3
Dec. 45
"Commander-in-Chief
of the Army is requested to deploy these
battalions for the West, (Upper Rhine)
according to the Führer's
instructions.
"These
SS-Totenkopf units now operating in the
Asch promontory (I and II Battalions of
the SS-Totenkopf Regiment Oberbayern)
will come under the Commander-in-Chief
of the Army only when they return to
German Reich territory, or when the Army
crosses the German-Czech frontier.
"It is requested that all
further arrangements be made between
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
Reichsführer SS (SS Central
Office).
"For the Chief of the
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces,
Jodl."
According
to the 25 September entry in General Jodl's
diary, these SS-Totenkopf battalions were
operating in this area on direct orders from
Hitler. As the time X-Day approached, the
disposition of the Free Corps became a matter of
dispute.
On 26 September Himmler
issued an order to the Chief of Staff of the
Sudeten German Free Corps, directing that the
Free Corps come under control of the Reichsführer
SS in the event of German invasion of
Czechoslovakia. This document is Item 37 in the
Schmundt file, on Page 62.
On 28
September Defendant Keitel directed that as soon
as the German Army crosses the Czech border, the
Free Corps will take orders from the OKH. In
this most-secret order of the OKW, Keitel
discloses that Henlein's men are already
operating in Czechoslovak territory.
I
read now from Item 34 of the Schmundt file on
Page 58, the last three paragraphs of this
most-secret order:
"For
the Henlein Free Corps and units
subordinate to it the principle remains
valid, that they receive instructions
direct from the Führer and that
they carry out their operations only in
conjunction with the competent corps
headquarters. The advance units of the
Free Corps will have to report to the
local commander of the frontier guard
immediately before crossing the
frontier.
"Those units
remaining forward of the frontier
should, in their own interests, get into
communication with the frontier guard as
often as possible.
"As
soon as the Army crosses the
Czechoslovak border the Henlein Free
Corps will be subordinate to the OKH.
Thus it will be expedient to assign a
sector to the Free Corps, even now,
which can be fitted into the scheme of
army boundaries later."