DECIPHERED MESSAGE
Dispatched from the Foreign Office 17 Sept.
Received by the Legation 17 Sept.
15 o'clock 20 min.
Secret Cipher. (2762-65)
No. 234 of 17
Most Urgent .
I. Request to inform the local government immediately of the following:
The Reich Government has decided that;
(a) immediately as many Czech subjects of Czech descent, Czech-speaking Jews included, will be arrested in Germany as Sudeten Germans have been in Czechoslovakia since the beginning of the week.
(b) If any Sudeten Germans should be executed pursuant to a death sentence on the basis of martial law, an equal number of Czechs will be shot in Germany. * * *
[signed] WOERMANN
Instructions to the German legation in Prague to inform the Czech government that Germany will arrest as many Czechs, including Czech-speaking Jews, as Sudeten Germans have been arrested in Czechoslovakia, and will execute them if Sudeten Germans are executed
Authors
Ernst Woermann (Dr., Foreign Office, Berlin (1938-39))
Ernst Woermann
German politician and jurist (1888-1979)
- Born: 1888-03-30 (Dresden)
- Died: 1979-07-05 (Heidelberg)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: diplomat; jurist; politician
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Schutzstaffel
- Position held: ambassador
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/3543385
Date: 17 September 1938
Literal Title: Deciphered Message[.] Dispatched from the Foreign Office: 17 Sept. 15 o'clock 20 min. Received by the Legation 17 Sept Secret Cipher
Defendant: Joachim Ribbentrop, von
Total Pages: 1
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2854
Citation: IMT (page 2341)
HLSL Item No.: 451908
Notes:Another copy of PS 2854 had been entered as US exhibit 99; this copy was used with the same exhibit number. Another copy in Ribbentrop document book 3 (item 454011) contains three more paragraphs of text.
Trial Issue
Document Summary
Staff Evidence Analyses
PS-2854: Decoding of wire from Reich Foreign Office to Embassy re decision of Reich Cabinet on reprisals for Czech arrest of Sudeten Germans
Red Series Doc Descriptions
PS-2854: Code telegram from the German foreign office to the legation in prague, 17 September 1938: arrest of Czechs in the Reich as retaliation for arrest of Sudeten-ger-mans in Czechoslovakia; threat to shoot Czechs if death sentences against Sudeten-germans are carried out