International Reaction to Hitler's Speech (9/13/38)

Chancellor Hitler at Nuremberg last night asserted the “oppression” of Sudeten Germans must end and the right of self-determination be given to them. He denounced President Benes of Czechoslovakia as a “liar” and boasted of Germany’s armed strength, at the same time proclaiming her peaceful intentions. He charged democracies had united with bolshevism. He made no mention of a plebiscite but promised that if Sudetens desired help from Germany they would receive it. [Page 1.] The Chancellor also reviewed crack army forces, which staged a sham battle and display of warplanes. [Page 16.]

High excitement in the Sudeten districts brought violent Nazi demonstrations in which several policemen and civilians were injured. The government considered institution of martial law in this area if the emergency became grave. Crack troops were in the frontier defenses. [Page 1.]

London saw no threat of immediate war but Hitler’s speech convinced the British that he intended to intensify his military and propagandist pressure. The government will consider whether to speed up its war preparations. [Page 1.]

Paris felt a respite had been given, Foreign Minister Bonnet saying, “there is no mailed fist on the table.” Yet is believed annexation of the Sudeten area was clearly Germany’s aim. [Page 18.]

While he made no specific mention of a plebiscite, this evidently means that Sudeten German territory in Czechoslovakia must come to Germany if its inhabitants wish, as undoubtedly under the influence of recent agitation they do. Hitler left no doubt whatever on this point or that Germany means business.

Without qualification he called President Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia a liar as not long ago he applied to former Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg of Austria the same epithet. He described in sufficient detail to be impressive just what Germany is doing on her western frontier, how she is doing it and why she is fortifying. He proclaimed Germany’s strength, boasted of her ancient civilization and said it was to make the world realize this that he had ordered the crown scepter of her medieval empire brought to Nuremberg.

He railed against democracy as the ally of bolshevism and the symbol of incompetence and bad faith. He declared the peaceful aims of National Socialism in one breath, boasting of the sacrifices it has made for European reconciliation. For this he cited the renunciation of Alsace-Lorraine and the acceptance of a lower naval ratio by the treaty with Britain. Yet in the next breath he made clear that National Socialist Germany is going to get what she considers just for herself, making herself the judge of the justice of her demands.

In its own fashion this was as uncompromising a speech as was Field Marshal Hermann Goering’s truculent utterance two days ago, although it was couched in finer phrases and without the vulgarity characterizing parts of that fighting deliverance. It also evoked

more frenzied acclaim. Again and again Hitler had to pause until his audience exhausted itself in shouts of “heil.”

Only 30,000 heard the speech directly, for the Congress Hall will hold no more, but loud speakers carried it everywhere throughout Germany and everywhere there were large supplementary audiences. Literally, therefore, millions of Germans were listening. It is not too much to say eight that millions of Germans were applauding, for its tenor was also the general German sentiment. Propaganda has insured that.

The speech was an hour long. No official version of the text is available here tonight and correspondents are dependent on their own notes and translations. Nevertheless what follows is as nearly as possible a faithful synopsis of what Hitler said.

He began as usual by telling of the organization and upbuilding of National Socialism and its ultimate assumption of power. Ever since, he said, the outside world had held against it a common front just like that maintained in its earlier days by other political parties in Germany.

Democracy today, he said, marches with communism just as it did in Germany in those days. This made National Socialists indignant, knowing that there existed only two countries (evidently Germany and Italy) in which 99 per cent of the population stood behind the government.

“Among the tame democrats in Geneva sits the bloody representative of the cruelest tyranny in world history,” he said.

In 1933 to Germany were still denied the most primitive rights even though she was then ruled by liberals and democrats and not by Nazis, said Hitler. For years at that time Germany took in thousands of Jews but got no credit for it. Now when they were being thrown out nobody wanted to take them, he added, continuing:

“They think nothing of throwing bombs on helpless natives, but these are, of course, civilizing bombs, distinct from the barbaric ones thrown by Italians in the war in Ethiopia.”

Hitler’s general conclusion was that he considered it better to be reviled by some who could not rob him than to be robbed by some one who would praise him for being a good democrat. He came finally to the real subject of his speech and continued:

“This situation becomes intolerable in the case of Czechoslovakia. This State is a democracy, meaning it is founded on democratic principles. That is to say, its inhabitants were forced, without being consulted, to accept the fabrication made at Versailles. The world was told that this State had a special mission. Pierre Cot has said since then that it was intended to attack German industrial centers. I assume he was referring to the civilizing bombs.

“The Czechs, the people who founded that State, had to find a construction that would insure their supremacy over the others in it. Whoever opposes this supremacy has been branded as a public enemy and under the democratic system held to be an outlaw. So whoever opposes the regime is beaten down or murdered.

“If the people of our nation were not concerned we might have little interest, but in that country are 3,500,000 Germans, roughly the equivalent of Denmark’s population. They are beings created by God, but not created to be submitted to alien-hate violence engendered under the Versailles Treaty. Nor were 7,000,000 Czechs created to discipline and torture Germans in the name of self-determination proclaimed by a certain Mr. Wilson.

“Economically these Germans have been systematically ruined. Their distress is fearful and their oppression terrible. The desire is to destroy them. They are persecuted for singing songs, wearing stockings and giving salutes which do not happen to please the Czechs.

“This may seem all right to democracies, since there are only 3,500,000 Germans, but I can tell the other nations that it is not a matter of indifference to us, and if these tortured creatures do not receive help and justice then they can get both from us. This iniquity must be ended. I expressed these same views in my speech of Feb. 22.

“The oppression of 3,500,000 Germans was possible only while the Reich was weak. To believe such a regime can exist forever in that way is utter blindness. The German nation cannot tolerate this oppression and I must earnestly ask foreign statesmen to believe this is not a mere phrase.

National Socialism has made many sacrifices for European peace and has harbored no ideas of revenge. France took Alsace-Lorraine from Germany in the seventeenth century. It was retaken by Germany in 1870 after war was forced on us. For us Strasbourg Cathedral means a great deal and if we have renounced any demands it has been only in the interests of European reconciliation. Nobody could have forced us to renounce it. We have done so because we wished to end our eternal struggle with France.

“On other frontiers, too, we have made sacrifices in order to pave the way to the reconciliation of nations. No revenge propaganda has been allowed, not even in our literature. All our peace offers have not been taken up for reasons still unknown to us, but we have voluntarily submitted to a naval ratio of 35 per cent with Britain and not because we could not build more ships.

“When in Poland a great statesman and patriot was ready to conclude a pact with us we immediately accepted the treaty recognizing our respective frontiers as inviolable. This treaty has done more for peace than all the chattering in Geneva put together.

“But this self-limitation appears to have been misconstrued as weakness. I wish to correct this. I do not believe European peace would be served if Germans should refuse to take interest in the lives of 3,500,000 of their brothers. We shall well understand if Britain and France uphold their interests throughout the world, but I can assure the statesmen in Paris and London that German interests also exist which we are determined to look after under all conditions and under all circumstances.

“No European State has done more for peace than Germany, but there are limits. The National Socialist State must not be confounded with the State of Bethman-Hollweg and Hertling.

“I am making this declaration in view of certain events that have occurred this year. It was proposed this year to hold communal elections in Czechoslovakia. The Czech Government knew how weak its position was and the only means of victory at its disposal were the means of brutal intimidation, especially of Sudeten Germans. In order to serve this purpose President Benes invented the lie that Germany had mobilized troops and intended to march on Czechoslovakia.

“Such lies are not new. Today I have just this to say: Last year a foreign power spread the rumor that 20,000 Germans had landed in Morocco. A word to its Ambassador was all that was necessary to clear up the matter. This time, too, the Ambassador of another great power was informed twice and so also was the Czech Government. But the latter needed this lie for its plans. I can assure, nevertheless, that not a single soldier more was under colors in Germany at that time.

“A world power cannot tolerate such a base attack twice running. I must draw the necessary conclusions. As a National Socialist I am accustomed to strike back at an attacker. As from the 28th of May I have taken these very grave measures:

“First, the increases in our army and air force already announced were carried out. Second, I ordered a line of fortifications on the western frontier brought to completion. The work had been in progress for two years, but this has now developed into the most gigantic defense system of all time.

“At present 278,000 workers are under Dr. Todt’s efficient organization, besides 84,000 others and 100,000 labor service lads and many battalions of engineers and infantry. The State railways alone haul 8,000 carloads of materials every day and 100,000 tons of gravel are used daily.

“These western fortifications will be finished before Winter breaks. They are safe already. When they are finished they will comprise 17,000 armored concrete units extending over four lines and in some cases more than ten miles deep. Behind them is the German nation in arms.

