The document concluded as follows—see Page 215 of your document book:
“The purpose of these statements is to show how greatly interested the Armed Forces are in the incident, and that they should know well in advance the intentions of the Führer, inasmuch as the organization of the incident will be entrusted, in any case, to the Abwehr.”
The document is signed by Jodl. These are not mere words. This is a plan of infamous provocation; a plan which, as we already know, has been carried into effect.
Document Number 388-PS has already been accepted by you as evidence presented by the Delegation of the United States. I should like only to stress one point: The murderers and invaders not only develop in cold blood the plans of their crimes but are also anxious to put them into effect under the most advantageous conditions possible for themselves. They need fine weather and at least 24 hours for the final preparation. Moreover, they need an incident, provoked by themselves, to justify their foul crimes in the “eyes of at least some part of the world community.” This latter fact demonstrates that the Hitlerites themselves were perfectly aware of the criminality of their actions.
In passing, I wish to draw your attention to one point: OKW bears direct responsibility for the criminal character of these actions. They cannot plead, “We know not what we did.” The agents provocateurs and aggressors, in the uniform of the highest ranks of the German Army, were the first to name themselves agents provocateurs and aggressors.
Finally, I have to inform the Tribunal that one of the ultimate aims of the fascist invasion of Czechoslovakia was the liquidation of this historically constituted Slav state.
On Page 36 of the official report of the Czechoslovak Government, the original of which was submitted to you yesterday, we can read the following quotation from a statement made by Hitler in the summer of 1932 in the presence of Darré, Rauschning, and other high fascist officials. I shall quote this excerpt, which is on Page 38 of the Volume I, Part 1 of your document book:
“The Bohemian-Moravian Basin . . . will be colonized with German peasants. We shall transplant the Czechs to Siberia or the Volhynian district. They must get out of Central Europe. . . .”
This statement by Hitler is quoted in the Czechoslovak report from Rauschning’s book Hitler Speaks, Page 46.
I consider it necessary to read into the record a passage from the Czechoslovak report, which immediately follows the above-mentioned quotation—Page 36 of the Russian translation, the last paragraph at the end of the page. You will find this quotation on Page 39, Volume I, Part 1 of the document book, in the last paragraph of this page: