiling.”I am terribly sorry,” Hitler said, ”but after the events of the last few days,this plan is no longer of any use.”Chamberlain, Dr. Schmidt later remembered, sat up with a start. His owllikeface flushed with surprise and anger. But apparently not with resentment thatHitler had deceived him, that Hitler, like a common blackmailer, was upping hisdemands at the very moment they were being accepted. The Prime Ministerdescribed his own feelings at this moment in a report to the Commons a fewdays later:I do not want the House to think that Hitler was deliberately deceivingme – I do not think so for one moment – but, for me, I expectedthat when I got back to Godesberg I had only to discuss quietlywith him the proposals that I had brought with me; and it was aprofound shock to me when I was told . . . that these proposals werenot acceptable . . .Chamberlain saw the house of peace which he had so ”laboriously” built upat the expense of the Czechs collapsing like a stack of cards. He was, he toldHitler, ”both disappointed and puzzled. He could rightly say that the Fuehrerhad got from him what he had demanded.”In order to achieve this he [Chamberlain] had risked his whole politicalcareer . . . He was being accused by certain circles in GreatBritain of having sold and betrayed Czechoslovakia, of having yieldedto the dictators, and on leaving England that morning he actuallyhad been booed.But the Fuehrer was unmoved by the personal plight of the British PrimeMinister. The Sudeten area, he demanded, must be occupied by Germany atonce. The problem ”must be completely and finally solved by October first,at the latest.” He had a map handy to indicate what territories must be cededimmediately.And so, his mind ”full of foreboding,” as he later told the Commons, Chamberlainwithdrew across the Rhine ”to consider what I was to do.” There seemedso little hope that evening that after he had consulted with his own cabinet colleaguesand with members of the French government by telephone it was agreedthat London and Paris should inform the Czech government the next day thatthey could not ”continue to take the responsibility of advising them not tomobilize.” †∗ Hitler knew that the Czechs had accepted the Anglo-French proposals. Jodl noted in hisdiary that at 11:30 A.M. on September 21, the day before Chamberlain arrived in Godesberg,he had received a telephone call from the Fuehrer’s adjutant: ”The Fuehrer has received newsfive minutes ago that Prague is said to have accepted unconditionally.” At 12:45 Jodl noted,”Department heads are informed to continue preparation for ’Green,’ but nevertheless to getready for everything necessary for a peaceful penetration.” 378 It is possible, however, thatHitler did not know the terms of the Anglo-French plan until the Prime Minister explainedthem to him.† Czech mobilization began at 10:30 P.M. on September 23.