“This line has been built for the sake of peace. I am not willing any longer to countenance further oppression of the German population of Czechoslovakia. Herr Benes engages in manoeuvring. This is no time for pretty words. It is a case of rights, and injured rights at that. It is not up to Herr Benes to make presents to the Sudeten Germans.

“These Germans demand the right of self-determination, not phrases. It is not a case of a demand of 3,500,000 Englishmen or Frenchmen, but of a demand that oppression of 3,500,000 Germans shall cease and they shall receive the free right of self-determination instead. It is up to the Czech Government to negotiate with the Sudeten Germans and come to terms with them. It is my task that these rights shall not be turned into wrongs.”

“We will not tolerate the formation of a second Palestine in Middle Europe. The Arabs may be helpless and forsaken; the Germans in Czechoslovakia are neither defenseless nor forsaken. I am particularly glad to say this in front of Austrians because they can appreciate what it means to be oppressed and separated from the Fatherland.

“Such a small State as Czechoslovakia dares act in this manner only because Germany is looked on as a recent upstart nation. When I was in Rome I was impressed by the mistake so often made of considering history in too short periods. Germany and Italy may be new States, but they are founded on old and strong traditions. In token thereof I have had the insignia if the German Reich brought back to Nuremberg to remind the world Germany was a great empire 500 years before the discovery of America.

“The German Reich slept, but Germany has now awakened. It has placed on its own head its thousand-year-old crown. I suggest to others that they too shall look on history from a higher platform. Italy and Germany are old foundations. One may not like them, but nothing will ever remove them.”

Hitler has rarely wrought such enthusiasm as when he thus concluded tonight’s address. When the frenzied cheering at last subsided, Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of the Nazi party, declared the congress adjourned.

Tonight, despite the rain Hitler was serenaded in his hotel by massed bands of army contingents here. When he showed himself on the balcony the crowd became frantic in its adoration. The 1938 party rally, however dull it seemed in its first days, had ended with fireworks.

Nothing in the speech pointed to immediate war against the Czechs, and for this the British Government and people were thankful. But everything in the speech convinced the British that Hitler intended to keep up and perhaps intensify the military and propagandist pressure that already has set the alarm bells ringing all over Europe.

Britain, in other words, can find no relief in sight for Europe’s jangled nerves. A demand for a plebiscite in the Sudeten German areas of Czechoslovakia is expected before long, but it will not restore Europe’s peace of mind unless the Czechs capitulate or the other powers induce them to do so.

The British Government will consider now whether to press the Czechs further and whether to speed up its own defensive precautions So far the government has virtually committed itself to go no further than “modifications” and “elucidations” of the latest Czech proposals. Yesterday a plebiscite was ruled out in government quarters here, yet if German pressure should continue without war there is no telling what Britain will “recommend” to the unhappy Czechs as the price of peace in Europe.

Tonight after the last echoes of Hitler’s strident voice had died away on the radio the so-called “Inner Cabinet” of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Viscount Halifax, Foreign Secretary; Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sir Samuel Hoare, Home Secretary, met in Downing Street to consider the speech. There had been a full meeting of the Cabinet in the morning, but it had not taken any new decisions.

British policy had already been decided by Mr. Chamberlain and his closest colleagues in their protracted discussion from last Thursday to Sunday. Further military, naval and air precautions had been worked out, but their execution necessarily depended upon the tone and substance of Hitler’s speech tonight. It is understood the Cabinet today approved everything that had been done and left to the “inner Cabinet” a wide measure of discretion in handling any emergency that might arise in the next few days.

The Ministers tonight had before them not only the text of Hitler’s speech but also a note handed to the Foreign Office today by Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovak Minister

here. The note reminded the British in forceful terms that a plebiscite would be utterly unacceptable and impossible for the Czechs and told the British why.

It asserted that there was no provision for a plebiscite in the Czech Constitution and that therefore such a proposal would go beyond the limits already set by Britain and France in the present negotiations in Prague. It would endanger the security of the republic, according to the Czech note, and on the basis of previous plebiscites in Austria and elsewhere it might lead to disruption of the State by terrorism and propaganda imported from outside.

All these points have been present in the minds of the British Ministers, who know that a plebiscite would cause innumerable complications even before it was held. For the moment the British will concentrate on a resumption of the present negotiations in Prague, but the question of still larger concessions by the Czechs probably will be faced here in the next few weeks, especially if the efforts of Viscount Runciman, unofficial British mediator, break down.

