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last 20 years). If we use such a procedure, Germanisation can be carried out successfully.

IV. In my opinion, therefore, neither can the Czech people be quickly eliminated from this area nor is it proved that such elimination would be in the interests of the Greater German Reich. To decide the question as to what is to be done with each individual member of the Czech people, i. e. whether he is to be received into the German national community for assimilation or whether he is to be kept apart from it, will need many years.

V. There then arises the question: what constitutional form shall this country have during the transitional period, which I estimate at a minimum of two generations, and how is it to be administered.

In accordance with what I have explained above, we have to start from the fact that we must reckon with the presence of about 7 million Czechs who live almost in a solid bloc. For the constitutional form of the Protectorate for the Czech rump State, it was originally points of view based on foreign policy that counted above all. But this form has, after the experience we have gained in close on 12 years, proved itself in the field of home politics and administration as well. There is therefore no essential reason to depart from it.

For the administration of the Bohemian-Moravian country by German officials alone we have not got the manpower. Every man who thinks in a statesmanlike and simultaneously practical way therefore has the idea that the simplest way is to let these Czechs administer themselves within the framework of the Greater German Reich and in accordance with its aims, i. e. to leave them an administrative organization of their own and to give them administrative autonomy within the limits just mentioned. And finally, it will be such an administration, in tune with the majority of the population that will best succeed in ensuring quiet and order, and consequently the smooth running of daily life in this area. A German administration modelled on the lines of the German Gaus could not but have a disquieting effect, because it would all too easily be tempted to use administrative methods employed in the Old Reich which would not be suitable here and because-in its whole being-it is much too intensive not to arouse resistance unnecessarily.

Equally, the German administration must continue in the transitional period to limit itself to supervising the actual administration of this country, to laying down guiding lines according' to which the administration is to be carried out and to issuing

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orders to guarantee and further at all times the interests of the Greater German Reich. The activity of the German administration here is thus a governing activity. It is clearly eliminated in the decree of the 16th March 1939. I must insistently warn you against abandoning this kind of German administration before this area has become Germanised. It is simple and clearcut and entails intervention only if the execution of the Fuehrer's political directives is endangered.

But then it also becomes apparent from this that the Czech problem can only be handled homogeneously and by one central Reich bureau. Any dismemberment of Bohemia and Moravia is bound to endanger the clear, unified direction of the Czech administration and the Czech people. However clear the objective and the means may be, they are nevertheless bound to be variously interpreted by various administrations and then the methods used are also bound to differ. In view of the mentality of the Czechs and their great tactical skill, they will soon find ways and means of playing off the various administrations against one another. Their tactical political ability has been. schooled through hundreds of years. A forced partition of the country would fan up political nationalism anew and only strengthen opposition. Therefore, direction must come from one central government authority, in the hands of one person only. The Czech problem cannot be solved at one fell swoop. For the Germanisation of this country, many separate means will have to be adopted in the most varying spheres, and because these means will require many years to become effective, a constant unified direction of Bohemia and Moravia will be necessary. In a struggle between races nothing is more harmful than a vacillating attitude and an unified line.

A Reich policy can be followed in the Protectorate only by central direction. But if we, for instance, ceded Moravia to the Niederdonau Gau [Lower Danubian district], not only would a differentiation between Bohemia and Moravia arise, but the accession of this district might even place Austria face to face with new difficulties in its relations to the Reich, which would above all also entail for the Greater German Reich itself dangers that should not be under-estimated.

The necessity of a unified direction of policy towards the Czechs is not affected by the fact that not all Czechs live in the Protectorate. The Czechs who live in neighboring districts, outside the Protectorate, are just "splinters" without any significance as compared to the mass living in the Protectorate. When

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they are being Germanised or removed, we can go at quite a different speed, and other methods can be used for handling such minorities. These differentiations need not disturb us. The real Czech problem only exists in the Protectorate. And that is why, in the long run, it can only be settled here.

VI. The incorporation of the Sudeten district into Bohemia/ Moravia for historical reasons does not appear appropriate, even if one takes into account that this strengthens the number of Germans.

VII. If one considers the gigantic tasks facing the German nation after a victorious war, the necessity for a careful and rational utilization of Germans will be apparent to everyone. There are so many tasks that have to be tackled at once and simultaneously that a careful, well thought out utilization of the Germans who are suitable for carrying out these tasks is necessary. The Greater German Reich will have to make use of the help of foreigners on a large scale in all spheres and must confine itself to appointing Germans to the key positions and to taking over the reins of public administration where the interests of the Reich make it absolutely necessary (e. g. military and parts of the police).

