28 Nov. 45
no longer expressed regrets over the death of Dollfuss. They were
eager and willing to reveal what the world already knew, that they
were identified with and sponsors of the murder of the former
Chancellor.
I offer in evidence at this point Document L-273, which I offer
as Exhibit USA-59. That document is a dispatch from the American
Consul General, Vienna, to the Secretary of State, dated July 26,
1938. Unfortunately, through a mechanical slip, this document which
is in English in the original, was not mimeographed in English and is
not in your document book. However, it was translated into German,
and is in the document book which counsel for the defendants have. I
read from a photostatic copy of the dispatch:
"The two high points of the
celebration"--here was a celebration--"were the memorial
assembly on the 24th at Klagenfurt, capital of the Province of
Carinthia, where in 1934 the Vienna Nazi revolt found its widest
response and the march on the 25th to the former Federal Chancellery
in Vienna by the surviving members of the SS Standarte 89 which made
the attack on the Chancellery in 1934."--a reconstitution of the
crime, so to say.
"The assembled thousands at Klagenfurt were addressed by the
Führer's deputy, Rudolf Hess, in the presence of the families of
the 13 National Socialists who were hanged for their part in the July
Putsch. The Klagenfurt memorial celebration was also made the
occasion for the solemn swearing in of the seven recently appointed
Gauleiter of the Ostmark. From the point of view of the outside
world, this speech of Reich Minister Hess was chiefly remarkable for
the fact that after devoting the first half of his speech to the
expected praise of the sacrifices of the men, women, and youths of
Austria in the struggle for Greater Germany, he then launched into a
defense of the occupation of Austria, an attack on the 'lying foreign
press' and on those who spread the idea of a new war. The world was
fortunate, declared Hess, that Germany's leader was a man who would
not allow himself to be provoked. The Führer does what is
necessary for his people in sovereign calm and labors for the peace
of Europe, even though provocators 'completely ignoring the
deliberate threat of the peace of certain small states,' deceitfully
claim that he is a menace to the peace of Europe.
"The march on the former Federal
Chancellery,"--referring back to the Putsch of 4 years
before--"now the Reichsstatthalterei, followed the exact route
and time schedule of