ALLIED HELP TO HITLER

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24866, 4 May 1946, Page 7

ALLIED HELP TO HITLER

“NEVER EXPECTED TO GET SUDETEN”

„ , NUREMBERG, May 2. Britain and France, at the Munich Conference, handed Hitler on a silver platter more concessions than he ever hoped to get, said Dr. Schacht, former president of the Reichsbank, continuing his evidence before the War Crimes Tribunal. He added that they also dealt a blow to antl-Nazism inside Germany. Hitler tried only to get autonomy for the Germans in Czechoslovakia, but Britain and France handed over the Sudeten territories, which Hitler never expected to get This success strengthened Hitler's popularity and weakened the chances of removing him.

Schacht claimed that after his dismissal from the presidency of the Reichsbank in 1939 he made an effort to prevent war, and when he was dismissed from the post of Minister without portfolio in 1943 his only political activity was directed for efforts to remove Hitler. In consequence of his plotting with antl-Hitler generals, and frequent contacts with "prominent Englishmen, Americans, Frenchmen, and neutrals,” the Gestapo was put on his trail and his life was in constant danger.

Visits of Foreign Leaders Schacht declared that the visits of many foreign leaders, including crowned heads, gave Hitler such prestige that it was almost impossible for resistance members to-Carry on the tesk of enlightening the German people, who interpreted such visits as honourable recognition of Hitler, going beyond the ordinary diplomatic courtesies. Raising his voi.ee, Schacht declared that .foreign nations must Share the responsibility with the Germans for the rise of Hitler. They had failed to aid democratic Germany and later gave recognition and honours to the Nazi regime. Telling how Hitler gave him a forged painting as a, present, on his sixtieth birthday, Schacht said that the picture was supposed to be Worth 20,000 marks, but as soon as it was brought into his rodm he recognised it as a forgery. “I traced the original and returned the forgery to Hitler, who never replaced it,” he said. In reply to the chief United States prosecutor, Mr Justice Jackson, opening the cross-examination, Schacht said that so far as he knew Hitler’s confidence men were Bormann, Himmler, Heydrich. Goering, and von Ribbentrop. Mr Justice Jackson: Hitler, Himmler. and Heydrich are dead. Schacht: I regret that they are dead. I would have liked to see them die some other way.