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29 Nov.
46
Evidently the defendant wanted to keep a record of
important telephone conversations which he had with important persons
regarding the Case Austria, and had the transcriptions provided by his
Research Department. Most of the conversations transcribed and recorded
in the volume I have offered, were conducted by the Defendant Göring,
although at least one interesting one was conducted by Hitler. For
purposes of convenience our staff has marked these telephone calls in
pencil with an identifying letter running from "A" through "Z"
and then to "AA." Eleven of these conversations have been
determined by a screening process to be relevant to the evidence of this
particular time. All the conversations which have been translated have
been mimeographed and are included in the document books handed to the
defendants. The original binder contains, of course, the complete set of
conversations. A very extensive and interesting account of events with
which we are much concerned can be developed from quotations from these
translated conversations. I turn now to copies of the telephone
conversations.
The first group in Part A of the binder took
place between Field Marshal Göring, who was identified by the
letter "F" for Field Marshal, and Seyss-Inquart, who was
identified as "S". The transcript prepared by the Research
Institute of the Air Ministry is in part in the language of these two
persons and is in part a summary of the actual conversations. I quote
from Part A of this binder, and because of the corroborated nature of
this transcript and its obvious authenticity, I propose to quote this
conversation in full.
"F"--hereafter
I shall use Göring and Seyss-Inquart--
"F: 'How do
you do, doctor? My brother-in-law, is he with you?'
"Seyss-Inquart:
'No.' " Thereupon the
conversation took approximately the following turn:
"Göring:
'How are things with you? Have you resigned or do you have any news?'
"Seyss-Inquart: 'The Chancellor has cancelled the
elections for Sunday, and therefore he has put S'"--Seyss-Inquart--
"'and the other gentlemen in a difficult situation. Besides
having called off the elections, extensive precautionary measures are
being ordered; among others, curfew at 8 p. m.'
"Göring
replied that in his opinion the measures taken by Chancellor
Schuschnigg were not satisfactory in any respect. At this moment he
could not commit himself officially. Göring will take a clear
stand very shortly. In calling off the elections he could see a
postponement only, not a change of the present situation which had
been brought about by the
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