Schmundt Protocol

The Schmundt Protocol ( also: "Little Schmundt" ) is the name given to Rudolf Schmundt's record of a speech by Hitler to the military leadership on May 23, 1939, in which Hitler announced his intention to attack neighboring Poland as soon as possible . This record was one of the key documents in the Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals (Document L-79).

General

The American prosecutor Sidney Alderman described the document as unequivocally genuine, attached just as much importance to it as to the Hossbach Protocol and read it almost completely at the November 26, 1945 session. The instruction for the Green case (Nuremberg Document PS-388) is referred to as “Großer Schmundt” .

Present

According to the introduction to the document, Hitler and Schmundt, Hitler's chief adjutant of the Wehrmacht , were present at the speech in Hitler's study in the New Reich Chancellery :

the chief of the high command of the armed forces Keitel ;
the commanders in command of the air force , navy and army Göring , Raeder and von Brauchitsch ;
the Inspector General of the Luftwaffe Milch , the Commander in Chief of the Naval Group Command East Albrecht ;
the Chiefs of the Army and Air Force, Halder and Jeschonnek , the Chief of Staff of the Naval War Command Schniewind and the Deputy Chief of the Wehrmacht Command Staff, Warlimont ;
Göring's personal adjutant Bodenschatz and Hitler's army and air force adjutants Engel and von Below .

content

The speech took place one day after the signing of the steel pact . The recording indicates that the words should be reproduced “analogously”. After the recording, Hitler announced his decision to invade Poland with the words:

“So there is no question of protecting Poland and the decision remains to attack Poland at the first suitable opportunity. A repetition of the Czech Republic is unbelievable. There will be a fight. "

In the literature, the sentence most frequently quoted from this document shows that the dispute over Danzig was only the pretext for the war. The sentence is:

“Gdansk is not the object in question. For us it is about the expansion of the living space in the east and securing the food, as well as the solution of the Baltic problem. "

Lore

The document is the only one of the key documents that takes the form of an official document. The first sheet shows the date, place, adjutant on duty, participants and subject matter of the meeting, as well as a stamp “chief matter / only by officer”. The record consists of 15 sheets of paper handwritten on one side. It is noticeable that the date of writing is missing. The entry in the secret journal and the number of copies are also missing.

The document was captured and made a detour to the USA, where it was discovered by the American prosecution. The "L" in the document name indicates that it was collected in London .

Hitler's adjutant Nicolaus von Below writes in his memoirs about the meeting and the document:

“Hitler's statements and instructions led to the conclusion that he did not consider the great dispute with the West possible until 1943 or 1944. So he gave the same year numbers as on November 5, 1937. All those present were under the impression that Hitler wanted to impose his will on the Poles this year, just as he had forced it on the Austrians and the Czechs in the previous year. Nobody doubted Hitler's words that he didn't want to take any chances.
Schmundt had made constant notes during the meeting and handwritten them into a report the following day. He put it in a safe along with other documents. In later years Schmundt handed over all such files to the “Commissioner for Historiography” General Scherff . The Allied Forces found the “May 23, 1939 Report” in its archive and served as a key document for the prosecution in the Nuremberg trial in 1946 (“Kleiner Schmundt”). It was understandable that various defendants tried to question the authenticity of the document and to present certain information in the report as incorrect. As a witness in Nuremberg, I myself spoke cautiously in favor of the defendants. Today there is no reason to hide the authenticity of Schmundt's writing. The listed participants were all present, including Goering and Colonel Warlimont. It is completely out of the question that Schmundt wrote the report much later, around 1940 or 1941. I knew Schmundt's habit of making such records as soon as possible after the respective events. As a general staff officer, Schmundt was conscientious and responsible enough to correctly recognize the significance of such conversations. Otherwise, the content of the transcript corresponded to Hitler's thoughts from that time, as I knew them not only from the meeting of May 23, but also from individual other discussions of Hitler with the military. "

literature

Reprint of document L-79 in the International Military Court of Nuremberg (ed.): The Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Court (November 14, 1945 to October 1, 1946) . Nuremberg 1947, Volume 37, p. 546 ff.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Quoted here from: Wolfgang Michalka: Deutsche Geschichte 1939–1945 . Frankfurt am Main 1999, p. 165 f.
^ Hans-Günther Seraphim : Post-war processes and contemporary historical research . In: Man and State in Law and History, Festschrift for Herbert Kraus . Kitzingen / Main 1954, p. 446.
↑ Hoßbach transcript
^ Nicolaus von Below : As Hitler's Adjutant 1937-1945 . Selent 1999, p. 164 f.