On the 4th of September 1938 the government of which Von Neurath was a member enacted a new Secret Reich Defense Law which defined various official responsibilities in clear anticipation of war. This law provided, as did the previous Secret Reich Defense Law, for a Reich Defense Council as a supreme policy board for war preparations. The Tribunal will remember that I have already referred them to Document 2194-PS, Exhibit USA-36, showing these facts. Then there came the Munich Agreement of 29 September 1938, but in spite of that, on the 14th of March 1939 German troops marched into Czechoslovakia; and the proclamation to the German people and the order to the Wehrmacht is Document TC-50, Exhibit GB-7, which the Tribunal will find at Page 124, which has already been referred to and I shall not read it again.
On the 16th of March 1939 the German Government, of which Von Neurath was still a member, promulgated the “Decree of the Führer and Reich Chancellor on the Establishment of the Protectorate ‘Bohemia and Moravia.’ ” That date is the 16th of March. That is at Page 126 of the document book, TC-51, Exhibit GB-8.
If I may leave that for the moment, I will come back to it in dealing with the setting up of the Protectorate. I will come back in a moment and read Article 5. But taking the events in the order of time, the following week the Defendant Von Ribbentrop signed a treaty with Slovakia, which is at Page 129 (Document 1439-PS, Exhibit GB-135); and the Tribunal may remember Article 2 of that treaty, which is:
“For the purpose of making effective the protection undertaken by the German Reich, the German Armed Forces shall have the right at all times to construct military installations and to keep them garrisoned in the strength they deem necessary in an area delimited on its western side by the frontiers of the State of Slovakia, and on its eastern side by a line formed by the eastern rims of the Lower Carpathians, the White Carpathians, and the Javornik Mountains.
“The Government of Slovakia will take the necessary steps to assure that the land required for these installations shall be conveyed to the German Armed Forces. Furthermore, the Government of Slovakia will agree to grant exemption from custom duties for imports from the Reich for the maintenance of the German troops and the supply of military installations.”
The Tribunal will appreciate that the ultimate objective of Hitler’s policy disclosed at the meeting at which this defendant was present on the 5th of November 1937, that is the resumption of the “Drang nach Osten” and the acquisition of Lebensraum in the East, was obvious from the terms of this treaty as it has been explicit in Hitler’s statement.
Then we come to the pith of this criminality. By accepting and occupying the position of Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, the Defendant Von Neurath personally adhered to the aggression against Czechoslovakia and the world. He further actively participated in the conspiracy of world aggression and he assumed a position of leadership in the execution of policies involving violating the laws of war and the commission of crimes against humanity.
The Tribunal will appreciate that I am not going to trespass on the ground covered by my colleagues and go into the crimes. I want to show quite clearly to the Tribunal the basis for these crimes which was laid by the legal position which this defendant assumed.
The first point. The Defendant Von Neurath assumed the position of Protector under a sweeping grant of powers. The act creating the Protectorate provided—if the Tribunal would be good enough to turn back on Page 126 in the document book (TC-51, Exhibit GB-8) and look at Article V of the Act, it reads as follows: