The declared basic policy of the Protectorate was concentrated upon the central objective of destroying the identity of the Czechs as a nation and absorbing their territory into the Reich; and if the Tribunal will be good enough to turn to Page 132, they will find Document Number 862-PS, Exhibit USA-313, and I think that has been read to the Tribunal. Still, the Tribunal might bear with me so that I might indicate the nature of the document to them.
This memorandum is signed by Lieutenant General of Infantry Friderici. It is headed “The Deputy General of the Armed Forces with the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia.” It is marked “Top Secret,” dated 15 October 1940. That is practically a year before this Defendant Von Neurath went on leave, as he puts it, on 27 September 1941; and it is called the “Basic Political Principles in the Protectorate,” and there are four copies. It also had gone to the Defendant Keitel and the Defendant Jodl, and it begins: “On 9 October of this year”—that is 1940:
“On 9 October of this year the Office of the Reich Protector held an official conference in which State Secretary SS Gruppenführer K. H. Frank”—that is not the Defendant Frank, it is the other K. H. Frank—“spoke about the following:
“Since creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, party agencies, industrial circles, as well as agencies of the central authorities of Berlin have been considering the solution of the Czech problem.
“After careful deliberation, the Reich Protector expressed his view about the various plans in a memorandum. In this, three possibilities of solution were indicated:
“a. German infiltration of Moravia and withdrawal of the Czech part of the people to a remainder of Bohemia. This solution is considered as unsatisfactory, because the Czech problem, even if in a diminished form, will continue to exist.