Paris, August 26th, 1939
“Dear Chancellor!,
‘The French ambassador in Berlin has informed me of your personal message - at a time when you speak of the gravest responsibility that two heads of government can assume, namely the shedding of the blood of two great peoples who long only for freedom and work, I owe it to you personally and to our two peoples to say that the fate of peace still lies in your hands.
You can have no doubt about my feelings toward Germany or about France's peaceful sentiments toward your nation - no Frenchman has done more than I have to affirm not only peace between our two peoples, but also sincere cooperation in their own interests and in the interests of Europe and the world.
Unless you attribute to the French people a less high sense of honor than I myself recognize in the German people, you cannot doubt that France will faithfully fulfill its obligations to other powers, powers such as Poland, which I am convinced want to live in peace with Germany. These two convictions are perfectly compatible.
To date, there is nothing that could prevent a peaceful solution to the international crisis with honor and dignity for all peoples, provided that the same desire for peace exists on all sides.
I express France's goodwill to all its allies; I personally guarantee this willingness, which Poland has always shown, to mutually apply a procedure of free settlement, as can be imagined between the governments of two sovereign nations. I can assure you in all conscience that there are no differences between Germany and Poland concerning the Danzig question that cannot be submitted to such a procedure with a view to a peaceful and just solution.
I can also declare, on my honor, that there is nothing in France's clear and sincere solidarity with Poland and its allies that could in any way impair the peaceful intentions of my country. This solidarity has never prevented us, and does not prevent us today, from supporting Poland in this peaceful spirit.
At this difficult hour, I sincerely believe that no noble-minded person can understand why a war of destruction should be waged without a final attempt at a peaceful solution between Germany and Poland. Your desire for peace could be used to this end with the utmost determination, without in any way detracting from German honor - as head of the French government, wishing good harmony between the French and German peoples, and bound to Poland by ties of friendship and by my word, I am prepared to make every effort that a sincere man can make to bring this attempt to a successful conclusion.
Like me, you were a frontline soldier in the last war. You know as well as I do what abhorrence and condemnation the devastation of war has left in the conscience of the people, regardless of how the war ends. The idea I have of your outstanding role as leader of the German people on the path to peace, to the completion of its task in the common work of civilization, leads me to ask for a response to this proposal.
If French and German blood flows again as it did 25 years ago, in an even longer murderous war, then each of the two peoples will fight in confidence of its own victory - destruction and barbarism will most certainly prevail.”
Signed,
Daladier
Berlin, August 27th, 1939
To the Prime Minister,
‘I understand the concerns you have expressed - I, too, have never overlooked the high responsibility that falls on those who are entrusted with the fate of nations. As a former front-line soldier, I also know the horrors of war as well as you do - it is out of this conviction and awareness that I have made sincere efforts to remove all sources of conflict between our two peoples.
I once assured the French people quite openly that the return of the Saar region would be a prerequisite for peace; immediately after this return, I solemnly reaffirmed my renunciation of any further claims that might affect France. The German people have approved my position.
As you were able to see for yourself during your last visit here, they felt and feel no resentment or hatred toward their former brave foe, conscious as it is of its own attitude; on the contrary, the pacification of our western border has led to growing sympathy, at least on the part of the German people. This sympathy has been demonstrated quite openly on many occasions.
The construction of our large western fortifications, which has cost and continues to cost many billions, is at the same time a document of Germany's acceptance and determination of the final borders of the Reich; the German people have thus renounced two provinces that once belonged to the old German Reich, were later reconquered at a great cost in blood, and were finally defended at even greater cost in blood. This renunciation, as you must admit, Your Excellency, is not a tactical stance for external consumption, but a decision that has been consistently reinforced in all our actions.
You will not be able to name a single case, Prime Minister, in which even a single line or speech has been uttered against this final fixation of the German Reich border to the west; I source that by my renouncement of these claims, and by adopting this attitude, I believe I had eliminated every conceivable source of conflict between our two peoples that could lead to a repetition of the tragedy of 1914-1918.
However, this voluntary limitation of German claims to territory in the West cannot be interpreted as acceptance of the Versailles dictates in all other areas. Year after year, I have tried in good faith to achieve, through negotiation, the revision of at least the most impossible and unacceptable provisions of this dictation - this has proven impossible. Numerous men of insight from all nations were aware of this and were convinced that revision was inevitable.
