Who Started WW2? Unification- Austria Part Three

Part 1, Part 2

The two major sources for this article are Who Started WW2? by Udo Walendy (pages 79–91) and 1939 – The War That Had Many Fathers, by Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof (pages 119–152).

In part two, I left off by mentioning Schuschnigg’s plan to quash the Anschluss. His plan was exactly the sort of thing Holocaust fabulists would accuse Hitler of doing. But not only did Hitler not do it, he fought against it and stopped it.

What was the plan? It was a vote on the Anschluss.

“A vote? What’s wrong with a vote? You said the people wanted Anschluss. How would a vote stop it?”

Good question. Let’s get into the particulars of how the voting would work to answer that.

On Wednesday, March 9th, 1938, Schuschnigg set up a referendum to take place in four days. Four days is obviously not enough time to organize a proper vote, but to compound that problem there was the fact that no federal elections had taken place since 1929, and on the regional level there hadn’t been an election since 1932. Thus there were no current voter lists. That’s not the end of it, though.

Schuschnigg put his own party, the “Fatherland Front,” in charge of oversight of the election and counting the votes. He also raised the voting age to 24, as he felt younger voters were more sympathetic to Anschluss. He also decided that members of the public sector needed to vote en bloc the day before the election under supervision from a superior authority, and that they must cast their votes openly. But that’s not all.

Schuschnigg orders that the voting stations only provide ballots printed with a “yes,” which means no to the Anschluss. Anyone wanting to vote “no” would have to bring their own piece of paper of the correct size.

Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof’s previously mentioned book provides section 22 of the election regulations which helps illustrate the absurdity of the situation:

A ballot … with ‘Yes’ printed on it or written on one side is valid, even if the word is crossed out or if there are other words alongside it. Also partially torn pieces of paper with ‘Yes’ printed or written on them count as yes-votes. Those persons who wish to vote ‘No’ must, according to the above regulation, write ‘No’ by hand on a piece of paper the same size. Pieces of paper containing the word ‘No’ along with some additional words are invalid. Completely empty ballots count as yes-votes.

The following is Schuschnigg’s ballot:

Schuschnigg basically set himself up to do election fraud.

Austrian Interior Minister, Seyss-Inquart, and Minister Glaise-Horstenau, informed Schuschnigg that his election conditions were unacceptable and that it was unconstitutional as there was no prior consultation with the cabinet and demand a postponement. Their demands went ignored. More cabinet members joined in protesting Schuschnigg’s election to no avail. He was dead set on having the election at the planned date.

Hitler found out about Schuschnigg’s plan right away and he would have none of it. One the evening of March 9th Hitler and Hermann Göring discussed how to deal with this obvious election fraud ploy. Göring urged Hitler to intervene. The next morning Hitler gave a command to his armed forces to march into Austria on the 12th if the election matter was not resolved though other means.

Schuschnigg refused to budge until he received a demand from Hitler that he be removed from office and that Seyss-Inquart is to be assigned with the creation of a new government with the majority rule going to National Socialists. Schuschnigg must also cancel his referendum and a hold new one in 14 days. This ultimatum had him running scared. He asked Mussolini for help and was told that the Italian government abstains from taking any position on the current situation in Austria. With no outside help and worries that he had no support from the population, he yielded and said he will cancel the election.

Göring decided that canceling the election is no longer good enough and gives a new ultimatum:

The situation can only be saved if the Chancellor immediately resigns and Dr. Seyss-Inquart within two hours is appointed chancellor. If Mr. Seyss-Inquart is not appointed by 18:30 hours, one hour later, at 19:30 hours, the German invasion of Austria will take place. this decision is irrevocable.

Schuschnigg cedes, but the Federal President, Wilhelm Miklas, refuses to meet all the demands and Hitler makes the decision to go ahead with the “invasion” on the morning of March 12th.

I put invasion in scare quotes as it was not a cliche military invasion. Flower decorations and flags on military vehicles showed that this was a reunification after long years of separation. The German army was met with waves, hugs, handshakes, tears of joy and waving of flags from the Austrian people.

Towards evening, Hitler’s convoy of cars reached the market square of Linz. 60,000 people were waiting to see him. There was great enthusiasm and the crowd left a deep impression on Hitler.

The new referendum was set for April 10th. 4,273,884 out of 4,284,795 voters supported the Anschluss. In Germany there is also an election for the Anschluss. 99% voted in favor.

Holocaust fabulists have some copes for this outcome. They will bring up that Jews were not allowed to vote. Even if all the Jews in Austria voted no, the outcome would have still been a super-majority vote for the Anschluss. And Jews were against the Anschluss, which goes to show that their agenda was fundamentally at odds with the Austrian people. A situation like that causes nothing but problems.

Holocaust fabulists will also say that the Austrians were inundated with pro-Nazi propaganda. They say this like people in democratic countries don’t experience overwhelming election propaganda. Think of the 2016 election where Hillary Clinton had unbelievable levels of institutional endorsement. News outlets, celebrity entertainers, other politicians, talk shows, etc… Yet she still lost. Blaming propaganda for your side losing is just weak.

They also complain about the ballot (see image below), which had a big yes and little no. They do this while never mentioning Schuschnigg’s ballot that only had yes as a choice.

So not only did Hitler take away the Allies cash cow, he has successfully—and peacefully—began to reunify the German-speaking people. This enraged the Allied governments and world Jewry. A successful Germany was the opposite of what they requested.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Who Started WW2!