4 Jan. 46
chief of the responsible command, is
harmless in every way — even in connection with other documents.
"For the middle of July a conference is planned where details of
the execution will be discussed. Time and place will be ordered later
on. Special requests are to be communicated to 3rd Army Group before
10 July."
That is signed, "The
Commander-in-Chief of the 3rd Army Group, F. Blaskowitz."
I skip to Page 2 to read one further extract under the title at the top
of Page 2 of the translation, "Aims of Operation Fall Weiss":
"The operation, in order to forestall
an orderly Polish mobilization, is to be opened by surprise with
forces which are for the most part armored and motorized, placed on
alert in the neighborhood of the border. The initial superiority over
the Polish frontier guards and surprise, both of which can be expected
with certainty, are to be maintained by quickly bringing up other
parts of the Army as well as by counteracting the marching up of the
Polish Army.
"Accordingly, all units have to keep the initiative against the
foe by quick action and ruthless attacks."
Finally, a week before the actual attack on Poland, and when all the
military plans are laid, we find the group as defined in the Indictment
all in one place, in fact, all in one room. On August 23 the
Oberbefehlshaber assembled at Obersalzberg to hear Hitler's explanation
of the timing of the attack and for political and diplomatic orientation
from the head of the State. This speech has already been read from at
length. It is found in Document 798-PS, Exhibit Number USA-29; and I
pass over it, except to note and emphasize that it is addressed to the
very group defined in the Indictment as the General Staff and High
Command group. It is, incidentally, the second of the two examples
referred to in the affidavits by Halder and Brauchitsch, Numbers 1 and
2, which I read previously.
We have now come to the point where Germany actually launched the war.
Within a few weeks, and before any important action on the Western
Front, Poland was overrun and conquered; German losses were
insignificant.
The three principal territorial questions mentioned in the Blomberg and
Blaskowitz affidavits were all solved. The Rhineland had been reoccupied
and fortified; Memel was annexed; the Polish Corridor had been annexed.
And a good deal more, too: Austria, a part of the Reich; Czechoslovakia
occupied; all of western Poland in German hands. Germany was superior in
arms and in experience to her Western enemies, France and England.
Then came the 3 black years of the war, 1939, 1940, and 1941, when
German armed might swung like a great scythe from north