Whatever objections may be raised against my method, whatever faults may be found, it cannot be overlooked or denied that I was able, without further bloodshed, to find solutions that were satisfactory not only for Germany in many cases, but that, by the nature of the procedure, I relieved the statesmen of other nations of the obligation, often impossible for them, of having to justify this revision to their own peoples; for after all, Your Excellencies must admit that the revision had to come. The Versailles dictates were unacceptable. No Frenchman of honor, not even you, Mr. Daladier, would have acted differently than I did in a similar situation. With this in mind, I have now also attempted to eliminate the most unreasonable measure of all of the Versailles dictates.
I have made an offer to the Polish government that has shocked the German people; no one but I could have dared to make such an offer publicly - it could therefore only be a one-time offer. I am now deeply convinced that if, instead of unleashing a wild campaign against Germany in the press, particularly from England, and spreading rumors of a German mobilization, Poland had somehow been persuaded to be reasonable, Europe would now be enjoying 25 years of the surest possible peace; instead, the lie of German aggression has stirred up Polish public opinion, made it difficult for the Polish government to take necessary and clear decisions, and, above all, clouded its view of the limits of what was realistically possible, particularly as a result of the subsequent promise of guarantees.
The Polish government rejected our proposals. The Polish public, confident that England and France would now fight for Poland, began to make demands that might be described as ridiculous madness if they were not so infinitely dangerous. At that same time, unbearable terror began, with physical and economic harassment of the more than 1.5 million Germans living in the territories separated from the Reich; I do not wish to speak here of the atrocities that occurred. Even Danzig, subjected to continuous attacks by the Polish authorities, became increasingly aware that it was apparently helplessly at the mercy of a power alien to the national character of the city and its population.
May I ask you, Mr. Daladier, how you, as a Frenchman, would act if, through some unfortunate outcome of a brave struggle, one of your provinces were separated by a corridor occupied by a foreign power, if a large city—let us say Marseille—were prevented from declaring itself part of France, and if the French living in this area were now persecuted, beaten, mistreated, and even brutally murdered? You are French, Mr. Daladier, and I therefore know how you would act. I am German, Mr. Daladier. Do not doubt my sense of honor and my sense of duty to act in exactly the same way.
If you were to suffer the misfortune that we have suffered, would you then, Mr. Daladier, understand if Germany, without any provocation, wanted to ensure that the corridor through France remained intact, that the stolen territories were not returned, and that Marseille was not allowed to return to France? In any case, I cannot imagine, Mr. Daladier, that Germany would fight against you for this reason, for I and all of Germany have renounced Alsace-Lorraine in order to avoid further bloodshed. We would be even less inclined to shed blood in order to uphold an injustice that must be unacceptable to you, just as it would be meaningless to us.
I feel exactly the same as you, Mr. Daladier, about everything you write in your letter. Perhaps we, as old front-line soldiers, can understand each other most easily in some areas, but I beg you to understand this too: that it is impossible for a nation of honor to give up almost 2 million people and see them mistreated on its own borders. I have therefore made a clear demand: Danzig and the corridor must be returned to Germany. The Macedonian conditions on our eastern border must be eliminated. I see no way of persuading Poland, which now feels secure under its guarantees, to agree to a peaceful solution.
However, I would despair of an honorable future for my people if, under such circumstances, we were not determined to resolve the issue one way or another. If fate now forces our two peoples to fight again, there would at least be a difference in our motives - I, Mr. Daladier, would then fight with my people to right a wrong, and the others would fight to maintain it; this is all the more tragic then, because many of the leading men of your own people also recognized the absurdity of the solution reached at that time, as well as the impossibility of maintaining it in the long term.
I am well aware of the grave consequences that such a conflict would entail. However, I believe that Poland would have to bear the heaviest burden out of all of us, because, regardless of the outcome of a war over this issue, the Polish state as it now exists would be lost in any case. That our two peoples should now enter into a new bloody war of annihilation is very painful not only for you, Mr. Daledier, but also for me. However, as I have already stated, I see no possibility on our part of exerting any reasonable influence on Poland to correct a situation that is intolerable for the German people and the German Reich.”
Signed,
Adolf Hitler
From “Das war der Krieg in Polen” (That Was the War in Poland) by Rolf Heller, 1939