“The conversations with Mr. Keppler today were carried on in an atmosphere of complete calm, and they were also extremely revealing. I do not believe that things are so ripe for discussion as they appear to be from the national side and in the Reich.”
Then you go on:
“I should be pleasantly surprised if an initial solution were to be found before the end of this year.”
What you were really talking about was the handing over of Austria to the Nazis. Isn’t that what you had in mind when you wrote this letter? Isn’t that the “initial solution”?
SEYSS-INQUART: No. First of all, it does not say that my conversations with Keppler were secret, but only that they were informative.
MR. DODD: It says “in complete calm.” I don’t know whether that is secret. I don’t know what that means.
SEYSS-INQUART: It means that we talked very realistically. The Reich was very insistent. We might have discussed the possibility of applying some diplomatic pressure, but the aim was to promote the activities of the National Socialists in Austria, with the intention, however, of achieving the ultimate goal of the Anschluss.
The contents of the Hossbach Document were not mentioned at all, and I am convinced that Keppler had no knowledge of it. Keppler did not have a very strong position with the Führer at all.
MR. DODD: Yes. You recall you wrote Keppler a letter a little later, in January of 1938. Do you remember that?
SEYSS-INQUART: Yes.