Socialism Is Deadly

Hitler Invades Austria - Anschluss

Hitler mentioned the union of Austria and Germany in the very paragraph of his book, Mein Kampf. One of the items was quite telling. If Austria became part of Germany, the Mittel-Europa dream would begin to be realized: The dream of an encircled Czechoslovakia, of a Nazi push into the broad plains of Hungary and beyond.

Since July 1936 Austro-German relations had been “regularized”; Germany promised to respect the independence of Austria and in return in return the Austrian Nazis were to be absorbed into Schuschnigg’s (Austrian Chancellor) patriotic organization, the Fatherland Front.

On February 12, 1938, Austria and the world were electrified toe hear that Chancellor Schuschnigg, had gone suddenly to Berchtesgaden to meet in conference with Adolf Hitler. He hoped to save Austria’s independence. Instead he got the boot.

In England, Mr. Eden was the foreign minister under Neville Chamberlain, the PM at the time. Mr. Eden and some of his assistants resigned suddenly from the cabinet. They felt that Chamberlain was too much of a pacifist in dealing with Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia.

The French government was busy dealing with a cabinet crisis. So, Hitler figured out that everybody was asleep and took immediate action.

He attached Austria to Germany in just few days, without the help of his army. In fact his generals were against an Austrian invasion. Italy was supposed to defend Austria; they had a pact. Italy did not respond; not against Hitler.

When Lord Halifax received news of the conquest of Austria he is said to have buried his face in his hands, muttering “Horrible, horrible!” When Mussolini heard the news, according to one report he sat in granite silence for some moments, then hurled a heavy paperweight through a picture frame. Hitler didn’t care to consult anyone, including his only allies and supporters, England and Italy. Halifax had already indicated to Hitler that Great Britain was not prepared to fight for Austria. Eden did his best, and then resigned.

Austrian Loot

The military, political, economic, and strategic gains to Hitler of the annexation of Austria were considerable. The population of the Reich increased over night to almost 75,000,000, making Germany the most powerful country in continental Europe.

Germany got Austria’s Alpin-Montagesellschaft, the biggest iron works in Central Europe, capable of producing at least 2,500,000 tons of iron ore a year. It got the munitions industries in Steyr and Hirtenberg, and the biggest deposits of magnesite - a mineral useful in airplane manufacture - in the world. It got a great reservoir of electric power, dairy industries, and above all timber. And by chance, the Austrian national bank had $90,000,000 worth of gold in its vaults. The amount of gold, incidentally, was four times the gold in possession by the entire Reich. Hitler took possession of the gold and immediately repudiated the Austrian external debt.

But the chief gains were political. By acquiring Austria, Hitler won his supreme triumph in foreign policy to date. “On March 12, 1938, Germany won the World War of 1924,” it was said. The German frontiers were extended to the Brenner Pass, and Czechoslovakia was virtually encircled. Germany now directly faced no fewer than eleven different countries across their frontiers.

Hitler and the Austrian Jews

Austria was a socialist democratic state. The acquisition of Austria with its 300,000 Jews gave fresh impetus to “new excesses” of anti-Semitism.

• Jews were barred from being real estate agents, traveling salesmen, and accountants.
• They were forbidden to enter the stock exchange.
• They were forbidden to go to their safety deposit vaults without police escort.
• Landlords were asked to expel Jewish doctors, and it was established that Jews could not live in flats with windows facing main streets.
• All Jews with property of more than 5000 marks had to declare it, even if it were held abroad.
• Jewish children were not allowed to go to state schools or universities.
• Aryan servants were not permitted to work in Jewish households.
• Forbade Jewish doctors to practice, except those who had had war service, in which case they were allowed to serve only Jewish families.
• No doctor was not allowed to receive foreign medical books or literature published by Jewish concerns.
• A new law obliged every Jew to adopt the name Sarah or Israel, while Jews born hereafter must be restricted to a given list of firs names.

Thousands of Jews managed to flee and many more committed “suicide.”

Hitler was not just against the Jews. He also closed down The Roman Catholic schools in Austria. He wanted no competition. He was GOD.

The best reference book I found is Inside Europe by John Gunther, a time capsule, the 1938 edition.

Hitler assault on Czechoslovakia - Sudetenland

When Neville Chamberlain took of at Heston airdrome on September 15, 1838, to visit Adolf Hitler, in is mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden, Europe new at last, after almost twenty years of armistice, that the real crises had come.

There were some other crisis. When France invades the Ruhr, when Germany invaded the Rhineland, when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, when Hitler invaded Austria, the press of the world pronounced in flaming headline that the “greatest” event since 1914 had arrived. But these other crisis were child’s play compared to the Czechoslovak crisis which Mr. Chamberlain was attempting to overcome.

Chamberlain was presented with a list of non-negotiable demands. If the demands were not met, Hitler will go to war with the rest of Europe.

