p Ever since the opening days of 1939, the German government began to show interest in normalising relations with the USSR in some way. As one can see from utterances of Hitler and German military spokesmen, the Soviet Union was the only power whom Nazi Germany really feared to get into conflict with, and with whose position she reckoned.

p Intent on channelling German aggression against the USSR the bourgeois propaganda machinery of the Western powers kept harping on the weakness of the Red Army and the fragility of the Soviet home front. Bourgeois newspapers kept claiming that the USSR was a giant with feet of clay. They sought to convince Hitler that he would quite easily make short shrift of the Soviet Union. It must be noted at this point, however, that they did not succeed in convincing Hitler and it was the ruling circles of the Western powers themselves that fell for these tales. Lord Halifax claimed at a meeting of the British government’s Foreign Policy 255 Committee on July 4, that "Hitler rated Russia low from the military point of view”. ^^153^^ Hence, the natural conclusion: Nazi Germany will go East. Subsequently the British people had to pay in blood for the wishful thinking Chamberlain and his following substituted for reality.

p The Nazis themselves used to write quite a lot in those years about the weakness of the USSR in an attempt to sustain the hope of the governing quarters of the Western powers that all the concern of the Nazi Reich was to do away witli the Soviet State. When it came, however, to deciding, by deed, not by word, who of the opponents was the weaker side, and with whom it was less dangerous to fight, it turned out that Germany was prepared to measure swords with anybody but the Soviet Union in 1939.^^154^^

p The German military command, taking into account the Red Army’s strength, considered that to fight the Soviet Union Germany must first build up her military potential at the expense of the countries of Western Europe, to " safeguard the rear”, create the necessary coalition and create a wide springboard for attack.^^155^^

p This was proved with conclusive evidence by the testimonials of German generals Keitel and Brauchitsch. Asked by Hitler to say what would happen if the Reich attacked Poland, and France and Britain would come to her aid, both generals said they felt that Germany would finish Poland up within a month. Keitel believed that Germany would then crush France and Britain as well. Then Hitler put another question, what would happen if the USSR came out against Germany, too? General Brauchitsch replied that in that case "Germany would be beaten".^^156^^

p The Nazis realised that had there been close co-operation between the USSR, Britain and France, Germany would have found herself in a very tight corner. Referring to Hitler’s comments in his conversation with Wehrmacht chiefs, the chief of the General Staff of Germany’s Land Forces, Haider, said: "It’s hard to swallow a pact between the British and the Russians. . . On the other hand, it’s the only tiling that will slop Hitler now."^^157^^ Ribbentrop’s representative W. Hewel also quoted the Nazi Chancellor’s comment that in the event of the Moscow talks ending up in the conclusion of an alliance between the Western powers and the USSR, he would have had to give up the idea of attacking Poland. If the Western powers failed to sign an alliance 256 with the USSR, Hitler declared, "I can smash Poland without any danger of a conflict with the West." ^^158^^

p This has been confirmed also by diaries of Weizsacker, State Secretary of German Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He wrote on July 30 that whether or not there was to be a war that summer depended on the outcome of the Anglo- Franco-Soviet negotiations in Moscow.^^159^^

p Spokesmen of a faction within the German ruling establishment who believed that Germany was not prepared for a major war as yet and feared that one more warlike venture by Hitler could end up in Germany’s defeat, sent their representative to London to warn the British about Hitler’s plans. The man they had chosen to carry out that mission was an official of the German Foreign Ministry, Erich Kordt, whose brother Theodor Kordt worked as counsellor of the German embassy in London. The trip was undertaken under a perfectly plausible pretext: Erich had decided to pay a visit to his brother. Having arrived in London in the latter half of May, Erich Kordt had a secret meeting with R. Vansittart. lie warned that Hitler was still sure that Britain and France did not intend to lend Poland effective help. "What he is frightened of is Soviet Russia”, ^^16^^° Erich Kordt declared.

Early in August Hitler declared on several occasions that he would not undertake military operations against Poland before he felt sure that Russia would not come to her aid.^^161^^