29 Nov. 45
Then something had to be done in London to smooth things over
there and, accordingly, one more act played on the international
scene is set down in the Air Ministry telephone transcript. On
Sunday, March 13, 1938, the day after the invasion, Defendant
Göring who had been left in Berlin in charge of the Reich by
Hitler, who had gone to his fatherland, phoned Defendant Ribbentrop
in London. I find this conversation very illuminating as to the way
in which these defendants operated, using, if I may employ American
vernacular, a kind of international "double talk" to soothe
and mislead other nations. I quote from Part 1 of item W of Document
2949-PS:
"Göring:"--speaking to
Ribbentrop in London:'--" 'As you know, the Führer has
entrusted me with the administration of the current government
procedures (Führung der Regierungsgeschäfte), and therefore
I wanted to inform you. There is overwhelming joy in Austria, that
you can hear over the radio.'
"Ribbentrop: 'Yes, it is fantastic, is it not?'
"Göring: 'Yes, the last march into the Rhineland is
completely overshadowed. The Führer was deeply moved, when he
talked to me last night. You must remember it was the first time that
he saw his homeland again. Now, I mainly want to talk about political
things. Well, this story that we had given an ultimatum is just
foolish gossip. From the very beginning the National Socialist
Ministers and the representatives of the people (Volksreferenten)
have presented the ultimatum. Later on more and more prominent people
of the movement participated, and as a natural result, the Austrian
National Socialist Ministers asked us to back them up so that they
would not be completely beaten up again and be subjected to terror
and civil war. Then we told them we would not allow Schuschnigg to
provoke a civil war, under any circumstances Whether by Schuschnigg's
direct order or with his consent; the communists and the Reds had
been armed and were already making demonstrations, which were
photographed with "Heil Moskau" and so on. Naturally, all
these facts caused some danger for Wiener-Neustadt. Then you have to
consider that Schuschnigg made his speeches, telling them the
Vaterländische Front would fight to the last man. One could not
know that they would capitulate like that, and therefore
Seyss-Inquart, who already had taken over the Government, asked us to
march in immediately. We had already marched up to the frontier
before this, since we could not know