The first impression of Hitler’s speech in responsible quarters tonight was that it had not made the situation any better. This was as much a result of its harsh, provocative tone as of anything in the speech itself. Wistful and wishful comment was that “If only the Czechs and the Sudeten Germans were allowed to get on with their job without outside interference there might be a fair chance of a solution.”

The gibes at Britain and the democracies generally caused no particular annoyance here and, indeed, were less irritating than those of Field Marshal Hermann Goering on the preceding day. But something deeper than annoyance is being aroused here by the deliberate stirring up of tension in Europe by German leaders regardless of the effect upon other countries. Resentment exists equally in the Cabinet and among everyday Londoners like the hundreds who filled Downing Street so thickly during today’s Cabinet meeting that the police had to clear the narrow roadway.

Public impatience is growing as trade suffers and nerves grow whether Hitler or the Czechs will be made to feel the brunt of it in the end.

Not a single word of the “frenzied speech” can be regarded as helpful to peace, in the opinion of The Daily Telegraph.

“It is plainly Hitler’s intention,” says this paper, “that the conferences in Prague shall go forward under the menacing shadow of German might, ready to intervene should there be no yielding to the most extreme demand he is prepared to support.

“A respite is afforded from the immediate danger of war and Europe is apparently, in the Fuehrer’s conception, to be kept in a state of anxious expectancy during the whole time the negotiations may occupy and beyond.

“It is an intolerable thought that for possibly months to come Europe is to be kept in full tension awaiting the moment when Hitler may approve or disapprove the outcome of the negotiations from which he demands ‘self-determination’ for the Sudeten Germans. That is the situation, full of every kind of danger, amid which Europe will stand armed awaiting the ‘incident’ that may spread a conflagration throughout the world.”

The Times notes that Chancellor Hitler has resisted the temptation to make a coup, which “would almost certainly have caused a general war.” But The Times also characterized the reference to “seven million Czechs torturing three and a half million Germans as an “absurd perversion of the truth, which can hardly have deceived his own docile and devoted audiences.”

It is lamentable, indeed, that the head of a great country like Germany should talk such nonsense” The Times declares, and it describes Hitler’s charges against President Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia as “preposterous.”

“There seems to be no limit to the capacity of a German audience for listening to denunciation of Marxists and Jews,” says The Times. “It is in fact a standing marvel how much patience that great people shows under its orators’ diatribes and perversions of the truth.”

Contrasting the treatment of malcontents in Czechoslovakia and Germany, The Times asserts:

“Any one who opposes National Socialist sovereignty in Germany is thrown into a concentration camp or summarily executed.”

Yet the newspaper repeats its suggestion of last week that the claim of self-determination for the Sudeten Germans “at least deserves consideration if the present negotiations should fail, although they too may fairly be said to carry self-determination a very long way.”

“The very short-term implications of the Nuremberg declaration are undoubtedly favorable and the markets doubtless will take advantage of the respite granted them. Beyond that it would be unwise to attempt to prophesy. *** The markets of the world will continue upon a twenty-four-hour basis.”

“If the suggestion of a plebiscite is made it must be met in the most reasonable spirit by the interested powers and given the closest examination. *** The speech was pitched on a much stronger note than many people anticipated, but it did not finally bang the door on statesmanship.”

“We must expect a further period of unrest and uncertainty, a prolonged era of negotiations and a continuation of anxiety regarding the peace of Europe, but Britain will not be involved in war in Europe this year or next.”

In official circles the relief was more pronounced than in political circles generally. A big outburst of prearranged demonstrations of Nazi mobs in Sudeten areas, immediately after the speech, began to arouse fears that the first stages of what happened in Austria in February and March had already begun in Czechoslovakia.

Official circles were calmer, taking the view that these demonstrations, having been prearranged by the Henleinists, need not be regarded so very seriously despite the damage done in many cases, provided they were promptly halted by firm measures, as it was intended they should be halted.

In Karsnitz a mob of 10,000 Henleinists attempted to seize the postoffice and local government offices. The police did nothing until the matter became really serious, when the demonstrators were dispersed.

In Falkenau, after a bomb had been exploded in a Czech school, which was demolished, and another bomb had been thrown by Henleinists into a hotel courtyard (it exploded harmlessly), Nazis started to plunder Czech and Jewish-owned shops.

In Jaegerndorf, where the German frontier runs through the suburbs, 8,000 Nazis held illegal demonstrations, singing the “Horst-Wessel Song” and shouting “Heil Hitler!” But there was no violence.

