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TBR HISTORY ARTICLE -  HITLER SETS FDR STRAIGHT ABOUT THE SITUATION
IN THE SUDETENLAND

INTRODUCTION BY PETER STRAHL
 

At the end of World War I, significant portions of historically German
lands in Eastern Europe were cut up politically and handed over to
avaricious Slavic nations and ethnic groups, more than once to the
benefit of the spread of Communism.

In a previous issue of TBR (July/August 2011), we demonstrated the
barbarity and betrayal this meant for Germans in a significant portion
of Silesia, which was annexed illegally by Poland. The Sudeten Germans
may have suffered even more. The countries of Bohemia and Moravia,
which for centuries had been part of, first, the Holy Roman Empire and
later the Austro-Hungarian empire, and which had been, by and large,
culturally German for at least as long, were suddenly parceled up
without regard for the people or their culture. The largest part of
the region was, by a dictatorial fiat of the war victors, simply
handed over to the ethnic minority of Czechs, much to the chagrin of
the area’s Hungarians, Slovaks and Romanians. But it was the Sudeten
Germans who were most hated by their new overlords. They suffered
under a persecution so brutal as to threaten their existence.

In 1938, the situation had become extreme. The Sudeten Germans wished
to be reunited with the rest of their countrymen, but the Czech
government preferred their annihilation. Sudetenland Germans then
turned to the Third Reich for help against the threatened genocide.

Of course, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt were barking
about the supposed German juggernaut moving toward a “global
empire.” FDR sent a telegram to the Fuehrer, demanding that Germany
stay out of “Czechoslovakia.” On September 28, 1938, Adolf Hitler
gave his response.

Hitler’s answer to President Roosevelt demonstrates conclusively
that the Fuehrer was not, as typically portrayed, a maniacal madman,
but was seeking, via the least confrontational path possible, to
rescue his German brethren being oppressed in the Sudetenland. At the
end of the Fuehrer’s letter, we append the historical commentary of
Siegfried Egel, the editor of
_Historische Tatsachen _(#85) in which the following first appeared.
. . .

HITLER’S SEPT. 1938 TELEGRAM TO FDR

Translated by Peter Strahl
 

ORIGINALLY FROM _HISTORISCHE TATSACHEN_, NO. 85

[TELEGRAM]

[To: Franklin D. Roosevelt]

[From: Adolf Hitler]

Your Excellency has, in your telegram, which reached me on September
26, directed an appeal to me in the name of the American people, in
the interest of keeping the peace, not to break off negotiations over
the dispute that has arisen in Europe, and to seek a peaceful, honest
and constructive settlement of [the Sudetenland] question.

Be assured that I value indeed the noble intention upon which your
comments are borne, and that I share in every respect your view about
the incalculable consequences of a European war. Precisely on this
account, however, I can and must reject any responsibility of the
German people and their leaders if, perhaps, further developments,
against all my previous efforts, should in fact lead to the outbreak
of hostilities.

In order to reach a just judgment on the Sudeten German problem under
consideration, it is essential to direct one’s view to the events in
which, ultimately, the origin of this problem and its dangers have
their cause.

The German people laid down their weapons in the year 1918, in the
firm trust that the conclusion of peace with their opponents of that
time would realize the principles and ideals that were solemnly
announced for it by President [Woodrow] Wilson, and were just as
solemnly accepted as binding by all the belligerent powers. 

Never in history has the trust of a people been more humiliatingly
cheated, than as happened at that time. The terms of peace forced upon
the defeated nations in the accords in suburban Paris [Versailles]
have fulfilled nothing of the promises given. They have created
instead a regime that made the defeated nations into the pariahs of
the world, deprived of all rights,[a situation] which had to be
recognized as untenable by every insightful person, right from the
beginning.

One of the points in which the character of the 1919 diktat most
clearly revealed itself was the foundation of the Czechoslovakian
state and the establishment of its borders, without regard for history
or nationality. Sudetenland was also incorporated into it, although
this region had always been German, and even though its inhabitants,
after the destruction of the Habsburg monarchy, had unanimously
declared their will for union with the German empire. Thus, the right
of self-determination, which had been proclaimed by President Wilson
as the most important foundation of the life of a people, was simply
denied to the Sudeten Germans.

But that is not all. In the 1919 accords, certain and, according to
the text, far-reaching obligations were laid upon the Czechoslovakian
state with regard to [citizens of] German nationality. From the
beginning, these obligations also have not been observed. The League
of Nations, in the assignment given to it to ensure the fulfillment of
these obligations, has failed completely. Since then, Sudetenland
stands in most bitter battle for the preservation of its German
culture.

