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Volume V · Page 19
| territories of the
Polish Republic and incorporate them into her state if she had not also been
convinced of the justice of her action. Britain certainly protested, but the
treaty of aid between Poland and Britain that is, the treaty of April 1939, did
not lead to any results. That is to say, no consequences resulted, and they did
not declare war on Russia. Besides, as far as West Prussia and as far as the Warthegau were concerned, these were Gau territories and provinces incorporated into the German Reich. They were former German territories which had belonged to Prussia since the year 1793 that is, they had belonged to Poznan since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and so had belonged to Germany since 1817. For all these reasons I viewed the actual situation in the same way as the Hague Land Warfare Convention provides for the actual surrender of the enemy. I was absolutely convinced that the measures taken by the German Reich Government in the re-incorporated territories were justified, even before an official peace treaty was concluded, and were in effect an actual result of sovereignty and were therefore not illegal. I would like in this connection to point out two parallel cases of the most recent history; that is, the re-incorporation of Alsace-Lorraine into France, and the Sudentenland into Czechoslovakia. |
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| * * * * * * * * * * | |
| TRANSLATION OF GREIFELT DOCUMENT 98 GREIFELT DEFENSE EXHIBIT 98 |
|
| OFFICIAL
CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COLLAPSE OF THE POLISH STATE FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL LAW |
|
| Reich Minister and Chief of the
Reich Chancellery RK. 393 Bg [File number] Please quote this file number in future reference. |
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| Berlin W8, 22 June
1940 Voss-Strasse 6 |
|
| [Stamp] | |
| Mail is without
exception to be directed to the Berlin address. [Stamp] Secret! |
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| [Stamp] 28 June 1940 | |
| [Stamp of the Reich Ministry of Justice, Dep. V, dated 27 June 1940] | |
| [Initial] Schlegelberger,* 27 June | |
* Acting Minister of Justice. Defendant in case of the United states vs Josef Altstoetter, et al., vol. III.
