3
Dec. 45
Germany.
Although we had to behave differently in
public we were, of course, secretly in
touch with the National Socialist
revolution in Germany so that we might
be a part of it. The struggle for
Greater Germany was waged on Sudeten
soil, too. This struggle could be waged
only by those inspired by the spirit of
National Socialism, persons who were
true followers of our Führer,
whatever their outward appearance. Fate
sought me out to be the leader of the
national group in its final struggle.
When in the autumn of 1933, the leader
of the NSDAP asked me to take over the
political leadership of the Sudeten
Germans, I had a difficult problem to
solve. Should the National Socialist
Party continue to be carried on
illegally or should the movement, in the
interest of the self-preservation of the
Sudeten Germans and in order to prepare
their return to the Reich, wage its
struggle under camouflage and by methods
which appeared quite legal to the
outside world? For us Sudeten Germans
only the second alternative seemed
possible, for the preservation of our
national group was at stake. It would
certainly have been easier to exchange
this hard and mentally exhausting
struggle for the heroic gesture of
confessing allegiance to National
Socialism and entering a Czechoslovak
prison. But it seemed more than doubtful
whether, by this means, we could have
fulfilled the political task of
destroying Czechoslovakia as a bastion
in the alliance against the German
Reich."
The
account of Nazi intrigue in Czechoslovakia which
I have just presented to the Tribunal is the
outline of this conspiracy as it had been pieced
together by the Czechoslovak Government early
this summer. Since then, captured documents and
other information made available to us since the
defeat of Germany have clearly and conclusively
demonstrated the implication, which hitherto
could only be deduced, of the Nazi conspirators
in the agitation in the Sudetenland.
I
offer in evidence Document Number 3060-PS,
Exhibit USA-93. This is the original,
handwritten draft of a telegram sent from the
German Legation in Prague on 16 March 1938 to
the Foreign Minister in Berlin. It is presumably
written by the German Minister Eisenlohr. It
proves conclusively that the Henlein movement
was an instrument, a puppet of the Nazi
conspirators. The Henlein party, it appears from
this document, was directed from Berlin and from
the German Legation in Prague. It could have no
policy of its own. Even the speeches of its
leaders had to be co-ordinated with the German
authorities.