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

376 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHMoreover, the truncated and now defenseless country was forced by Berlinto install a pro-German government of obvious fascist tendencies. It was clearthat from now on the Czechoslovak nation existed at the mercy of the Leaderof the Third Reich.THE CONSEQUENCES OF MUNICHUnder the terms of the Munich Agreement Hitler got substantially what hehad demanded at Godesberg, and the ”International Commission,” bowing tohis threats, gave him considerably more. The final settlement of November 20,1938, forced Czechoslovakia to cede to Germany 11,000 square miles of territoryin which dwelt 2,800,000 Sudeten Germans and 800,000 Czechs. Within thisarea lay all the vast Czech fortifications which hitherto had formed the mostformidable defensive line in Europe, with the possible exception of the MaginotLine in France.But that was not all. Czechoslovakia’s entire system of rail, road, telephoneand telegraph communications was disrupted. According to German figures,the dismembered country lost 66 per cent of its coal, 80 per cent of its lignite,86 per cent of its chemicals, 80 per cent of its cement, 80 per cent of its textiles,70 per cent of its iron and steel, 70 per cent of its electric power and 40 percent of its timber. A prosperous industrial nation was split up and bankruptedovernight.No wonder that Jodl could write joyfully in his diary on the night of Munich:The Pact of Munich is signed. Czechoslovakia as a power is out . . .The genius of the Fuehrer and his determination not to shun evena World War have again won the victory without the use of force.The hope remains that the incredulous, the weak and the doubtfulpeople have been converted, and will remain that way. 416Many of the doubtful were converted and the few who were not were plungedinto despair. The generals such as Beck, Haider and Witzleben and their civilianadvisers had again been proved wrong. Hitler had got what he wanted,had achieved another great conquest, without firing a shot. His prestige soaredto new heights. No one who was in Germany in the days after Munich, asthis writer was, can forget the rapture of the German people. They were relievedthat war had been averted; they were elated and swollen with pride atHitler’s bloodless victory, not only over Czechoslovakia but over Great Britainand France. Within the short space of six months, they reminded you, Hitlerhad conquered Austria and the Sudetenland, adding ten million inhabitants tothe Third Reich and a vast strategic territory which opened the way for Germandomination of southeastern Europe. And without the loss of a single Germanlife! With the instinct of a genius rare in German history he had divined notonly the weaknesses of the smaller states in Central Europe but those of the twoprincipal Western democracies, Britain and France, and forced them to bend tohis will. He had invented and used with staggering success a new strategy andtechnique of political warfare, which made actual war unnecessary.In scarcely four and a half years this man of lowly origins had catapulteda disarmed, chaotic, nearly bankrupt Germany, the weakest of the big powers