Here is the list:

1. Czechoslovakia to cede to the Reich outright all territory containing more than 50 percent of Germans. (This territory included the mountainous barrier which was the nation’s first and essential defense, as well as its tremendous fortification system and most of the key industries.)
2. Plebiscites in other German districts.
3. Czechoslovakia to give up her French and Russian pacts, and be “neutralized.”
4. Britain and France to guarantee Czechoslovakia’s new abbreviated frontiers.

Chamberlain, after accepting Hitler’s terms, said that Germany was prepared for an invasion even if it meant a world war, and that his trip to Berchtesgaden prevented strife at once.

The comment of Leon Blum of France was revelatory: “War has probably been averted, but I feel myself divided between cowardly relief and my sense of shame”.

The terms were presented to Prague. On the 20^th the Czechs replied with an offer to submit the matter to the Hague Court under the terms of the 125 treaty of conciliation between Germany and Czechoslovakia.

On the 21^st Britain and France exerted pressure on Prague in the most urgent manner. If Czechoslovakia did not submit, they said coldly that they would leave it to its fate: German military invasion.

At 2:15 A.M. the French and British ministers were received by Dr. Benes, the Czech Premier. In circumstances of unparallel tragedy and strain the Czech cabinet stayed in session till 9 A.M., accepted the demands, and then resigned. A new government was formed.

The Czech submission was in a language that did the nation honor. Without rancor, without recrimination, with dignity and courage, but making it clear that they were submitting to extraordinary pressure, the Czechs gave up a great deal of their country for the sake of European peace:

“The government is determined to maintain peace and order and independence under the new conditions that confront it. The President of the Republic and the government could do nothing but to accept the suggestion of the two powers … Nothing else remained, because we were alone …

“We will defend freedom, self-sufficiency, and independence under the new conditions … Farmers, workers, industrialists, employers, soldiers, all remain at your posts and do your duty … No violence or demonstrations on the streets … Remain firm to your fait in your republic.”

Chamberlain was praised for his courage a Dr. Benes for his unselfishness, bigness, and nobility. Winston Churchill said, “The idea that you can purchase safety by throwing a small state to the wolves is a fatal delusion”

Much worse was to come.

On September 22, Chamberlain returned to Germany to meet Hitler at Godesberg. He brought with him the Czech acceptance. He thought the crisis of an impending war was over. Instead he was directly confronted with new demands, and not only new demands, but a time limit, an ultimatum, before which they must be accepted.

Hitler never expected that Britain would accept even his first demands. Once he did, he asked for more.

Chamberlain had played some of the worst poker in history, so Hitler raised him.

Hitler asked for practically everything. It demanded that Czechs, in the surrendered territory, give up all rolling stock, munitions, freight installations, utility services, radio services, food-staffs, cattle, goods, and raw materials. He gave an ultimatum October 1.

In other words, Czechs or non-Nazi Germans fleeing from the new German areas would have to flee - within eight days - utterly destitute.

Word had gone from Chamberlain to Prague that in view of the Godesberg demands the Czechs had best prepare themselves. The Czechs, convinced now that they must perish fighting, mobilized. The French decided that the new German proposals were unacceptable; so did the Czechs.

A highly important Anglo-French communiqué was issued to the effect that, if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, “the immediate result must be that France will be bound to come to her assistance and Great Britain and Russia will certainly stand by France.”

Europe was preparing for war. President Roosevelt sent a second appeal to Hitler. Hitler’s answer was curt statement that further correspondence would not be useful.

Every power was trying to appease Hitler to no vail.

On September 29 Hitler invited Chamberlain (Britain), Mussolini (Italy) and Daladier (France) to meet in Munich. There was no Czech representative invited. A Czech emissary who showed up was shown the door.

It was agreed that Germany begin occupation of four Sudeten districts on October 1, that the Czechs must not remove any “installations,” that an international commission should decide future regions for plebiscites, and that Germany and Italy should join Britain and France in a guaranty of the new frontiers.

So in nine hours of talk, four men accomplished the dismemberment of a nation.

Chamberlain, in addition, signed a bi-lateral pact with Hitler asserting that the Munich agreement was “symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again,” and pledging the signatories to “the method of consultation” in dealing with questions concerning the two countries.

Hitler had achieved what he wanted: A friendship pact with England.

On October 1 the German troops duly began their victorious occupation of Czechoslovakia. By October 5 it was clear that they did not intend to stop at the lines originally drawn.

Germany won a military and political victory even greater than that accomplished by the acquisition of Austria. The way was opened to the grain of Hungary and the oil of Rumania. In other words, the way was open for Germany to wage a long war.

As to the Czechoslovaks, the great lignite fields (were led pencil was invented), the spas and tourists centers, the intensely developed industrial area, and the fortifications are all gone. The new international guaranty may not be worth the worth the paper is written on.

The foreign policy of England, which for at least three hundred years had depended on the balance of power that no singe power on the Continent is too powerful.

Now England is highly vulnerable island.

Side note: The fortifications were built by French engineers. When the Germans took control of the Czech fortification, they also took away the secrets of the French Maginot line.

The best reference book I found is Inside Europe by John Gunther, a time capsule, the 1938 edition.

Inside Europe by John Gunther, 1938 edition.