8 Jan. 46
command apparently was given the members of the NSDAP
in Austria to keep "hands off" in order to permit the deviltry
to be worked out by the official Reich agencies, that is, through the
Defendant Göring and, presumably, the Defendant Von Papen, by
direct contact with the Austrian officials.
I read from that document:
"Yesterday information reached me to
the effect that Landesleiter Leopold" — and may I interrupt
for a moment to point out that the word "Landesleiter" is
the title of the leader of the Nazi community in Austria — "also
on his part has started negotiations with Chancellor Schuschnigg.
Thereupon I have asked the Foreign Office to investigate the truth of
this information and, in case it is true, to take care that such
negotiations are not held because they would merely disturb the
proceedings of the other negotiations.
"Just now I got word from the Foreign Office that they received
a report from the embassy in Vienna confirming the facts. I therefore
would like to know whether it would not be more appropriate to forbid
Landesleiter Leopold and the other members of the country's leadership
to negotiate with Chancellor Schuschnigg as well as with any Austrian
Government authorities as to the execution of the pact of the 11th, of
July 1936, unless it is done after contacting and in agreement with
the authorities in charge in the Reich."
Now below, if I may call the attention of the Tribunal to the note that
appears in this letter. It is written in blue pencil, and, while the
translator has not indicated the initial below that note, it is a large
"G"; and I have no doubt that that note was written by the
Defendant Göring It reads:
"Agreed, Minister Hess or Herr
Bormann can give this order best! Keppler ought to ask therefore by
telephone!"
If I may direct
your attention to the upper right corner, there is another note in
pencil, "Transmitted to Herr Keppler on the 11th of February 1938
by Fräulein Ernst;" and it is signed with initial "G,"
which in this case, however, we are quite sure is the initial of Miss
Grundmann, who was one of Göring's secretaries.
The third document I offer as Exhibit Number USA-583, our Document
3471-PS. The first letter of this exhibit is written by the same Keppler
to the same Bodenschatz mentioned a short while ago, but who is now a
general. I shall not read from this exhibit, with the permission of the
Tribunal, but I shall briefly summarize it. This letter and the annexes
show that Leopold, the Nazi Landesleiter in Austria, was apparently not
completely amenable to the orders given by Berlin and pursued his own
methods for accomplishing an Anschluss. The second annex to this letter