Archive/File: holocaust/germany/nuremberg conspire.001
Last-Modified: 1994/12/04

   "Whatever the doubts about these two accounts [Hossbach memorandum
   and Hitler's Obersaltzburg speech on 22 August 1939] and the
   accuracy of the Hossback memorandum there could be no challenge to
   the validity of the minutes of the conference on 23 May 1939 when
   Hitler harangued fourteen of his military leaders. The same aims,
   the same attitudes were expressed, as Hitler talked about his views
   on the intended war with Poland. 'Danzig is not the subject of the
   dispute at all. It is a question of expanding our living space in
   the East and of securing our food supplies, of the settlement of
   the Baltic problem. Food supplies can only be expected from
   thinly-populated areas. Over and above the natural fertility,
   thoroughgoing German exploitation will enormously increase the
   surplus.' The provision of food would become even more vital 'if
   Fate brings us into conflict with the West'. Full details from the
   Barbarossa file were read in court. The plans to invade Russia had
   been perfected six months before the attack actually came and while
   the Non-Aggession Pact was repeatedly invoked. Hitler's words to
   his state secretaries on 2 May 1941 soared to new heights of
   callousness: 'The war can only be continued if all the Armed Forces
   are fed by Russia in the third year of the war ... There is no
   doubt that as a result, many millions of people will be starved to
   death if we take out of the country the things necessary for us.'

   Even the defendents were shocked by some of this evidence. Schirach
   called the Hossbach speech 'concentrated political madness'
   (whatever doubts others might cast, he at least recognized the
   authentic Hitlerian note). Seyss-Inquart insisted he would never
   have joined Hitler if he had known about the speech. Goering tried
   to rally them: 'What about the grabbing of California and Texas by
   the Americans? That was plain aggressive warfare for territorial
   expansion too.'<37> The Press quoted the evidence fully. As the
   'New York Herald Tribune' put it they had been appalled by this
   first introduction to the inside story of ruthless planning for
   war; these documents 'should decisively undermine propaganda myths
   which hundreds of thousands of Germans and even people of other
   nations still believe' - that Germany was forced into a war of
   self-defense.<38>" (Tusa, 159-60)

   <37> Gilbert
   <38> New York Herald Tribune, 23 November.

                            Work Cited

   Tusa, Ann & John.  The Nuremberg Trial.  Birmingham, Alabama: The
   Notable Trials Library, Division of Gryphon Editions, Inc., 1990

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