In Eger Nazi mobs attacked a local Social Democratic workers’ club, firing twenty-five pistol shots into a building without hitting any one. With police aid the workers were able to beat off the attackers. Henleinists stormed through the streets, breaking into and plundering a local branch of the Bata Shoe Company and other Czech and Jewish-owned shops.

There were noisy demonstrations at Saaz. These were not accompanied by violence, so far as was known here. At Schoenfeld, near Elbogen, an inn belonging to a German democrat was attacked and damaged. In Gablonz crowds of 7,000 to 10,000 Nazis marched through the streets singing the “Horst-Wessel Song.” A swastika banner was raised but it was hauled down by the police.

larly violent, and one policeman was seriously hurt. Windows in all official buildings in the town were smashed as the crowd shouted, “We want to go home to the Reich.”

Abut 10,000 Nazis demonstrated in the market square at Aussig, hoisting a swastika flag over a café. Henleinist Deputy Richter delivered a fiery oration, demanding from the crowd:

“Do you realize that when the time comes you must be prepared to lay down your lives for this banner?”

Then he administered the oath to the swastika while the mob chanted, “Hitler, dear, make us free from Czechoslovakia.”

In Freudenthal Nazi demonstrations, after taking on an alarming aspect, passed off quietly.

In Komotau, where previously there had been serious clashes between Czechs and Nazis, the Henleinists dispersed quietly after listening to a speech at the Nazi headquarters.

In many places in Bohemia letter boxes were painted with the German national colors and the swastika, and Czech inscriptions were blocked out with tar. In several smaller towns attempts were made to storm police stations. Newspapers demanded stern measures.

The Czechoslovak committee of political Ministers began to sit even before the speech, and until late tonight they debated what was to be done over the further outbreaks of disorders.

The whole character of tonight’s demonstrations suggested the Henleinists had arranged them in anticipation of an immediate German invasion or at least an ultimatum. The writer went to the Henlein headquarters here immediately after Hitler’s speech and found a subdued and even depressed atmosphere.

One or two Henleinists with whom he spoke casually said there was “no doubt something will be done soon,” adding that the Fuehrer had not put forward any concrete demands, as they had confidently expected.

The disorders caused by Nazi mobs in Sudeten German areas, in view of the obvious fact that they had been prearranged, do not necessarily conflict with this impression, since they may be just as much an expression of disappointed fury as jubilation.

Both in official and unofficial Czechoslovak circles there is the greatest indignation at what is regarded as an attempt by Hitler to stir up internal disorders and encourage Henleinists to rise, in the face of a combination of democratic States against whom Hitler does not wish to risk direct military aggression at this moment.

His harsh references to the head of the Czechoslovak Republic and particularly his use of the hated German-devised word “Czechel,” instead of “Tchechoslovakei,” arouses anger that it is not easy for a foreigner to understand unless he appreciates the subtle implication of contempt and scorn that this apparently harmless abbreviation contains.

But to appreciate the relief caused by what was also an infuriating speech for Czechs to listen to, it must be remembered that at 7:30 o’clock tonight the Czechoslovak populace had to face the possibility that in a few hours it might hear the roaring of German bombing planes overhead. Quietly the government had taken all advance preparations to rush reinforcements to the frontiers should the worst be realized.

When the speech began the streets in the center of this city were unusually deserted. The self-control and calm nerves that have characterized the Czechoslovak attitude ever since the Austrian invasion started this crisis were maintained throughout this very critical day. There were no anti-German demonstrations, no nationalist displays or other signs of excitement.

Those Czechs who understood German and who had radios listened to the speech at their homes, while others gathered in dense crowds outside big newspaper offices, such as that of Narodny Politka, waiting for 10 o’clock editions, containing Czech reports on the speech that was to decide whether this country would be assailed tonight – or not just yet.

As the papers came on the street they were bought up greedily, and those lucky enough to obtain copies were almost forced by others around them to stand still and let the eager read over the owners’ shoulders. Even some policemen on duty showed a human weakness to know what would be the country’s fate tonight and stole glances at wide-open sheets while continuing to control the crowds.

PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia, Sept. 12 (AP).-Reports of disorders in which two Sudeten Germans were wounded and two bombs set off were received here today while Czechoslovaks who listened to the radio broadcast of Hitler’s speech expressed the opinion that it was even more bitter than they had expected. The average Czech was keenly resentful of Hitler’s scathing remarks about this little war-created republic, over whose 3,500,000 Sudeten Germans he has proclaimed himself protector.

