The Ruling Elite

by Deanna Spingola

  On September 7, 1938, in The Times, Churchill conceded that surrendering the Sudetenland was not only beneficial but also acceptable. On October 3, Lord Halifax, referring to the Munich Pact, declared in the House of Lords, “Great Britain should never fight for a foreign state unless she was in a position to restore its old frontiers after a victorious war.” 633 Yet, Churchill reinterpreted Lord Halifax’s statement by saying, “Hitler should not be allowed to ‘get away with it’ . . . (Hitler) had extracted British concessions at pistol point.” On October 4, the French National Assembly endorsed the Munich Pact. 634

  In that article in The Times, Churchill endorsed Hitler in his actions regarding the Sudetenland as “the best way out of the situation. However, Henry Strakosch evidently reminded Churchill of their agreement of 1936 and stepped forward to save Churchill from financial ruin because of decreasing value in the York stock markets. Churchill had gone into debt in the amount of £18,000 ($90,000). Churchill considered selling his house, Chartwell, but that would not cover his indebtedness. Strakosch paid this entire sum to Churchill in addition to bequeathing £20,000 to Churchill until the wealthy man ultimately died five years later. 635 Strakosch also provided Churchill with other assets, including a car. 636

  Churchill, altering his views, on October 16, 1938, and apparently after Strakosch offered financial aid, said in a radio broadcast to America, “She (Czechoslovakia) was a democratic model in Central Europe, a land in which minorities were better treated than anywhere else. She has been forsaken, ruined, destroyed and swallowed up.” Further, he said, “Is this a call to war? Does anyone pretend that preparation for resistance to aggression is unleashing war? I declare it to be the sole guarantee of peace. We need the swift gathering of forces to confront not only military but moral aggression.” 637 Within a month, Churchill denounced Hitler and introduced the idea of war.

  Lord Halifax warned Chamberlain that a potential German invasion might ignite German imperialism. Chamberlain, though concerned about the faltering economy, then feeling pressure, changed his focus and increasingly began talking like a warhawk. Yet, he often referred to the Munich Pact and the promises that Hitler made there, especially about Hitler’s disinterest in ruling non-Germans. While Chamberlain had the Royal Family’s approval and most of the British population, the media did not report their views. Chamberlain, with warhawk advisors, began doubting his earlier views about Hitler and his actions in Czechoslovakia. With a media endorsement and to assuage some of his colleagues, he clarified Britain’s new stance—it would challenge further similar realignments. 638

  Beneš resigned on October 5, 1938 and on October 22, went into exile in Putney, London. Emil Hácha became President on November 30. In 1940, Beneš would organize the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London with Jan Šrámek as Prime Minister and himself as President, a position he claimed until April 2, 1945. In 1941, Beneš and others planned Operation Anthropoid to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, which they would implement in 1942. Beneš, friendly with Stalin, figured that Czechoslovakia could obtain more from an alliance with the USSR than with Poland. Therefore, in 1943, he would thwart the plans for the Polish-Czechoslovakian confederation and instead he would sign the entente with the Soviet Union. He would then preside over a coalition government until he appointed a Communist-dominated government. On February 25, 1948, he would sanction the Communist coup d’état, and allow the Communist-dominated National Assembly to draft the Ninth-of-May Constitution, similar to the Soviet Constitution. Beneš resigned on June 7, 1948.

  Hitler realized that resident international bankers within their respective countries greatly influenced the British and French politicians. After all, British and French politicians and bankers, with advice from their American counterparts, configured the new borders of the countries that were now essentially holding the minority Germans hostage. However, England and France, and for that matter, Germany was not prepared to wage war. On December 6, 1938, French and German officials would sign an agreement in which both countries assured the stability of the current borders and agreed to peacefully settle all disputes.

