Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 3, p. 210
		6 Dec. 45 would be assured the retention of railway and economic facilities there. Poland would agree to the building of an extraterritorial motor road and a railway line across Pomorze (northern part of the corridor). In exchange Von Ribbentrop mentioned the possibility of an extension of the Polish-German Agreement to 25 years and a guarantee of Polish-German frontiers." I do not think I need read the following lines. I go to the last but one paragraph: "Finally, I said to Von Ribbentrop that I could see no possibility of an agreement involving the reunion of the Free City with the Reich. I concluded by promising to communicate the substance of this conversation to you." I would emphasize the submission of the Prosecution as to this part of the case and that is that the whole question of Danzig was, indeed, as Hitler has himself said, no question at all. Danzig was raised simply as an excuse, a so-called justification, not for the seizure of Danzig, but for the invasion and seizure of the whole of Poland, and we see it starting now. As we progress with the story it will become ever more apparent that that is what the Nazi Government were really aiming at — only providing themselves with some kind of crisis which would provide some kind of justification for walking into the rest of Poland. I turn to the next document. It is again a document taken from the Polish White Book, TC-73, Number 45, which will be GB-27 (b). TC-73 will be the Polish White Book, which I shall put in later. That document sets out the instructions that Mr. Beck, the Polish Foreign Minister, gave to Mr. Lipski to hand to the German Government in reply to the suggestion put forward by Ribbentrop at Berchtesgaden on the 24th of October. I need not read the first page. The history of Polish-German relationship is set out, and the needs of Poland in respect of Danzig are emphasized. I turn to the second page of that exhibit, to Paragraph 6: "In the circumstances, in the understanding of the Polish Government, the Danzig question is governed by two factors: The right of the German population of the city and the surrounding villages to freedom of life and development, and the fact that in all matters appertaining to the Free City as a port it is connected with Poland. Apart from the national character of the majority of the population, everything in Danzig is definitely bound up with Poland." It then sets out the guarantees to Poland under the existing statute, and I pass to Paragraph 7: "Taking all the foregoing factors into consideration, and desiring to achieve the stabilization of relations by way of 210
		Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 3, p. 210     Last modified: January 2, 1999 Copyright © 1998 The Mazal Library and The Holocaust History Project. All rights reserved. Technical/administrative contact: webmaster@holocaust-history.org Find a typo? Let us know.