29 Nov. 46
Evidently the defendant wanted to keep a record of important
telephone conversations which he had with important persons regarding
the Case Austria, and had the transcriptions provided by his Research
Department. Most of the conversations transcribed and recorded in the
volume I have offered, were conducted by the Defendant Göring,
although at least one interesting one was conducted by Hitler. For
purposes of convenience our staff has marked these telephone calls in
pencil with an identifying letter running from "A" through
"Z" and then to "AA." Eleven of these
conversations have been determined by a screening process to be
relevant to the evidence of this particular time. All the
conversations which have been translated have been mimeographed and
are included in the document books handed to the defendants. The
original binder contains, of course, the complete set of
conversations. A very extensive and interesting account of events
with which we are much concerned can be developed from quotations
from these translated conversations. I turn now to copies of the
telephone conversations.
The first group in Part A of the binder took place between Field
Marshal Göring, who was identified by the letter "F"
for Field Marshal, and Seyss-Inquart, who was identified as
"S". The transcript prepared by the Research Institute of
the Air Ministry is in part in the language of these two persons and
is in part a summary of the actual conversations. I quote from Part A
of this binder, and because of the corroborated nature of this
transcript and its obvious authenticity, I propose to quote this
conversation in full.
"F"--hereafter I shall use
Göring and Seyss-Inquart--
"F: 'How do you do, doctor? My brother-in-law, is he with
you?'
"Seyss-Inquart: 'No.' "
Thereupon the conversation took approximately the following turn:
"Göring: 'How are things with
you? Have you resigned or do you have any news?'
"Seyss-Inquart: 'The Chancellor has cancelled the elections
for Sunday, and therefore he has put S'"--Seyss-Inquart--
"'and the other gentlemen in a difficult situation. Besides
having called off the elections, extensive precautionary measures are
being ordered; among others, curfew at 8 p. m.'
"Göring replied that in his opinion the measures taken
by Chancellor Schuschnigg were not satisfactory in any respect. At
this moment he could not commit himself officially. Göring will
take a clear stand very shortly. In calling off the elections he
could see a postponement only, not a change of the present situation
which had been brought about by the