28 Nov. 45
been planned by the Nazis, was to
succeed Chancellor Dollfuss, had the Putsch been successful.
"It may be that Dr. Rieth was himself not personally
sympathetic with the plans for the Putsch, but there is no question
that he was fully familiar with all these plans and must have given
his assent thereto and connived therein.
"As this Putsch was so important and was a definite attempt
to overthrow the Austrian Government and resulted in the murder of
the Chancellor of Austria, I took occasion to verify at the time for
myself various other items of evidence indicating that the Putsch was
not only made with the knowledge of the German Government but
engineered by it I found and verified that almost a month before the
Putsch Goebbels told Signor Cerruti, the Italian Ambassador in
Berlin, that there would be a Nazi government in Vienna in a
month."
I should also like to offer in evidence Ambassador Dodd's diary,
1933-38, a book published in 1941, our Document 2832-PS, and
particularly the entry for July 26, 1934. We have the book with the
two pages to which I have reference. I should like to offer that
portion of the book in evidence as Exhibit USA-58, further identified
as our Document 2832-PS.
Mr. Dodd then Ambassador to Berlin, made the following
observations in that entry. First he noted that in February 1934
Ernst Hanfstaengl advised Mr. Dodd that he brought what was virtually
an order from Mussolini to Hitler to leave Austria alone and to
dismiss and silence Theodor Habicht, the German agent in Munich, who
had been agitating for annexation of Austria. On June 18 in Venice,
Hitler was reported to have promised Mussolini to leave Austria
alone. Mr. Dodd further states, and I quote from his entry of July
26, 1934:
"On Monday, July 23, after repeated
bombings in Austria by Nazis, a boat loaded with explosives was
seized on Lake Constance by the Swiss police. It was a shipment of
German bombs and shells to Austria from some arms plant. That looked
ominous to me, but events of that kind had been so common that I did
not report it to Washington. "Today evidence came to my desk
that last night, as late as 11 o'clock, the Government issued formal
statements to the newspapers rejoicing at the fall of Dollfuss and
proclaiming the Greater Germany that must follow. The German Minister
in Vienna had actually helped to form the new cabinet. He had, as we
now know, exacted a promise that the gang of Austrian Nazi murderers
should be allowed to go