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

354 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHcapital. Despite reports of Hitler’s rage at hearing that the Godesberg ultimatumwas being rejected in Paris, London and Prague, there was no feeling ofgreat crisis, certainly no war fever, in Berlin. ”Hard to believe there will bewar,” I noted in my diary that evening. ∗On the Monday following there was a sudden change for the worse. At 5P.M. Sir Horace Wilson, accompanied by Ambassador Henderson and IvoneKirkpatrick, First Secretary of the British Embassy, arrived at the Chancellerybearing Chamberlain’s letter. 383 They found Hitler in an ugly mood – probablyhe was already working himself down to a proper level for his Sportpalast speechthree hours hence.When Dr. Schmidt began to translate the letter, which stated that theCzech government had informed the Prime Minister that the Godesberg memorandumwas ”wholly unacceptable,” just as he had warned at Godesberg, Hitler,according to Schmidt, suddenly leaped up, shouting, ”There’s no sense at all innegotiating further!” and bounded for the door. 384It was a painful scene, says the German interpreter. ”For the first and onlytime in my presence, Hitler completely lost his head.” And according to theBritish present, the Fuehrer, who soon stamped back to his chair, kept furtherinterrupting the reading of the letter by screaming, ”The Germans are beingtreated like niggers . . . On October first I shall have Czechoslovakia where Iwant her. If France and England decide to strike, let them . . . I do not care apfennig.”Chamberlain had proposed that since the Czechs were willing to give Hitlerwhat he wanted, the Sudeten areas, a meeting of Czech and German representativesbe called immediately to settle ”by agreement the way in which theterritory is to be handed over.” He added that he was willing to have British representativessit in at the meeting. Hitler’s response was that he would negotiatedetails with the Czechs if they accepted in advance the Godesberg memorandum(which they had just rejected) and agreed to a German occupation of theSudetenland by October 1. He must have an affirmative reply, he said, withinforty-four hours – by 2 P.M. on September 28.That evening Hitler burned his bridges, or so it seemed to those of us wholistened in amazement to his mad outburst at the jammed Sportpalast in Berlin.Shouting and shrieking in the worst paroxysm I had ever seen him in, he venomouslyhurled personal insults at ”Herr Benes,” declared that the issue of waror peace was now up to the Czech President and that, in any case, he wouldhave the Sudetenland by October 1. Carried away as he was by his angry torrentof words and the ringing cheers of the crowd, he was shrewd enough to throwa sop to the British Prime Minister. He thanked him for his efforts for peaceand reiterated that this was his last territorial claim in Europe. ”We want noCzechs!” he muttered contemptuously.Throughout the harangue I sat in a balcony just above Hitler, trying withno great success to broadcast a running translation of his words. That night inmy diary I noted:. . . For the first time in all the years I’ve observed him he seemed∗ At the conclusion of the Godesberg talks, the British and French correspondents – andthe chief European correspondent of the New York Times, who was an English citizen – hadscurried off for the French, Belgian and Dutch frontiers, none of them wishing to be internedin case of war.