23 Nov. 45
bearing the label EC-297, and particularly the second paragraph
of the first page of that document, nearly at the end, four or five
lines from the end of that paragraph, we find these words immediately
after "large applause":
"Austria has certainly a great
mission, namely, to be the bearer of German culture, to insure
respect and regard for the German name, especially -in the direction
of the southeast. Such a mission can only be performed within the
Great German Reich and based on the power of a nation of 75 millions,
which, regardless of the wish of the opponents, forms the heart and
the soul of Europe."
Dr. Schacht goes on to say:
"We have read a lot in the foreign
press during the last few days that this aim, the union of both
countries, is to a certain degree justified, but that the method of
effecting this union was terrible.... This method, which certainly
did not suit one or another foreigner, is nothing but the consequence
of countless perfidies and brutal acts of violence which foreign
countries have practiced against us."
And I refer now to Page 3 of this same document and to the fourth
paragraph, about the center of the page, and reading from it:
"I am known for sometimes expressing
thoughts which give offense and there I would not like to depart from
this custom. I know that there are even here, in this country a few
people--I believe they are not too numerous--who find fault with the
events of the last few days; but nobody, I believe, doubts the goal,
and it should be said to all grumblers that you can't satisfy
everybody. One person says he would have done it maybe in one way,
but the remarkable thing is that they did not do it, and that it was
only done by our Adolf Hitler; and if there is still something left
to be improved, then those grumblers should try to bring about these
improvements from the German Reich and within the German community,
but not to disturb it from without."
In the memorandum of the 7th of January 1939, written by the
Defendant Schacht and other directors of the Reichsbank to Hitler,
urging a balancing of the budget in view of the threatening danger of
inflation, it was stated-and I now refer to the document bearing the
label EC-369 and particularly to the paragraph at the bottom of the
first page of that document:
"From the beginning the Reichsbank
has been aware of the fact that a successful foreign policy can be
attained only by the reconstruction of the German Armed Forces. It
(the