Message from Ambassador Henderson to Lord Halifax, with Hitler's proclamation on Germany's occupation of Austria

Sir N. Henderson to Viscount Halifax. (Received March 16) [R 2665/137/3]
No. 241
His Majesty's Ambassador at Berlin presents his compliments to His Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and, with reference to Berlin telegram No. 100, has the honour to transmit to him a copy of a proclamation of the Fuehrer on the 12th March 1938, respecting Austria.
Berlin, March 12, 1938
Proclamation of the Fuehrer which was Broadcast to-day at Midday by Dr. Goebbels from all German and Austrian Stations
(Translation) .
Germans ! -For years we have observed with deep sorrow the fate of our comrades in Austria. .
An eternal, historical connection, which was first broken in the year 1866 but in the world war received a new seal, has joined Austria since earliest times to the fate and community of the German people. The wrong which has been done to Austria, first from without and then from within, we have felt as though it were our own; just as we know that the misfortunes of the Reich have been to the millions of German Austrians the cause of similar anxiety and sympathy.
When in Germany the nation, thanks to the victory of the National Socialist idea, again discovered the path to the proud self-consciousness of a great people, in Austria a new period of suffering and bitter hardship began. A régime which lacked all legal authority attempted to maintain, by the most brutal methods of terror, of physical and economic repression and oppression, an existence which was rejected by the overwhelming ma-
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jority of the Austrian people. Thus, we, a great people, were forced to stand by while more than 6 million men and women of similar origin as ourselves were oppressed by a numerically small minority simply because they had managed to obtain possession of the necessary organs of power.
The deprivation and gagging of political rights was accompanied by a deterioration in the economic sphere which was in frightful contrast to the blossoming of new life in Germany.
Who could find fault with our unfortunate comrades for casting longing looks in the direction of the Reich—in the direction of that Germany with whom their forefathers had been allied through so many centuries, with whom they had fought shoulder to shoulder in the greatest war of all times, whose culture was their culture, to which they themselves in many fields had made such valuable contributions? To suppress such sentiments was nothing less than to condemn hundreds of thousands of men and women to the most profound spiritual anguish.
But even though this wrong was patiently borne for many years, yet a time came when, with the increasing respect in which the Reich was held, theawill to cast off this oppression became ever more vehement.
Germans! I have attempted in the last years to warn the late authorities in Austria of the danger of their ways. Only a madman could believe it possible to suppress indefinitely by methods of terrorism a people's love for the principles of its origin. European history has shown that in such cases only a greater fanaticism is bred. This fanaticism then compels the oppressor to adopt ever harsher methods of suppression, which only increase the hatred and horror of those affected.
I have also tried to convince the responsible authorities that it would be impossible, because unworthy, for a great nation to continue to see kindred men and women oppressed, persecuted and imprisoned only on account of their origin or their avowal there of or because of their devotion to an idea. Over 40,000 fugitives have fled to Germany alone, 10,000 others in this small country have passed through the prisons, dungeons and concentration camps, hundreds of thousands have been reduced to beggary and impoverished. No nation could continue to tolerate such incidents on its borders without deserving the contempt of the world.
I attempted in 1986 to find a way which might offer the prospect of alleviating the tragic fate of this German brother country in order thus to reach a real reconciliation. Hardly, however, was the agreement of the 11th July signed before again being
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broken. The suppression of the rights of the overwhelming majority remained, their unworthy position as pariahs in the country was not altered. Those who openly avowed their German origin were persecuted, irrespective of whether they were Na-tionl Socialist crossing-sweepers or illustrious commanders in the Great War. .
I then tried a second time to effect an understanding. I made efforts, I appointed Fuehrer of the German people, I made efforts to convince the representative of. this_.regime, though he had no authorized mandate from his people, that this state of affairs could not possibly last since the increasing indignation of the Austrian people could not be forever held down with increasing force, and that from a given moment it would also be intolerable for the Reich to look on at such oppression unprotesting.
For, if to-day the solution of the colonial problem is made dependent on questions of self determination on the part of the lower types of humanity concerned, it is all the more intolerable that 61/2 million members of a great and ancient cultural people should by reason of the nature of its régime in practice be deprived of such rights.
I therefore wished in a new agreement to effect that in this country all Germans should be subject to the same rights and to the same obligations. This arrangement was to be a complement to the treaty of the 11th July 1936.
A few weeks later we had, however, regretfully to note that the members of the late Austrian Government did not propose to carry out the spirit of this agreement. In order, however, to manufacture an alitti for their continued refusal of equal rights to the Austrian Germans, a plebiscite was devised with the object of irrevocably depriving the majority of this country of their rights. The modalities of this procedure were to be unique. A country which for many years had had no election at all, which lacked all data for determining those eligible to vote, prescribes an election which was to take place within a bare three and a half days!
There are no election lists, no election cards. There is no investigation of the eligibility of voters, no obligation of secrecy, no guarantee for the impartial conduct of the ballot, no security as regards the counting of votes, etc. If these are the methods to give a régime the character of legality, then we National Socialists in the German Reich were nothing but fools for fifteen years ! We went through hundreds of elections in order to obtain painfully, the approval of the German people.
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When the late Reichspraesident finally called me to office I was the leader of by far the strongest party in the Reich. Since then I have always attempted to have the legality of my position and of my actions confirmed by the German people, and they have been confirmed. But if Herr Schuschnigg's methods are the right ones, then the plebiscite in the Saargebiet was merely the chicanery of a people whose return to the Reich it was wished to make more difficult.
But we here think otherwise ! I think we may all be proud of the fact that even on the occasion of the voting in the Saar territory we obtained the confidence of the German people in so irreproachable a manner.
The German people in Austria have at last risen against this unique attempt to hold a falsified election. If, however, the regime had intended this time to suppress the movement of protest by force, then the event could only have led to a further civil war. But the German people from now on does not allow Germans to be persecuted in this territory because of their belonging to our nation or because of their avowal of certain convictions. It insists on peace and order!
I have therefore decided to place the help of the Reich at the disposal of the millions of Germans in Austria. Since this morning the soldiers of the German armed forces have been marching across all the German-Austrian frontiers! Mechanized troops, infantry divisions and S.S. troops on the ground and squadrons of German aeroplanes in the blue heavens—summoned by the new National Socialist régime itself in Vienna—will be a guarantee that the Austrian people will at l&st in the near future have the opportunity, by means of a real plebiscite, to decide for itself its future destiny. Behind these troops stand the will and the determination of the whole German nation.
I myself, as leader and Chancellor of the German people, will be happy once more as a German and free citizen to visit again that country, which is also my home. But the world may rest assured that the German people in Austria in these days are living hours of deepest joy and exultation. .
They see in the brothers hastening to their help the saviours from their deepest need. Long live the National Socialist German Reich! Long live National Socialist Austria!
March 12, 1938.
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