The Devil's Disciples by Anthony Read

Author:Anthony Read [Read, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, History, Europe, General, Military, World War II, Political Science, Political Ideologies, Fascism & Totalitarianism, Political, Germany
ISBN: 9781448114252
Google: Cu0U2mfAGbUC
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2011-12-30T19:00:00+00:00

XXI

KRISTALLNACHT

ALTHOUGH HIS STANDING in Hitler’s eyes had been seriously damaged by his backing for the Munich agreement, Göring still persevered with his efforts to gain the rest of Czechoslovakia without a war. He was soon rewarded by promising signs. On 3 October, French Ambassador François-Poncet hurried back from consulting Daladier and Bonnet in Paris to tell him that the Franco–Czech alliance was finished and that France was eager to make a deal with Germany. 1 The new Czech President, Emil Hácha, who had replaced Beneš after Munich, could hardly wait to abase himself and his country by sending his Minister in Berlin, Vojtech Mastný to grovel to Göring, who noted in his diary for 11 October that Mastný offered:

most emphatic assurance that the new Czechia will realign her foreign policies: closest friendship with Germany. Assurance that internally the coming regime will lean to the extreme right. Liquidation of Communism. Fate and life of Czechia are in Germany’s hands. He pleads that the country not be reduced to penury . . .

All this suited Göring’s purposes perfectly. Having fatally weakened Czechoslovakia by carving off the Sudetenland, he aimed to complete the process by encouraging Slovakia and the other parts of the federation to break away, at which point Germany would simply pick up the pieces. The Czech heartland of Bohemia and Moravia, with its rich mineral deposits and industrial resources, could either be annexed or become a totally dependent German satellite. ‘A Czech state minus Slovakia is even more completely at our mercy,’ he noted to the Foreign Ministry, revealing his long-term aims by adding: ‘Air base in Slovakia for operating against the East very important.’ Pursuing this line, he had secret talks with Slovak leaders, who had already achieved autonomy immediately after Munich – the country’s name had now been officially changed to the hyphenated Czecho-Slovakia – but now told him they wanted ‘complete independence, with very close political, economic and military ties with Germany’. He interpreted this as a willingness to become a client state, and encouraged them by telling them that this was their only hope of fending off the predatory Hungarians, who were keen to annex large chunks of their territory.

As autumn turned to winter, Göring continued to hold secret talks with the Slovaks, Czechs, Romanians, Hungarians and, above all, the Poles. He invited Ambassador Lipski out to Carinhall to sound him out about his ‘grand solution’ of creating a German empire in the East, which he hoped to achieve with the help of a compliant Poland, acting as Germany’s partner and receiving a share of the spoils in return. Like most Germans, he wanted to take back the formerly German land around Poznan, or Posen, which had been ceded in 1919, compensating the Poles with new territory to be taken from the Soviet Union on her eastern frontier, mainly from the Ukraine. War with Poland did not figure in his plans: he was convinced he could achieve all that he wanted through friendly persuasion, based on the personal relationships he had been nurturing for so long with the Polish leaders.

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