In the Protectorate there is in existence a (Czech) Protectorate administration working along technical lines and organized according to the needs of a modern State, and this can do the greater part of the work that is done in the Reich itself by the German administration. It is even possible that when the war is over it may be given further tasks that are now performed by German authorities. It will suffice to incorporate comparatively few Germans into the key positions of the Protectorate's administration and to have a German leadership in Bohemia and Moravia composed of a comparatively small number ́of German government authorities.

VIII. The past of Bohemia and Moravia, the history of the country which is of particular importance to the German nation and which is reflected in the history of the capital, Prague, and the particularly heavy tasks which-as far as the human mind can see will devolve on that city in a racially foreign area, make it appear an absolute necessity not to weaken its position as the center of Bohemia and Moravia in any way by breaking off parts of the territory. Any city that is to be a focal point requires sufficient space to keep such a position. Such a city must be the gravitation-point of a large area having a big population,

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in order to be able at the same time to radiate and fructify the area and population with the yields of its spiritual, cultural and industrial labors. In the case of Prague there is the additional point that it would be prevented from fulfilling its historical role of gaining influence further southeastwards as well if its old hinterland of Bohemia and Moravia were cut into, precisely at a time when this age-old German city of Prague is at last once more placed in a position to exert this influence according to the ideas of and for the benefit of the Greater German Reich. Even if the broad political lines are laid down in Berlin for the South East countries too the individual threads, at least in the industrial and cultural spheres, will still emanate to a large extent from here, on account of the position of Prague and its past.

That is why this country deserves special attention and furtherance, in the interests of Greater Germany. We should beware of experiments, even of a purely administrative kind, which would only too easily make it difficult to attain the clear and unambiguous object of the gradual confounding of land and population with Greater Germany and the role that is due to this country on account of its geographical situation and history. Copy certified correct:

SS Obersturmbannfuhrer

ENCLOSURE NO. 2.

[Lieut. Col-signature illegible]

MEMORANDUM ON THE TREATMENT OF THE CZECH
PROBLEM AND THE FUTURE ORGANISATION OF
THE BOHEMIAN-MORAVIAN TERRITORY

The Purpose of the Memorandum

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was established under definite political conditions and the legal and political order it received at the time arose from these conditions. (14.3.1939). The question as to whether the Protectorate, with a Reich Protector at its head, is suitable for settling the Czech problem and should therefore be retained, or whether it should give place to some other form of government is being raised by various people and is the cause of this memorandum. It will briefly

A. Indicate the nature of the Czech problem;

B. Analyse the present way in which it is being dealt with;
C. Examine the proposed alterations from the point of view of
their suitability and finally

D. Express an independent opinion on the whole question.

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On a correct decision depends the solution of the Czech problem. We thus bear the responsibility for centuries to come.

A. The Nature of the Czech Problem

I. The nature of the Czech problem becomes evident from (1) A look at the geographical and ethnographic map, (2) the knowledge of racial conditions and

(3) from the historic fate of the Czech people.

(1) The Czech people, which belongs to the western Slavs, lives not only within the German political Lebensraum but also within its ethnographic Lebensraum. Its territorial position prohibits political independence. The inability of the Czechs to organise themselves into a permanent state is a fate arising from their geographical position. The Greater German Reich must be able to dispose of this territory and its inhabitants politically. Out of this arises the question of the fate of the Czech people and of the constitutional form of its incorporation into the Reich.

(2) Originally there existed a strong racial difference between the Teutonic Germans and the Slav Czechs. But the fact that the Czechs belonged for a thousand years to the Old Reich or to States governed by Germans, determined not only the political and social but also the racial structure of the Czech people, i.e. it considerably altered it. From the very beginning a mixing of German and Czech blood took place here. Just as the Czech princes took their wives from amongst the German noble families, so also did the rest of the nobility and the citizens and peasants intermarry with Germans. Only towards the end of the 18th century did the ratio of Germans to Czechs of 5 to 3, which had existed till then,-in the flat country as well,-change to that of 3 to 5, a fact which can be explained only by the quiet transformation of a corresponding number of Germans into Czechs, whose descendants, bearing Czech or German names, today live as Czechs. On the other hand, particularly in the course of the 19th century the Germanisation of numerous Czechs took place. The outcome of this thousand year long historical process is the far reaching racial levelling off of the two peoples in the Bohemian area, so that now only a minority has retained the original distinctive racial features in a pure state. This strong intake of Germanic blood also explains the ability of the Czech people to produce considerable achievements in the spheres of culture and civilisation-especially since the beginning of the 19th centuryto a far greater degree than, for instance, the Slavonic Poles. The Germans from the Old Reich, who expected to find a "Polish Economy" [translator's note: slang for "chaotic state of affairs"]

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