. NMT05-T0020
Volume V · Page 20
| To the Highest Reich Authorities
I beg to enclose herewith copies of letters from the Foreign Office and the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, concerning the significance of the collapse of the Polish State from the point of view of international law, requesting confidential handling. |
| [Signature] DR. LAMMERS |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| _____________ |
| Foreign Office R 620 g |
| Berlin, 15 May 1940 [Stamp] Secret |
| Re: The significance of the collapse
of the Polish State from the point of view of international law. |
| 1 Enclosure. Enclosed you will find the copy of a letter from the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces concerning questions of international law resulting from the collapse of the Polish State. The Foreign Office agrees with the concept held by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces on the whole. As far as international law is concerned, the following is to be added to the letter of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces: A Polish State, at war with the German Reich does not exist any more. The territories of the former Polish Republic, have — after the annihilation of the Polish Army — been put under the sovereignty of other states. In the German-Soviet Border Agreement and Friendship Pact of 28 September 1939 (Reich Law Gazette, 1940, part II, page 4), this factual and legal state of affairs is especially emphasized by the fact that the preamble mentions "the collapse of the hitherto existing Polish State", and article 1, as well as the appendix, speak of the territory of the "former Polish State". The unpublished German-Slovak Border Agreement of 21 November 1939, which was the basis for the incorporation of the former Polish border territory into the Slovak State territory, mentions the "former Polish State", and the Slovak Constitutional Law of 22 December 1939 (Slovensky Sakonnik, part 71) on the annexation of these territories, mentions the "former Polish Republic". The Foreign Office's verbal note of 20 November 1939 to the Swedish Embassy in Berlin, which is mentioned in the letter of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, represents the same concept. In this note the |
