Under Document Number 789-PS the United States Prosecution submitted to the Tribunal the transcript of the conference held on 23 November 1939 between Hitler and the members of the German Supreme Command.
At this conference, Hitler, according to his own expression, gave a “survey of the thoughts dominating him in connection with the events to come.”
In the course of this survey he declared—you will find the passage I am now reading on Page 3 in the document book lying on the table of the Tribunal, Page 2 of the Russian text:
“For a long time I hesitated whether I should not begin with an attack in the East, and only then with the one in the West. It came about by force of events that for the nearest future the East dropped out of the picture.”
This statement by Hitler bore witness to the fact that the attack on the Soviet Union remained within the plans of fascist aggression, and the whole question was reduced only to the problem of selecting the most favorable moment for this attack.
It should be noted that this western version of the start of fascist aggression was not considered as the most favorable version by the authors of the aggression.
This same Hitler, exactly 5 months prior to the above-mentioned conference, at another conference of 23 May 1939 (Document Number L-79), while briefing his accomplices on the present situation and political aims, had said—the passage I am now quoting is Page 6 of the document book, “If fate forces us into a conflict with the West, it would be desirable that we, by that time, possess more expanse in the East.”
The vast expanses in the East, according to the aspirations of Hitler’s conspirators, were to play a decisive part during the conflict in the West.
Therefore, when the fascist hordes were unable to force the Channel, stopped at its shores, and were obliged to find new ways of aggression, the conspirators immediately began to prepare for an attack on the Soviet Union. This attack was the basis of all their plans of aggression, without which they could not be realized.
I believe it is not necessary to refer to documents of an earlier period, and particularly to quote any further from Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, where questions connected with the predatory attack on the Soviet Union were formulated long before 1939.