  In December 1938, Halifax had dispatched Anthony Eden to the United States to disseminate nasty rumors regarding evil German plans. On January 4, 1939, in response, Roosevelt delivered a warning to Germany in his message to Congress. Lord Halifax criticized Hitler’s foreign policy and his policies in Czechoslovakia. No matter what Hitler did, Halifax would have denounced him. On January 24, 1939, Halifax, in a cable, told Roosevelt that he received intelligence from trustworthy sources regarding Hitler’s international intentions and his alleged hatred of Britain. Yet, Hitler had always sought Anglo-German collaboration. Halifax claimed that Hitler wanted to create an independent Ukraine. British intelligence produced evidence to corroborate this “evidence.” Theo Kordt and Carl Goerdeler, Germans who opposed Hitler, collaborated with the British. However, Hitler had no intention of attacking Britain or France. 639

  Halifax, in ramping up support for a war against Germany, deluged the British population with propaganda, which was not as successful as he had hoped. On January 27, an American official informed Halifax that the U.S. Government, because of the failures of the New Deal, was planning on a European war to end the American depression. 640 Halifax also told Ambassador Kennedy about Hitler’s purportedly intense hatred of Britain. He told people that Hitler had figured out that Britain was the “chief obstacle” to his ambitions. Hitler, despite Halifax and the fallacies he spread, never altered his desire for friendship with Britain. Halifax informed FDR that Hitler sought to persuade Italy into a war in the Mediterranean. Halifax used this strategy to push Poland into a war with Germany. He claimed that Hitler intended to attack Holland and that he was going to give Britain an ultimatum. Halifax, according to reliable proof, assured FDR that British officials expected Germany to engage in an imminent surprise air attack. 641

  Lord Halifax filled FDR with one falsehood after another, very much like the disinformation that would soon appear in the OSS-generated Hitler Source Book. Halifax, assuring Roosevelt that he did not want to sound like an alarmist, claimed that Germany was encountering an “economic and financial crisis” that would force the insolvent Germans into desperation. Halifax, to reiterate, spoke of Hitler’s mental condition, as if it was a well-known fact that Hitler was deranged. He cautioned Roosevelt to ignore the stories about a growing subversive German faction that would revolt and prevent a war. He claimed that hatred unified Germany against Britain, causing Britain to escalate its armament program. He claimed that Chamberlain was considering issuing a warning to German citizens before Hitler’s annual Reichstag speech on January 30, 1939. Halifax advised Roosevelt to do the same thing as soon as possible. 642

  On the evening of March 14, per his request, Hitler invited President Hácha to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. On March 15, Hitler and Hácha signed an agreement to establish the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on the former Czech territory. Hácha authorized the German occupation and actually asked that Czechoslovakia become a protectorate. Germany also accepted and advocated Slovakian independence which thereby dissolved the country of Czechoslovakia. German troops moved in immediately, placing all of Czechoslovakia’s defences under the jurisdiction of Germany according to the provisions of the Munich Pact.

  Czechoslovakia allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland. Other suppressed people appealed to Hitler for help. Humiliated Czech politicians then became furious and secretly began to build air bases for Soviet bombing operations thirty minutes away from Germany. In March 1939, Hitler invaded the Czech part of Czechoslovakia and restored the centuries-old borders of Bohemia and Moravia, separate countries before post-war treaties dismantled them. Now, the two countries had a different language and culture, which divided them. Before the Versailles Treaty, they managed their own government and could do so again. 643

  Virgil Tilea, in exile in London, was the Extraordinary and Plenipotenti
ary Envoy of Romania to London (1938-1940). In mid-March 1939, Tilea convinced Lord Halifax that German officials had issued an ultimatum to his government, which in fact, turned out to be false. Tilea said that it would reduce Romania to a mere Third Reich colony, which would receive a majority of all Romanian exports and stall its industrial development. Berlin, in return, would guarantee the nation’s frontiers. Tilea queried Britain about her reactions to this aggression. 644 This claim altered Chamberlain’s European Policy of appeasement and containment towards Germany while increasing the strength of Britain’s armed forces.

  On March 14, Slovakian officials declared their country as an independent republic, which dissolved Czechoslovakia. On that same day, Hácha formally agreed to establish Bohemia and Moravia as protectorates under Germany. The British were amiable to this new plan. However, Roosevelt, after hearing from William C. Bullitt, the U.S. Ambassador to France (1936-1940) opposed it. Bullitt recommended that Roosevelt speak with Congress about repealing the Neutrality Act. He was livid over the Bohemia and Moravia situation. Per Bullitt’s urging, on March 16, Roosevelt, in talking with Chamberlain, demanded that Britain oppose Germany. Otherwise, Britain would get no more material or moral support from the United States. On March 17, Chamberlain gave a speech at Birmingham in which he angrily criticized Hitler. Within two weeks, British officials vowed to side with Poland if war should erupt between Germany and Poland. 645

  When he went to Birmingham, he planned to speak about economic recovery and social services but instead talked about the recent fall of Czechoslovakia which distressed officials in the British Foreign Office as well as the public, probably a result of the press’ negative reporting. Chamberlain, after he returned to London, continued his hardline rhetoric because of a potential new crisis, or so it seemed. Vansittart, the Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, a member of the Order of the Bath, exhibited a cynical view of German foreign policy, similar to Churchill’s negative, pro-war perceptions. 646

  The British media accused the Germans of assaulting the Czechs and claimed that Hitler thereafter threatened Romania. On March 20, Lord Halifax offered an alliance with Poland but the Polish media misrepresented the proposal. No one mentioned the Tilea hoax as the Polish leaders immediately revealed that Germany had not issued an ultimatum to Romania. The British and the American press castigated the Germans over the events occurring in Czechoslovakia. The Marxist newspapers in Poland sympathized with the Czechs due to their connection to the Czech Marxists in Moscow, while the Poles sided with Slovakia as indicated by a speech that Jozef Beck delivered on March 12. Beck counseled foreign countries to assist Poland and accept some of her Jewish population. He did not express any concern regarding Germany’s actions or goals in Slovakia. On March 14, Germany had concurred with the Slovakian independence. 647

  On March 31, 1939, in response to Hitler’s alleged defiance of the Munich Pact and their occupation of Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain, after negotiating with the French, announced their guarantee to Poland. It stated, “in the event of any action which clearly threatened Polish independence, and which the Polish government accordingly considered it vital to resist with their national forces.” On July 10, Chamberlain said that the guarantee would also apply to Danzig. Sir Howard Kennard, the British Ambassador in Warsaw, was displeased with the guarantee as he thought that Poland would exploit it regarding the Danzig situation and make false claims against Germany. Chamberlain’s announcements functioned as a green light for Poland. It also eliminated the potential for Germany and Poland to negotiate their differences. Moreover, the Anglo-Polish Treaty, of August 25, promised direct or indirect military assistance between the nations in case another European nation attacked Poland. It also promised Polish independence. 648

  On April 9, 1939, Bullitt sent a telegram to Roosevelt regarding his discussion with the Ambassador Juliusz Łukasiewicz wherein he explained that American law, specifically the Johnson Act, prevented Roosevelt from furnishing direct financial assistance. However, the United States might be able to furnish warplanes through Britain. In addition to planes, the ambassador was seeking financial assistance from the United States. Bullitt proposed that it might be feasible for Britain to buy planes from the Americans and then relinquish them to Poland. 649

  On April 15, Roosevelt sent a telegram to Adolf Hitler accusing Germany of being aggressive and demanding assurances of nonaggression. As a result of this telegram, Hitler decided to call a special session of the Reichstag, scheduled on April 28, which they would broadcast not only in Germany but also with relayed broadcasts throughout the world, in an effort to avoid an eruption of warfare in Europe. German consulates in the United States and elsewhere translated and distributed the speech so that everyone could access and read it. 650 At least, German officials thought that most people would have access, possibly just as they thought their purchased ad in The New York Times and their warning to their diplomats at the U.S. Embassy would prevent Americans from traveling on the Lusitania. The Times published the warning too late, probably in small print, hidden away on a seldom-read page.

  Hitler, in that historic address said, regarding the Versailles Treaty, “That politics should be controlled by men who had not fought in the war was recognized for the first time as a misfortune. Hatred was unknown to the soldiers, but not to those elderly politicians who had carefully preserved their own precious lives from the horrors of war, and who now descended upon humanity as in the guise of insane spirits of revenge.” Hitler continued, “No one knows this (the burdens of Versailles) better than the German people.” For the Peace Treaty… imposed burdens on the German people,” which could not have been paid off in a hundred years, although American teachers of constitutional law, historians and history professors that Germany have proved conclusively that Germany was no more to blame for the outbreak of the war than any other nation. 651

  Hitler said the following about the Munich Conference, “If the cry of ‘Never another Munich’ is raised in the world today, this simply confirms the fact that the peaceful solution of the problem appeared to be the most awkward thing that ever happened in the eyes of those warmongers. They are sorry no blood was shed—not their blood, to be sure—for those agitators are, of course, never to be found where shots are being fired, but only where money is being made. No, it is the blood of many nameless soldiers!” 652

  Hitler continued, “They hate us Germans and would prefer to eradicate us completely. What do the Czechs mean to them? They are nothing but a means to an end. And what do they care for the fate of a small and valiant nation? Why should they worry about the lives of hundreds of thousands of brave soldiers who would have been sacrificed for their policy? These Western Peacemongers were not concerned to work for peace but to cause bloodshed, so in this way to set the nations against one another and to thus cause still more blood to flow. For this reason, they invented the story of German mobilization . . .” 653

  “Moreover, Hitler said, “there would have been no necessity for the Munich Conference, for that conference was only made possibly by the fact that the countries which had at first incited those concerned to resist at all costs, were compelled later on, when the situation pressed for a solution on one way of another, to try to secure for themselves a more or less respectable retreat; for without Munich—that is to say, without the interference of the countries of Western Europe—a solution of the entire problem—if it had grown so acute at all—would likely have been the easiest thing in the world.” 654

  Ward Price interviewed Hitler who said, “On August 4, 1914, I was very distressed that the two great Germanic peoples, who had lived at peace with one another throughout all the disputes and fluctuations in human history for so many centuries were drawn into war. I would be pleased if this unfortunate atmosphere would finally come to an end and the two related nations could rediscover their old friendship. The assertion that the German people are enthusiastically preparing for war is a misunderstanding of the
German revolution. We find it simply incomprehensible. We leaders of the German nation had almost without exception been front-line soldiers. I would like to see the front-line soldier who wants to prepare for another war.” 655

  Winston Churchill, the Warmonger

  Harry Levine, a propagandist and writer claimed, “After WW I Jews bought into Germany in a big way, houses, land, artwork, and jewelry all for knock down prices. Along came Mr. Hitler who took it all back for the German people, and he also took the economy out of Jewish control, so in 1933 the Jews began to emigrate to New York and London, where the underground was instructed to change their names, assimilate, infiltrate and influence.” This property seizure is typical behavior in any catastrophe—warfare or economic depressions, always engineered events. Levine claims that Robert Maxwell, the publisher, successfully infiltrated the Jewish Underground. Maxwell, via his publishing efforts, helped to persuade the British population to support a war against Germany. Allegedly, he employed blackmail and bribery on Churchill to achieve that objective. 656

  William de Ropp initially arrived in Berlin in the 1920s, representing the Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC), a British aviation company. The NSDAP regarded de Ropp as its asset in Britain. He befriended Alfred Rosenberg whose objective was to develop a connection with influential people in Britain. De Ropp had ties with a powerful faction of the British elite, the Cliveden Set, who wanted conciliation with Germany. Various members of the Royal Family, specifically the Duke of Kent, also wanted a peaceful resolution. Rosenberg introduced de Ropp to Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess. The Führer, very trusting, confided his intentions regarding Britain to de Ropp. Incredibly, some Luftwaffe officers unwisely revealed some of its accomplishments to de Ropp. Frederick Winterbotham, the head of Air Intelligence, part of MI6, cultivated de Ropp for over three years. De Ropp encouraged Winterbotham to visit Germany in 1934 where he met Hermann Göring and Rosenberg who also shared too much data.