3
Dec. 45
The
second telegram is dated September 17:
"Most
urgent.
"I. Request to
inform the local government immediately
of the following:
"The
Reich Government has decided that:
"(a)
Immediately as many Czech subjects of
Czech descent, Czech-speaking Jews
included, will be arrested in Germany as
Sudeten Germans have been in
Czechoslovakia since the beginning of
the week; (b) If any Sudeten Germans
should be executed pursuant to a death
sentence on the basis of martial law, an
equal number of Czechs will be shot in
Germany."
The third telegram was sent on 24 September. I
read it:
"According
to information received here, Czechs
have arrested two German frontier
policemen, seven customs officials, and
30 railway officials. As counter measure
all the Czech staff in Marschegg were
arrested. We are prepared to exchange
the arrested Czech officials for the
German officials. Please approach
Government there and wire result."
On the same day the fourth telegram was
dispatched, and I read the last paragraph:
"
'Confidential'. Yielding of Czech
hostages arrested here for the
prevention of the execution of any
sentences passed by military courts
against Sudeten Germans is, of course,
out of question."
In
the latter half of September, Henlein devoted
himself and his followers wholeheartedly to the
preparations for the coming German attack. About
15 September, after Hitler's provocative
Nuremberg speech in which he accused Benes of
torturing and planning the extermination of the
Sudeten Germans, Henlein and Karl Hermann Frank,
one of his principal deputies, fled to Germany
to avoid arrest by the Czech Government. In
Germany Henlein broadcast over the powerful
Reichsender radio station his determination to
lead the Sudeten Germans home to the Reich and
denounced what he called the Hussites-Bolshevist
criminals of Prague. From his headquarters in a
castle at Donndorf, outside Bayreuth, he kept in
close touch with the leading Nazi conspirators,
including Hitler and Himmler He directed
activities along the border and began the
organization of the Sudeten German Free Corps,
an auxiliary military organization. You will
find these events set forth in the Czechoslovak
official government report, 998-PS, which has
already been offered as Exhibit USA-91.
Henlein's
activities were carried on with the advice and
assistance of the German Nazi leaders.
Lieutenant Colonel Köchling was