The Defendants Göring, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Raeder, Rosenberg, Kaltenbrunner, Frank, Frick, Dönitz, Fritzsche, and others are charged with the organization of a conspiracy to establish by force the domination of German imperialism and the setting up of the fascist regime in all European countries and, later, throughout the world.
The core of this plan was the organization of aggressive wars and the rearrangement of the map of the whole world by use of force. In execution of this plan for aggression the criminal Hitlerite Government and the German General Staff prepared and executed the seizure of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France, Poland, Greece, and Yugoslavia. They also prepared and undertook a predatory military campaign against the Soviet Union.
My colleagues of the American, British, and French Prosecution have already submitted to the Tribunal weighty and irrefutable evidence which establishes the fact of German aggression against their own countries, as well as against Belgium, Holland, Greece, and a number of the other states which had become victims of the predatory Hitlerite imperialism.
May it please Your Honors, I will now produce proofs of the monstrous crimes of the defendants in the preparation and initiation of aggressive wars against freedom loving peoples.
The document submitted in this case and known as “Fall Grün” contains a plan for an attack on the Czechoslovakian Republic. This directive, signed by Hitler, was distributed together with a covering note bearing the signatures of Keitel. The directive begins with “Political Prerequisites,” which read precisely as follows:
“My unalterable decision is that Czechoslovakia should be smashed in the immediate future by means of a single military operation. To abide the time and to create a suitable political and military situation—this is the task of political leadership. The inevitable development of conditions within Czechoslovakia or other political events in Europe, which might never again bring about such an unexpectedly favorable situation, may force me to action even before the designated date. The proper choice and the resolute exploitation of the opportune moment are the surest guaranties of success. Accordingly, all preparations should be made immediately.”
Turning to the exposition of the political possibilities and prerequisites regarding the initiation of the attack, Hitler cynically disclosed these prerequisites: a) A suitable military pretext and in this connection; b) a satisfactory political justification; c) a surprise action which should take the enemy, as far as possible, unawares.
It was Hitler’s idea that the most propitious moment, both from the military and political point of view, would be a lightning, secretly prepared, German attack under the pretext of some incident which could morally justify the use of military force, at least in the eyes of a certain portion of the public opinion of the world.
The directive envisaged the actual preparation for an attack on Czechoslovakia to be executed by certain branches of the Armed Forces. Thus the Directive Grün, which bears as early a date as May 1938, clearly and definitely testifies to the fact of a carefully planned preparation for the seizure of Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Prosecution will submit documents taken from the files of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs which reveal the criminal methods used by the Hitlerites in preparing for the seizure of Czechoslovakia.
You, Your Honors, as well as the entire world, well know how methodically and ruthlessly this criminal scheme was executed by the predatory imperialism of the Hitlerites.