Letter to Daladier, on Hitler's desire for peace in western Europe, the "intolerable" Versailles Treaty, Polish anti-German activities, and Germany's demands upon Poland

LETTER FROM THE FUEHRER TO THE FRENCH PRIME MINISTER DALADIER, DATED 27th AUGUST, 1939
Berlin, 27th August, 1939
Dear Prime Minister,
I understand the qualms you express. I too have never, overlooked the high responsibility which rests on those who are in a position to decide the fate of nations. As an old front line soldier, I hate the horrors of war as you do. It is from this conviction and knowledge that I have made honest efforts to eliminate all the grounds of conflict between our two nations. I have assured the French people quite openly that the return of the Saar would be the prerequisite for it. After its return I immediately and solemnly confirm my renunciation of any further claims which might affect France. The German people approved my attitude. You were able to realize yourself during your last stay here that, proud of its own attitude, it neither felt nor feels any resentment or hatred towards the valiant foe of the past. On the contrary. The satisfactory solution of our Western frontier problem led to an increase in understanding, at least on the part of the German people. This understanding on many occasions reached the point of demonstrativeness. The building of our strong Western fortifications which cost us and are still costing us many millions of Marks proves that Germany is accepting and confirming the final frontier of the Reich. The German people have thereby given up two provinces which used to belong to the old German Reich, were later on conquered with much blood and still later, defended with still more blood. Your Excellency will have to agree that the waiving of our claims is no tactical measure to impress the outer world, but a decision which has been logically confirmed by all our measures. You will be unable, my dear Prime, Minister, to quote me an instance where in a single line or speech there has been any opposition to this final delineation of the Western boundary of the Reich. I believed that through this waiving of our claims and by this attitude I had eliminated any possible source of controversy between our two peoples which would lead to a repetition of the tragedy of 1914-1918. However, this voluntary limitation of Germany's vital demands in the West cannot be taken as implying total acceptance of the Versailles treaty. I have really tried year after year to obtain by agreement a revision of at least those clauses of the treaty which were most, irrational and unbearable. It has been impossible. Many far-sighted people of all nations saw and knew that a revision had to come. Whatever anyone may say against my methods,
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whatever, criticism anyone may feel himself compelled to level against them, one must not overlook- or deny that they not only made it possible in many cases to find solutions satisfactory to Germany, without first shedding of blood, but also owing to the very nature of these methods, spared foreign statesmen the necessity of justifying such revisions to their own people, a necessity which they would often have been unable to face; for your Excellency will have to agree with me on one point: The revision had to come. The Versailles'treaty was intolerable. No Frenchman possessing a sense of honour, not even you, Monsieur Daladier, would have acted differently from me in a similar position. I have now also tried in this sense to abolish the most unreasonable of all the Versailles treaty. I made an offer to the Polish Government, which shocked the German people. No one but 1 could have dared to announce such an offer in public. That is why I could only make that offer once. I am how firmly convinced that Europe would have been able to enjoy a state of peace today and for the next 25 years, if at that time the Poles had been persuaded, particularly by Great Britain to see reason; instead a wild press campaign against Germany was started and rumours were spread of a German mobilization. Thus Polish public opinion was first of all roused by lies about German aggression; it was made more difficult for the Polish Government to come to their own necessary clear-cut decisions and the subsequently given guarantee in particular impaired their ability to see tKe limits of what was possible. The Polish Government turned the offer down. Polish public opinion, firmly convinced that Britain and France would go to war on their behalf, started to make demands which could have been regarded as ridiculous lunacies, had they not been so terribly dangerous. At that time an unbearable terrorization—a physical and economic oppression of the Germans in the territories ceded by the Reich, who still amounted to over 1% millions, began. I do not wish to discuss here the atrocities committed. Even Danzig was increasingly reminded, by the continuous encroachments of Polish authorities, that it had been surrendered, apparently without hope of salvation, to the arbitrary will of a power alien to the national character of town and population. . ,
May I take the liberty of asking you, Daladier, how you, a Frenchman, would act if through the unlucky and of a courageous fight one of your provinces were cut off by a corridor occupied by a foreign power; if a large town, let us say Marseilles, was prevented from acknowledging her ties with France and if the Frenchman living in that territory were persecuted, beaten.
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maltreated, even bestially murdered? You are a Frenchman, M. Daladier, and therefore know how you would act. Do not, M. Daladier, doubt my sqnse of honour and my sense of duty which tells me to act exactly as you would do! If you had suffered the misfortune which we have suffered, would you be able to understand it M. Daladier, if Germany should without provocation insist on the corridor through France being maintained, on the . stolen' territory not being allowed to revert, on the return of Marseilles to France being forbidden? I at least, M. Daladier, cannot imagine that Germany should fight against you for such a reason, since I and the whole world have waived the claim to Alsace-Lorraine to prevent further shedding of blood. All the less would we shed blood to uphold an injustice, which would be as intolerable to you, as it would be unimportant for us. I feel exactly as you do, M. Daladier, about the matters mentioned in your letter. Being both old front-line soldiers, perhaps we can understand each other more easily on many points; however, I must ask you to understand this too: That it is impossible for a nation -with a sense of honour to waive their claim to almost two million people, and to see them maltreated on their own frontier. I have therefore formulated a clear-cut demand. Danzig and the corridor must revert to Germany. The "Macedonian" conditions on one Eastern frontier must disappear. I can see no way of inducing Poland, which now believes itself unassailable under the protection of the guarantees, to take steps towards a peaceful solution. I should however despair of the honourable future of my people, if, under such circumstances, we were not determined to solve the question in one way or another. Should fate thereby once more force our two peoples to fight, there would yet be a difference in our motives. I and my people, M. Daladier, would fight to right—and the others to maintain—a wrong which has been inflicted on us. This would be all the more tragic as many most outstanding men, including some of your own people, have recognized the folly of the 1919 solution as well as the impossibility of permanently upholding it. I am quite aware of the dire consequences which would result from such a conflict. But I believe that Poland would suffer most, for, whichever way the war about this question went, the present Polish state would be lost anyhow.
Not only for you, M. Daladier, but for me too it is most painful that our two peoples are now to embark on a new bloody war of extermination on these grounds. But as I said before, I cannot see a way for us to induce Poland by rational means to
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correct a situation which is intolerable for the German people and the German Reich.
. (Signed) Adolf Hitler.