It was a natural and unavoidable development that, after the
restrengthening of the German Reich and after the reunion with
Austria, the longing of the Sudeten Germans for the preservation of
their culture and for a closer bond with Germany increased. In spite
of the loyal attitude of the Sudeten German Party and its leaders, the
contrasts with the Czechs became ever more intense. From day to day,
it became clearer that the government in Prague was not genuinely
willing to make allowances for the most elementary rights of the
Sudeten Germans. On the contrary, they attempted, with ever more
violent methods, to bring about the Czechification of Sudetenland. It
was unavoidable that these efforts led to ever-greater and more
serious tensions.

The German government, in the first place, intervened in no way in
this development of things and maintained its peaceful reserve even
when the Czechoslovakian government, in May of this year, moved to a
mobilization of its army under the completely fabricated pretext of a
German concentration of troops. The rejection of a military response
at that time in Germany only served, however, to strengthen the
intransigence of the government in Prague. That was shown clearly by
the course of the negotiations of the Sudeten German Party with the
government regarding a peaceful settlement. These many negotiations
produced the final proof that the Czechoslovakian government was far
distant from truly grappling with the Sudeten German problem from the
ground up and supplying a just solution.

In the meantime, the situation in the Czechoslovakian state, as is
generally known, has become completely unbearable in the last weeks.
The political persecution and economic repression thrown upon the
Sudeten Germans has resulted in unutterable misery.

To characterize these circumstances, it is sufficient to point out the
following:

We count, at the moment, 214,000 Sudeten German refugees, who were
forced to abandon house and hearth in their ancestral homeland—and
could only save themselves by crossing the German border—because
they saw [in Germany] the single, last hope to escape the revolting
Czech regime of violence and the bloodiest of terror. Countless dead,
thousands of wounded, tens of thousands of [Sudeten Germans] detained
and imprisoned, villages laid waste: these are the accusing witnesses
before the world public of the outbreak of hostilities, long since
carried out by the Prague government. [Y]ou, in your telegram, rightly
fear speaking of the German economic life systematically destroyed for
20 years by the Czech government in the Sudeten German territory,
which already carries within itself all the symptoms of disorder and
collapse, which you foresee as the consequence of a war breaking
out. 

Those are the facts that have forced me, in my Nuremberg address of
September 12, [1938] to speak out before the entire world. The
outlawing of 3.5 million Germans in Czechoslovakia must come to an
end. These people, if they by themselves can obtain no rights, must
receive rights and help from the German Reich.

But in order to make a last attempt to reach the goal in a peaceful
way, I have made concrete proposals for a solution to the problem, in
a memorandum given over to the British Prime Minister [Neville
Chamberlain] on September 23, which has since been made known to the
public.

After the Czechoslovakian government previously declared itself in
agreement with the British and French governments that the Sudeten
German area of settlement should be separated from the Czechoslovakian
state and united with the German Reich, the proposals of the German
memorandum have no other goal than to bring about a swift, certain and
just fulfillment of that Czechoslovakian agreement.

I am of the conviction that you, Mr. President, when you picture in
your mind the entire development of the Sudeten German problem from
its beginnings to the present day, will recognize that the German
government has lacked neither patience nor a strong desire for a
peaceful agreement. It is not Germany’s fault that there is a
Sudeten German problem at all, or that the present untenable
circumstances have developed.

The terrible fate of the human beings affected by the problem no
longer permits a further deferment of its solution. The possibility of
reaching a just settlement by agreement is therefore exhausted by the
proposals of the German memorandum.

The decision is up to Czechoslovakia. It is not in the hands of the
German government. In the hands of the Czechoslovakian government
alone does the solution henceforth lie. Czechoslovakia must decide
whether it wants peace or war.

(End of telegram; signed)
 

—Adolf Hitler

ORIGINAL AFTERWORD FROM UDO WALENDY

Meanwhile, the ambassadors of Britain and France, once again,
unambiguously had to instruct the Czech national president, Eduard
Benes, to resign. Were war to break out because of his refusal, he
alone would be responsible for it. Britain and France would not fight
for him.

The conference in Munich on September 29, 1938, was, with the
inclusion of Italy’s head of state, Benito Mussolini, solely about
setting a completion date for the cession of Sudetenland to the Reich
and setting up working groups for the establishment and location of
exact borders. This has all already been agreed upon by England,
France and the Czechoslovakian Republic.

Upon return from Munich, [French Prime Minister Edouard] Daladier and
Chamberlain were greeted in their capitals with jubilant ovations. The
French parliament, with the exception of the Communists, approved the
agreement. The English House of Commons voted approval, as well, on
October 4, by a count of 369 to 150 (primarily from the Labour Party).
For Winston Churchill, however, “the European balance [was]
disturbed.”

The president of the plenary assembly of the League of Nations—a
Peruvian—declared after approval of the Munich Agreement by the
League of Nations: “Chamberlain’s name will today be blessed in
all the homes of the Earth, for it is the name of peace.”

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