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

714 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHThey carried out their assignments with the thoroughness which one wouldexpect from this trio, especially the latter two individuals. Already on June14, the day German troops entered Paris, the Soviet government had sent anine-hour ultimatum to Lithuania demanding the resignation of its government,the arrest of some of its key officials and the right to send in as many RedArmy troops as it pleased. Though the Lithuanian government accepted theultimatum, Moscow deemed its acceptance ”unsatisfactory,” and the next day,June 15, Soviet troops occupied the country, the only one of the Baltic States toborder on Germany. During the next couple of days similar Soviet ultimatumswere dispatched to Latvia and Estonia, after which they were similarly overrunby the Red Army.Stalin could be as crude and as ruthless in these matters as Hitler – andeven more cynical. The press having been suppressed, the political leadersarrested and all parties but the Communist declared illegal, ”elections” werestaged by the Russians in all three countries on July 14, and after the respectiveparliaments thus ”elected” had voted for the incorporation of their lands intothe Soviet Union, the Supreme Soviet (Parliament) of Russia ”admitted” theminto the motherland: Lithuania on August 3, Latvia on August 5, Estonia onAugust 6.Adolf Hitler was humiliated, but, busy as he was trying to organize theinvasion of Britain, could do nothing about it. The letters from the envoys ofthe three Baltic States in Berlin protesting Russian aggression were returnedto them by order of Ribbentrop. To further humble the Germans Molotovbrusquely told them on August 11 to ”liquidate” their legations in Kaunas,Riga and Tallinn within a fortnight and close down their Baltic consulates bySeptember 1.The seizure of the Baltic States did not satisfy Stalin’s appetite. The surprisinglyquick collapse of the Anglo-French armies spurred him on to get as muchas he could while the getting was good. He obviously thought there was littletime to lose. On June 23, the day after the French formally capitulated andsigned the armistice at Compiegne, Molotov again called in the Nazi ambassadorin Moscow and told him that ”the solution of the Bessarabian question brookedno further delay. The Soviet government was determined to use force, shouldthe Rumanian government decline a peaceful agreement.” It expected Germany,Molotov added, ”not to hinder but to support the Soviets in their action.” Moreover,”the Soviet claim likewise extended to Bucovina.” 937 Bessarabia had beentaken by Rumania from Russia at the end of the First World War, but Bucovinahad never belonged to it, having been under Austria until Rumania grabbed itin 1919. At the negotiations in Moscow for the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Ribbentrop,as he now reminded Hitler, who had questioned him about it, had been forcedto give Bessarabia to the Russian sphere of interest. But he had never givenaway Bucovina.There was some alarm in Berlin, which spread to OKW headquarters inthe West. The Wehrmacht was desperately dependent on Rumanian oil andGermany needed the foodstuffs and fodder it also got from this Balkan country.These would be lost if the Red Army occupied Rumania. Some time back,on May 23, at the height of the Baltic of France, the Rumanian General Staffhad sent an S.O.S. to OKW informing it that Soviet troops were concentratingon the border. Jodl summed up the reaction at Hitler’s headquarters in hisdiary the next day: ”Situation in East becomes threatening because of Russian