The two Sudeten Nazis were shot, one seriously, in a disturbance at Graslitz, in West Bohemia, when a man described as a Communist fired two pistol shots into a crowd of singing, cheering followers of Konrad Henlein, Sudeten Nazi leader. The crowd chased the assailant into the Postoffice, where he was seized by the police, who spirited him away from the infuriated Sudetens.

The two bombings were reported from Falkenau and Eger, a short distance from the German border. The explosion at Falkenau occurred in the central section of the city, shattering fifty windows in the Hahn Hotel. Twenty-five windows were broken in a Czech school by the blast at Eger.

At Carlsbad Nazi sympathizers paraded the streets after assembling at a large mass meeting to listen to Hitler.

Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, commenting on it within a half hour after its delivery, declared that “there is nothing irremediable in it” and that “there is no mailed fist on the table.”

That may not provide much comfort, but it is certainly something to be going on within a country where the question “Is there going to be war? had risen to such a crescendo during the past six weeks that today it had become “Is there going to be war tomorrow?”

At the same time Hitler made it quite clear, here as everywhere else, that what he wants is annexation of the Sudeten Czechoslovak territory. And what is disquieting is that he tacitly admitted that he was not ready to repeat what he did in Austria for this reason, that these formidable fortifications of his on the West were not ready. But they will be ready “before Winter.”

So at best it is considered that what has been obtained is a respite – a respite for clear thinking, for quick negotiation and for momentous decisions. As he presented it, it is remarked here, the German Chancellor made an excellent case. France has too long held the role of defender of “oppressed minorities” to be able to recant in this instance.

There may be a difference of opinion as to whether the Sudeten Nazis are oppressed or not, but there is no doubt about Hitler’s intention to consider them so and to make his quarrel on that issue. It is admittedly difficult to answer. At the same time Hitler’s reiteration that he regards the Franco-German quarrel over Alsace-Lorraine as definitely closed is a good bid for French help in obtaining further concessions from Prague.

There was a meeting of the Cabinet today, and tomorrow another will be held under President Lebrun to discuss the situation. At today’s meeting, according to a communiqué issued afterward, homage was paid to the “calm and sangfroid of the nation,” and it was recorded how from all parts of the French Empire expressions of loyalty and fidelity had come.

In an unofficial statement regarding the meeting it was stated that most of the time of the meeting had been taken up with an account from M. Bonnet of his conversations in Geneva and the reception that had been given to the British government’s statement. This unofficial statement continued:

“Already it is evident that around the Entente Cordiale other governments and peoples are grouped in case of a general conflict.”

After the Cabinet meeting Premier Edouard Daladier had a conference with the army chiefs – General Marie Gustave Gamelin, General Alphonse Joseph Georges and General Gaston Billotte.

Much prominence was given in French evening newspapers to the fact that M. Bonnet’s first visitor today was United States Ambassador William C. Bullitt. At the embassy it was stated Mr. Bullitt called only in search of information.

The Marseilles longshoremen’s strike was ended tonight when union delegates and employers’ representatives met in the Public Works Ministry’s offices in Paris and signed an agreement. The strike had lasted sixty-one days and led Public Works Minister Anatole de Monzie to take the emergency measure of mobilizing the strikers for army service to keep the vital Marseilles port open.

According to the preliminary settlement, which had been foreseen since this morning, when representatives of both sides and government officials met at the Ministry, the compromise meets such demands of the workers as are considered reasonable.

The end of the strike was hailed with satisfaction in Marseilles, where the men since being mobilized had complained only that they were not being drafted fast enough so that they could return to work. The drafted men although on an army basis, received pre-strike union wages plus a bonus.

Weeks of tension, with peace at the mercy of every incident and Europe’s nerves growing increasingly raw, were foreseen by French officials as a probable result of the Nuremberg speech. What was regarded as the violence of Hitler’s words in alluding to great Britain was declared by Foreign Office observers here to be particularly striking.

Premier Edouard Daladier, Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet and sixteen other Cabinet Ministers heard the speech over radios installed in their offices. Even while Hitler’s voice echoed through government offices, couriers sped among the Ministers and three silent generals who sat together in the War Ministry.

They, keeping an all-night vigil, were Generals Marie Gustave Gamelin, chief of the national defense general staff; Alphonse Joseph Georges, member of the superior war council, and Gaston Billotte, military governor of Paris.

