So much, for the time being, on the preparatory phase of the conspiracy, 1933 to 1936.
As indicated earlier, the next phase of aggression was the formulation and execution of plans to attack Austria and Czechoslovakia, in that order.
This is the phase of the aggression covered by Paragraphs 3 (a), (b), and (c) of Section IV (F) of the Indictment, appearing at Pages 7 to 8 of the printed English text.
One of the most striking and revealing of all the captured documents which have come to hand is a document which we have come to know as the Hossbach notes of a conference in the Reich Chancellery on 5 November 1937 from 1615 to 2030 hours, in the course of which Hitler outlined to those present the possibilities and necessities of expanding their foreign policy, and requested—I quote: “That his statements be looked upon in the case of his death as his last will and testament.” And so with this document we shall present to the Tribunal and to the public the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler as he contemplated that last will and testament on 5 November 1937. The document comes to hand through the United States Department of State and it is authenticated by the seal of the Secretary of State of the United States. It is Document Number 386-PS in our series of numbered documents. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA-25.
Before reading it, I note at the start that the recorder of the minutes of this meeting, then Colonel Hossbach, was the Führer’s adjutant. I note also the presence at this conspiratorial meeting of the Defendant Erich Raeder. The Defendant Constantin von Neurath was present. The Defendant Hermann Wilhelm Göring was present. The minutes of this meeting reveal a crystalization towards the end of 1937 in the policy of the Nazi regime. Austria and Czechoslovakia were to be acquired by force. They would provide Lebensraum (living space) and improve Germany’s military position for further operations. While it is true that actual events unfolded themselves in a somewhat different manner than that outlined at this meeting, in essence the purposes stated at the meeting were carried out. The document destroys any possible doubt concerning the Nazis’ premeditation of their Crimes against Peace. This document is of such tremendous importance that I feel obliged to read it in full into the record:
“Berlin, 10 November 1937. Notes on the conference in the Reichskanzlei on 5 November 1937 from 1615 to 2030 hours.
“Present: The Führer and Reich Chancellor; the Reich Minister for War, Generalfeldmarschall Von Blomberg; the C-in-C Army, Generaloberst Freiherr Von Fritsch; the C-in-C Navy, Generaladmiral Dr. H. C. Raeder; the C-in-C Luftwaffe, Generaloberst Göring; the Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs, Freiherr Von Neurath; Oberst Hossbach” (the adjutant who took the minutes).
“The Führer stated initially that the subject matter of today’s conference was of such high importance that its detailed discussion would certainly in other states take place before the Cabinet in full session. However, he, the Führer, had decided not to discuss this matter in the larger circle of the Reich Cabinet, because of its importance. His subsequent statements were the result of detailed deliberations and of the experiences of his 4½ years in government; he desired to explain to those present his fundamental ideas on the possibilities and necessities of expanding our foreign policy, and in the interests of a far-sighted policy he requested that his statements be looked upon, in the case of his death, as his last will and testament.
“The Führer then stated: The aim of German policy is the security and the preservation of the nation and its propagation. This is consequently a problem of space. The German nation comprises 85 million people, which, because of the number of individuals and the compactness of habitation, form a homogeneous European racial body, the like of which cannot be found in any other country. On the other hand it justifies the demand for larger living space more than for any other nation. If there have been no political consequences to meet the demands of this racial body for living space, then that is the result of historical development spread over several centuries and should this political condition continue to exist, it will represent the greatest danger to the preservation of the German nation”—The German word used there, is not “nation”; it is “Volkstum”—“at its present high level. An arrest of the decrease of the German element in Austria and in Czechoslovakia is just as little possible as the preservation of the present state in Germany itself.”
I interpolate that I can but think that this is not a good translation of the German because to me the sentence seems meaningless.