6
Dec. 45
September
to May, Poland was a great marsh and
entirely unsuited for any kind of
military operations. Poland could,
however, occupy Danzig in October. . . .
and Germany would not be able to do
anything about it since they obviously
could not bombard or destroy the place."
They
couldn't possibly bombard or destroy any place
where there happened to be Germans living.
Warsaw, Rotterdam, England, London — I
wonder whether any sentiments of that kind were
held in consideration in regard to those places.
"Ciano
asked how soon, according to the Führer's
view, the Danzig question must be
settled. The Führer answered that
this settlement must be made one way or
another by the end of August. To the
question of Ciano as to what solution
the Führer proposed, Hitler
answered that Poland must give up
political control of Danzig, but that
Polish economic interests would
obviously be reserved and that Polish
general behavior must contribute to a
general lessening of the tension. He
doubted whether Poland was ready to
accept this solution since, up to the
present, the German proposals had been
refused. The Führer had made this
proposal personally to Beck, at his
visit to Obersalzberg. They were
extremely favorable to Poland. In return
for the political surrender of Danzig,
under a complete guarantee of Polish
interests, and the establishment of a
connection between East Prussia and the
Reich, Germany would have given a
frontier guarantee, a 25-year pact of
friendship, and the participation of
Poland in influence over Slovakia. Beck
had received the proposal with the
remark that he was willing to examine
it. The plain refusal of it came only as
a result of English intervention. The
general Polish aims could be seen
clearly from the press. They wanted the
whole of East Prussia, and even proposed
to advance to Berlin." — That
was something quite different.
The
meeting was held over that night, and it
continued on the following day.
On
Page 7, in the middle of the page, it will be
seen:
"The
Führer had therefore come to two
definite conclusions: (1) in the event
of any further provocation, he would
immediately attack; (2) if Poland did
not clearly and plainly state her
political intention, she must be forced
to do so."
I
go to the last line on that page:
"As
matters now stand, Germany and Italy
would simply not exist further in the
world through the lack of space; not
only was there no more space, but
existing space was completely blockaded
by its present possessors; they sat like
misers with