VON NEURATH: He assured me that he would support me in every way and at all times in my work of settling the national conflicts justly and winning over the Czechs by a conciliatory and moderate policy. In particular, he would protect my administration from all attacks by political radicals, above all by the SS and Police and Sudeten Germans; I had pointed out this danger particularly.
DR. VON LÜDINGHAUSEN: Were you convinced at that time that, in making these assurances of humane treatment for the Czechs, Hitler was serious and honest?
VON NEURATH: Yes, I definitely had that impression.
DR. VON LÜDINGHAUSEN: Then you believed that he would abide by the assurances he gave you?
VON NEURATH: Yes.
DR. VON LÜDINGHAUSEN: At that time did you know of any plans or even intention with regard to forcible Germanization of the Czechs?
VON NEURATH: No, that was completely unknown to me. I would have considered that such nonsense that I would not have believed that anyone could have such an idea.
DR. VON LÜDINGHAUSEN: Do you still believe that Hitler’s assurances and expressed intentions at that time were meant honestly, and that they were only made illusory through further developments?
VON NEURATH: Yes, they were certainly meant honestly at that time.
DR. VON LÜDINGHAUSEN: In this connection I should like to refer to a document in my Document Book 5, under Number 142, which contains an excerpt from Henderson’s Failure of a Mission. I should like to ask the Court to take judicial notice of that.