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

726 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHin Berlin about 4 P.M. at this time of year, and shortly after 9 o’clock theair-raid sirens began to whine and then you could hear the thunder of theflak guns and, in between, the hum of the bombers overhead. According toDr. Schmidt, who was at the banquet in the Soviet Embassy, Molotov hadjust proposed a friendly toast and Ribbentrop had risen to his feet to replywhen the air-raid warning was sounded and the guests scattered to shelter. Iremember the hurrying and scurrying down the Linden and around the corner atthe Wilhelmstrasse as Germans and Russians made for the underground shelterof the Foreign Ministry. Some of the officials, Dr. Schmidt among them, duckedinto the Adlon Hotel, from in front of which some of us were watching, andwere unable to get to the impromptu meeting which the two foreign ministersnow held in the underground depths of the Foreign Office. The minutes ofthis meeting were therefore taken, in the enforced absence of Dr. Schmidt, byGustav Hilger, counselor of the German Embassy in Moscow, who had acted asone of the interpreters during the conference.While the British bombers cruised overhead in the night and the antiaircraftguns fired away ineffectively at them, the slippery Nazi Foreign Minister triedone last time to take the Russians in. Out of his pocket he pulled a draft ofan agreement which, in substance, transformed the Tripartite Pact into a fourpowerpact, with Russia as the fourth member. Molotov listened patiently whileRibbentrop read it through.Article II was the core. In it Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Unionundertook ”to respect each other’s natural spheres of influence.” Any disputesconcerning them would be settled ”in an amicable way.” The two fascist countriesand Japan agreed to ”recognize the present extent of the possessions of theSoviet Union and will respect it.” All four countries, in Article III, agreed notto join or support any combination ”directed against one of the Four Powers.”The agreement itself, Ribbentrop proposed, would be made public, but not,of course, its secret protocols, which he next proceeded to read. The mostimportant one defined each country’s ”territorial aspirations.” Russia’s was to”center south of the national territory of the Soviet Union in the direction ofthe Indian Ocean.”Molotov did not rise to the bait. The proposed treaty was obviously anattempt to divert Russia from its historic pressure westward, down the Baltic,into the Balkans and through the Straits to the Mediterranean, where inevitablyit would clash with the greedy designs of Germany and Italy. The U.S.S.R. wasnot, at least at the moment, interested in the Indian Ocean, which lay far away.What it was interested in at the moment, Molotov replied, was Europe and theTurkish Straits. ”Consequently,” he added, ”paper agreements will not sufficefor the Soviet Union; she would have to insist on effective guarantees of hersecurity.”The questions which interested the Soviet Union [he elaborated] concernednot only Turkey but Bulgaria . . . But the fate of Rumaniaand Hungary was also of interest to the U.S.S.R. and could not beimmaterial to her under any circumstances. It would further interestthe Soviet Government to learn what the Axis contemplated withbeforehand,” he later wrote, ”and though not invited to join in the discussion did not wish tobe entirely left out of the proceedings.” (Churchill, Their Finest Hour, p. 584.)