MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Very well, I am not going to insist on your reply. I just wanted to state here that you received this award in 1940 after the mass terror was applied against the Czechoslovak population.
VON NEURATH: I do not know that I am supposed to have carried out a mass terror.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Very well, if you do not understand, we are not going to argue about this question.
In February 1943, in connection with your jubilee, various articles about you were published in many newspapers. I am not going to submit all these papers to the Tribunal or quote these articles, but I should like to read just two excerpts from the newspaper Fränkischer Kurier of 2 February 1943. We shall submit to you one of the copies of this so that you can follow me as I read this document into the record.
This newspaper is being submitted to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-495.
In connection with your anniversary, it was stated:
“The most outstanding events in the field of foreign policy after Hitler’s coming to power, in which Freiherr von Neurath played a most important role as Reich Foreign Minister and with which his name will always be connected, are: Germany’s leaving the Geneva Disarmament Conference...the reuniting of the Saar to Germany...and the denouncing of the Locarno Pact.”
And further on:
“Reich Protector Freiherr von Neurath was repeatedly decorated by the Führer for outstanding services in the interest of the people and the Reich. He was decorated with the Golden Party Badge of Honor, received the rank of SS Gruppenführer, was a knight of the Order of the Eagle, and received the Gold Badge of Honor for Faithful Service for his 40 years of diplomatic service.
“In appreciation of his outstanding services in the field of military efforts in the post of Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia, the Führer decorated him with the Military Cross, First Class.”