I’ve been following this series of posts, and find it fascinating. Would you add me to the list, please?
To see if even the pieces [of Czechoslovakia] could be saved [Czech Foreign Minister] Chvalkovsky finally prevailed upon Hitler to receive him in Berlin on January 21. It turned out to be a painful scene, though not as painful for the Czechs as one that would shortly follow. The Czech Foreign Minister groveled before the mighty German dictator, who was in one of his most bullying moods. Czechoslovakia, said Hitler, had been saved from catastrophe by “Germany’s moderation.” Nevertheless, unless the Czechs showed a different spirit, he would “annihilate” them. They must forget their “history,” which was “schoolboy nonsense,” and do as the Germans bade. That was their only salvation. Specifically, Czechoslovakia must leave the League of Nations, drastically reduce the size of her Army – “because it did not count anyway” – join the Anti-Comintern Pact, accept German direction of her foreign policy, make a preferential trade agreement with Germany, one condition of which was that no new Czech industries could be established without German consent, dismiss all officials and editors not friendly to the Reich and, finally, outlaw the Jews, as Germany had done under its Nuremberg Laws. (“With us, the Jews will be destroyed,” Hitler told his visitor.) On the same day Chvalkovsky received further demands from Ribbentrop, who threatened “catastrophic consequences” unless the Czechs immediately mended their ways and did as they were told. The German Foreign Minister, so much the lackey in the presence of Hitler but a boor and a bully with anyone over whom he had the upper hand, bade Chvalkovsky not to mention the new German demands to the British and French but just to go ahead an carry them out.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 438
This is fascinating, especially to see the rise of Hitler coinciding with the Rise of 0-bama.
Thanks, as always, for posting this thread.
What was totally ludicrous and absurd was the fact that Schacht was charged with war crimes after WWII even though Schacht was an OPPONENT of Hitler and was sent to concentration camp.
Thankfully the IMT at Nuremberg acquitted him.
As for the German submarine building, the British are sure they can counteract it easily by providing additional small fast destroyers as escort vessels and additional anti-submarine craft...
In a way they will have to eat those words. A lot of sailors and transports payed the price of the unchecked wolfpacks early in the war and it was only later that the British began to get the upper hand on the German submarine fleet.
Anyone know what the "scandal" involving Goebbels is about?
Nice little blurb article on Goebbels being involved in scandals, maybe that would cost him his job.
Despite having six children, he and wife Magda did not have an entirely...shall we say...monogamous...relationship. Magda had an affair with Goebbels’ assistant, Karl Hanke. After the affair was made known to Hitler, Hanke was ordered to not see Magda any longer. Hanke eventually wound up as Gauleiter of Silesia, where he brutally but effectively directed the defense of Breslau against the Soviets.
Goebbels, despite his homely appearance (short, thin, clubbed foot) cut a rather wide swath with the ladies himself. Much acrimony between the Goebbels’ during this time and these are the “scandals” the article refers to.
Under most circumstances, the Goebbels’ would not have stayed together. Oddly, the one thing they both had in common was their adoration of Der Fuhrer. For all the evil Hitler wrought, he did some good. He kept a bad marriage together.