29 Nov. 45
strations, plots, and conspiracies. Demands were being presented
by Captain Leopold and approval of the Nazis was being espoused by
the Defendant Seyss-Inquart, the new Councillor of the State of
Austria. In this situation, Chancellor Schuschnigg decided to visit
Hitler at Berchtesgaden.
The official communiqué of this conference is quite calm,
I invite the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it. It is Document
2461-PS, the official German communiqué of the meeting of
Hitler and Schuschnigg at Obersalzberg, 12 February 1938, taken from
the official Dokamente der Deutschen Politik, Volume 6, I,
Page 124 Number 21-a.
The communiqué states that the unofficial meeting was
caused by the mutual desire to clarify by personal conversation the
questions relating to the relationship between the German Reich and
Austria.
The communiqué lists among those present:
Schuschnigg and his Foreign Minister Schmidt, Hitler and his
Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, and the Defendant Von Papen.
The communiqué concludes on a rather bright note saying,
and I quote:
"Both statesmen are convinced that
the measures taken by them constitute at the same time an effective
contribution toward the peaceful development of the European
situation "
A similar communiqué was issued by the Austrian
Government. But in fact, and as I think history well knows, the
conference was a very unusual and a very harsh one. Great concessions
were obtained by the German Government from Austria. The principal
concessions are contained in the official Austrian communiqué
of the reorganization of the Cabinet and the general political
amnesty, dated 16 February 1938.
That communiqué, as taken from the Dokumente der
Deutschen Politik, Volume 6, Page 125, Number 21-b, is translated
in our Document 2464-PS and I invite the Court's judicial notice of
that communiqué.
That communiqué announced a reorganization of the Austrian
l Cabinet, including, most significantly, the appointment of the
Defendant Seyss-Inquart to the position of Minister of Security and
Interior, where he would have control of the police. In addition,
announcement was made of a general political amnesty to Nazis
convicted of crimes.
Two days later another concession was divulged.
I invite the Court's judicial notice to our Document 2469-PS, a
translation of the official German and Austrian communiqué
con-