The Paris boulevards were jammed with crowds during the evening, and extra police were called to deep them moving. The capital’s evening newspapers published extras carrying the speech, and copies were bought up as soon as they were flung off delivery trucks.

In the midst of the speech and the attendant excitement France’s fighting forces were geared to the highest pitch of war efficiency and stood ready for action. The Cabinet a few hours earlier was understood to have completed plans for a general mobilization in case it became necessary. The Ministers also were reported to have drawn up measures for evacuation and protection of the civil population in case of war.

“The Cabinet examined recent diplomatic documents and external political events which were related by M. Bonnet.

“The Cabinet paid homage to the nation’s patriotism, to its calm and to its sangfroid. It also received expressions of fidelity to France from North Africa and the entire colonial empire.

“This worthy and sensible attitude of the nation is particularly useful for the defense of peace.”

As the Cabinet met, an open telephone line connected Premier Daladier’s office with that of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in London, and the two government heads were reported to have conferred frequently during the final hours before Hitler spoke. There were preparations other than military. Raymond Patenotre, Minister of National Economy and Production, said after the Cabinet meeting:

“We have taken all the necessary economic measures, and we will not be surprised as we were in 1914.”

Two million soldiers, 2,000 fighting planes and 200 warships awaited only a word from Premier Daladier to move into action. One of the government’s last acts of preparedness was to arrange for the dropping of 50,000 post cards over the capital from an airplane to determine air currents for a study of possible effects if poison gas should be dumped on the capital.

Despite months of promises, however – repeated only a few days ago – the government had not yet distributed gas masks to the capitals civilian population.

Reminiscent of war times was a cigarette and tobacco collection drive launched by newspapers, which declared that supplies had been exhausted in the Maginot line of fortifications along the German border because of the extraordinary number of men garrisoned there.

The speech was appraised as a final warning to Prague that it had a last chance to come forward with a solution of the Sudeten problem that would accord full recognition to the demands of the German minority. Responsibility for further developments, incidentally, is shifted onto the Cabinets in London, Paris and Prague.

With that part of official Germany that is competent to speak still in Nuremberg, the press comment appearing in this morning’s papers frankly reflected the effect on Hitler’s audience of his denunciation of President Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia and his regime. It was uniformly asserted, however, that far from being a declaration of war, the speech had been remarkable for the candor with which Hitler laid down his cards and proclaimed his readiness to cooperate for the security of European peace.

The comment made no reference to the fate of the mediation endeavors of Viscount Runciman of Britain, although scattered references demanded a more effective approach to a solution of the Czech-Sudeten conflict.

Inspired comment from Nuremberg made no concealment of the official displeasure over Sunday’s British press communiqué giving London’s position in the present situation. The manner in which it had been launched plainly nettled government quarters, which disposed of it somewhat curtly as immaterial and providing no fresh viewpoint.

While the British declaration to the press was considered here to be unfortunately timed, it was held to contain no surprise except for the reference to a possible forcible solution of the problem. Such a possibility, says the German comment, has been discussed only outside Germany up to the present.

It is not improbable that the British declaration accounts for some of the acrimonious criticism of the Western Powers that found its way into Hitler’s speech. The present pronounced anti-German orientation of the British press, underscored in German press dispatches from London, also may have contributed to Hitler’s irritation.

No speech by Hitler in recent years had stimulated an equal measure of public curiosity as that in Nuremberg yesterday. It received right of way over a nation-wide hook-up and was feverishly awaited in government offices, restaurants, cafes and wherever loud-speakers had been rigged up. At the Potsdamer Station hundreds of commuters passed up their trains to listen to the speech.

9/13/38 Update

The day following Hitler's speech, September 13, the French cabinet sat all day, remaining hopelessly divided on whether it should honor its obligations to Czechoslovakia in case of a German attack, which it believed imminent. That evening the British ambassador in Paris, Sir Eric Phipps, was fetched from the Opera Comique for an urgent conference with Prime Minister Daladier. The latter appealed to Chamberlain to try at once to make the best bargain he could with the German dictator. Mr. Chamberlain, it may be surmised, needed little urging. At eleven o'clock that same night the British Prime Minister got off an urgent message to Hitler:

In view of the increasingly critical situation I propose to come over at once to see you with a view to trying to find a peaceful solution. I propose to come across by air and am ready to start tomorrow. Please indicate earliest time at which you can see me and suggest place of meeting. I should be grateful for a very early reply.

