Book Three: The Road to War
- While Captain von Trapp and Maria were on their honeymoon, Hitler invaded Austria.
- Oops, sorry. Wrong story.
- OK. Shirer is actually in Vienna when Nazi troops invaded and annexed Austria on March 12. He has a first-hand look at the event.
- Shirer then backtracks to fill in the gaps between Austria in 1936—when he last took a good look at it—and Austria in 1938.
- In those two years the Nazis had been working hard to undermine independent Austria and bring about a union with Nazi Germany. His M.O., in part, was a terror campaign of bombings and violent demonstrations.
The Meeting at Berchtesgaden: February 12, 1938
- As Shirer's section title announces, Shirer now offers an account of the fateful meeting between the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg and the German Fuehrer in February 1938.
- Schuschnigg was presented with a draft of Hitler's demands, and saw it for what it was: an ultimatum to hand over Austria to Hitler. In about a week.
- Although Schuschnigg had no authority to accept the agreement without the Austrian President's approval, he eventually signed it, and promised Hitler that he would do his best to get it ratified by the President.
- Von Papen reassured him that even though Hitler appeared harsh and demanding that day, he was really quite charming and would no doubt refrain from invading Austria.
- Shirer takes this opportunity to share some thoughts about the actions of men who are operating under extreme duress.
The Four Weeks' Agony: February 12—March 11, 1938
- Shirer describes the pains that Schuschnigg went through to convince Austria's President, Wilhelm Miklas, to capitulate to Hitler's terms.
- He introduces us to Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Austrian politician who was doing his utmost to undermine his country's government and hand Austria to Hitler on a silver platter.
- After describing slimeball Seyss-Inquart, Shirer describes how Hitler declared in the Reichstag that Germany would do whatever it took do to guarantee the well-being of Germans in other countries.
- Chancellor Schuschnigg hit back by declaring in an address to the Austrian government that Austria never, ever give up its independence of its own free will.
- Hitler's and Schuschnigg's speeches ignited demonstrations and riots in Austria's streets. As civil unrest continued to spread, Chancellor Schuschnigg grasped at straws and Hitler—true to form—prepared his army for an invasion.
- As he did, Hitler took some time to write a pack of lies, er… letter to Benito Mussolini, in which he attempted to explain his reasons for the imminent invasion.
The Collapse of Schuschnigg
- Hitler demanded Chancellor Schuschnigg's resignation, and ordered that Seyss-Inquart be appointed Chancellor in Schuschnigg's place. He announced his plan to send the German Army into Austria.
- President Miklas reluctantly accepted Chancellor Schuschnigg's resignation, but refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart.
- In the face of President Miklas's defiance, the German Army ramped up their threats and ultimatums. Miklas held firm.
- A growing mass of Nazi demonstrators was gathering in Vienna's streets on the evening of March 11, 1938. Chancellor Schuschnigg made an emotional broadcast to the Austrian people that night as he explained his reasons for stepping down.
- Shortly before midnight on the same evening, President Miklas finally gave in and appointed Seyss-Inquart as Austria's new Chancellor.
- Hitler soon journeyed to Austria and met with a raucous welcome from the people who supported him.
- While he was there, he saw to it that Austria declared itself a part of the German Reich and accepted him as President.
- Hitler had announced that he'd hold a plebiscite on the question of Austrian annexation, and over the next month traveled all over Germany and Austria whipping up support for the vote.
- He was also on the campaign trail, as German elections were coming up and he was determined to keep up the appearance of holding a "democratically-elected" position.
- When the plebiscite returned a resounding "yes" to annexation, Austria began to be incorporated into the German Reich.
- In the days following annexation, Austrians became a little less enthusiastic as the Nazis unleashed violence and disorder in the streets of Vienna. Shirer calls it an "orgy" of sadism.
- Jewish Austrians were often the targets of this violence.
- Jews were thrown in prison for no reason; their household goods and personal belongings were stolen; they were subjected to humiliating public treatment as crowds of Austrians and S.S. looked on and jeered.
- Shirer also describes the creation of the Nazi Office for Jewish Emigration, which was the only place Jews could get permits to leave the country.
- The office began as a front for the Nazis' business in letting Jews leave only if all their assets were confiscated.
- Eventually, though, the Office for Jewish Emigration "was to become eventually an agency not of emigration but of extermination and to organize the slaughter of more than four million persons, mostly Jews." (3.11.178)
- Shirer makes a sudden—and deliberately ironic—shift to the subject of tourism, and explains that Germany's newest province soon became a popular tourist destination for Germans.
- It also turned into a real-estate free-for-all, as German businessmen and bankers rushed up to buy the confiscated Jewish and other non-Nazi businesses at rock-bottom prices.
- By this time, former Austrian Chancellor von Schuschnigg was now a prisoner of the Nazis.