4
Dec. 45
vote
for Hungary. The area of the plebiscite
to be up to the March, where a large
Slovak population lives.
"The
Jewish problem will be solved similarly
to that in Germany. The Communist Party
to be prohibited.
"The
Germans in Slovakia do not want to
belong to Hungary but wish to stay in
Slovakia.
"The German
influence with the Slovak Government
considerable; the appointment of a
German Minister (member of the Cabinet)
has been promised.
"At
present negotiations with Hungary are
being conducted by the Slovaks. The
Czechs are more yielding towards the
Hungarians than the Slovaks. "The
Field Marshal" — that is Field
Marshal Göring — "considers
that the Slovak negotiations towards
independence are to be supported in a
suitable manner. Czechoslovakia without
Slovakia is still more at our mercy.
"Air bases in Slovakia
are of great importance for the German
Air Force for use against the East."
On 12 February a Slovak delegation journeyed to
Berlin. It consisted of Tuka, one of the Slovaks
with whom the Germans had been in contact, and
Karmasin, the paid representative of the Nazi
conspirators in Slovakia. They conferred with
Hitler and the Defendant Ribbentrop in the Reich
Chancellery in Berlin on Sunday, 12 February
1939.
I now offer in evidence Document
2790-PS as Exhibit USA-110, the captured German
Foreign Office minutes of that meeting:
"After
a brief welcome Tuka thanks the Führer
for granting this meeting. He addresses
the Führer with 'My Führer'
and he voices the opinion that he,
though only a modest man himself, might
well claim to speak for the Slovak
nation. The Czech courts and prison gave
him the right to make such a statement.
He states that the Führer had not
only opened the Slovak question but that
he had been also the first one to
acknowledge the dignity of the Slovak
nation. The Slovakian people will gladly
fight under the leadership of the Führer
for the maintenance of European
civilization. Obviously future
association with the Czechs had become
an impossibility for the Slovaks from a
moral as well as an economic point of
view."
Then skipping to the last sentence: " 'I
entrust the fate of my people to your care.' "
— addressing that to the Führer!
During
the meeting the Nazi conspirators apparently
were successful in planting the idea of
insurrection with the Slovak delegation. I refer
to the final sentence of the document, which I