Two hours before, the German charge d'affaires in London, Theodor Kordt, had wired Berlin that Chamberlain's press secretary had informed him that the Prime Minister "was prepared to examine far-reaching German proposals, including plebiscite, to take part in carrying them out, and to advocate them in public.

The surrender that was to culminate in Munich had begun.

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Pg. 384

9/13/38 Update #2 – Jodl’s Diary

(There is mention here of a plot to overthrow Hitler. Such plots went on in a half-hearted way right up to the end. I will not dwell on them.)

[On] September 9, Hitler convoked Keitel, Brauchitsch and Halder to Nuremberg for a conference which began at 10 P.M., lasted until 4 o’clock the next morning and, as Keitel later confided to Jodl, who in turn confided it to his diary, was exceedingly stormy. Halder found himself in the ticklish position - for the key man in the plot to overthrow Hitler the moment he gave the word to attack—of having to explain in great detail the General Staff's plan for the campaign in Czechoslovakia, and in the uncomfortable position, as it developed, of seeing Hitler tear it to shreds and dress down not only him but Brauchitsch for their timidity and their military incapabilities. Keitel, Jodl noted on the thirteenth, was "terribly shaken" by his experience at Nuremberg and by the evidence of "defeatism" at the top of the German Army.

Accusations are made to the Fuehrer about the defeatism in the High Command of the Army . . . Keitel declares that he will not tolerate any officer in OKW indulging in criticism, unsteady thoughts and defeatism . . . The Fuehrer knows that the Commander of the Army [Brauchitsch] has asked his commanding generals to support him in order to open the Fuehrer's eyes about the adventure which he has resolved to risk. He himself [Brauchitsch] has no more influence with the Fuehrer. Thus a cold and frosty atmosphere prevailed in Nuremberg and it is highly unfortunate that the Fuehrer has the whole nation behind him with the exception of the leading generals of the Army.

All of this greatly saddened the aspiring young Jodl, who had hitched his star to Hitler.

Only by actions can [these generals] honorably repair the damage which they have caused through lack of strength of mind and lack of obedience. It is the same problem as in 1914. There is only one example of disobedience in the Army and that is of the generals and in the end it springs from their arrogance. They can no longer believe and no longer obey because they do not recognize the Fuehrer's genius. Many of them still see in him the corporal of the World War but not the greatest statesman since Bismarck.

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Pg. 378-379

"...amid the frenzied enthusiasm of the crowd..."
"...more frenzied acclaim. Again and again Hitler had to pause until his audience exhausted itself in shouts of 'heil.'"
"...millions of Germans were applauding, for its tenor was also the general German sentiment. Propaganda has insured that."

Thank God for the millions of Americans who think for themselves and resist the relentless, ceaseless, ubiquitous, ruthless propaganda bombarding them constantly from The Democrat Party Propaganda Machine, also known as the "Mainstream Newsmedia", the "Corrupt Newsmedia", et al.

Nevertheless, it is frightening that millions of Americans allow themselves to be influenced by this Propaganda Machine.

The conversion of the American Free Press into this Propaganda Machine is one of the most dangerous events in U.S. history--a truthfully informed electorate being essential to representative government.

Those susceptable to this propaganda--i.e. people who cannot or will not think for themselves--would elect a monster like Hitler to power today if he were packaged appropriately--i.e. as a rockstar--and presented with sufficient propaganda.

How did the American media and Hollywood see Hitler and the NAZIs prior to his attack on Russia?

The media was divided. While Henry Luce, publisher of the magazines Time and Life favored aiding the Allies, Chicago Tribune publisher Robert McCormick remained staunchly isolationist.

The Communist Party and its fronts were solidly anti-Nazi until the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939, then immediately switched to a militant stance in favor of isolationism and against intervention. When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, they were once again militantly interventionist.

As an example, the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League was formed in 1937 as a grass-roots effort among those in the movie industry to combat Nazism and fascism. However, being Communist-dominated, the group changed its name to the Hollywood League for Democratic Action in 1939, following the Hitler-Stalin pact.

In the spring of 1941, the Almanac Singers, a left-wing folk-singing group whose members included Pete Seeger, recorded an anti-war album entitled "Songs for John Doe." A few weeks after its release, Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, and the album quickly disappeared from record stores and has since become a collector's item, although it is available on CD. Shortly afterwards, the group was recording pro-war songs such as "Reuben James."

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