This guy seems to agree that Lochner's version is based on the longer version found in the OKW files and given the number 798-PS as a document presented at the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the IMT. However, he is claiming that Lochner's version represents what Hitler really said, and the document found in the OKW files is a sanitised version, as opposed to the contrary claim that Lochner;s version is a manipulated and exaggerated version of the OKW document.
There seems to be general agreement that the OKW version is based on stenographic notes made by Canaris during Hitler's speech, allegedly surreptitiously, and that Canaris passed it to his deputy Hans Oster, who made a copy. Domeier seems to accept that the original notes made by Canaris and the copy made by Oster are no longer extant.
Certain elements in the Lochner version are taken form the OKW document, the text of which can be found here:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/cul-hydra/nur/n ... r00458.pdf
For example, the OKW document contained these words:
The enemy had another hope, that Russia would become our enemy after the conquest of Poland. The enemy did not count on my great power of resolution. Our enemies are little worms. I saw them in Munich.
Lochner's version has this:
One thing is true: a new situation has now been created. I got to know those wretched worms, Daladier and Chamberlain, in Munich- They will be too cowardly to attack. They won’t go beyond a blockade.
Comparison between these two versions suggests that the OKW document is more likely to be the record of Hitler's speech, with Lochner's version being an exaggerated distortion. For example, the words "They won't go beyond a blockade" is clearly based on the this passage in the OKW document:
.
The West has only two possibilities to fight against us:
l) Blockade: It will not be effective because of our
autarchy and because we have sources of aid in the east.
2) Attack from the west from the Maginot line: I consider
this impossible.
All in all, the OKW document 798-PS seems more like what Hitler would have said to his assembled commander in trying to justify his decision to attack Poland, rather than the wild rant contained in Lochner's version. In the OKW document gives a description of his policy toward Poland that is historically true and confirmed by other sources, namely that he wanted to establish an "acceptable relationship" with Poland, but that this had proved impossible, partially because of Poland's own ambitions for "access to the sea", but also because of Britain's "intervention", which disturbed his propositions to Poland about the Danzig Corridor. His statement that his policy toward Poland was "in contrast to the ideas of the [German] people" is also historically quite true.
In contrast, the Lochner document gives a highly sensationalised version of Hitler's words:
Poland will be depopulated and then settled by Germans. My pact with Poland was, after all, intended only to gain time.
A final example of the lurid embellishments in Lochner's version is the final sentence. The OKW document states:
Goering answers with thanks to the Fuehrer and the assurance that the armed forces will do their duty.
In the Lochner version, this appears in a luridly embellished form as:
"
My informant confided to me that, after hearing this astounding speech, Goering, wild with enthusiasm, climbed on a table,
rendered fervent thanks, and promised to carry out the bloodthirsty orders.
It is noteworthy that nowhere in the OKW document is there any reference to the killing of all Polish men, women and children. That passage in the Lochner version appears to be a distortion of a passage in a different set of notes on Hitler's speech, made by a different attendee, which were presented to the IMT as document 1014-PS. That document can be read here:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/cul-hydra/nur/n ... r00459.pdf
This short document, which appears to be a slightly different version of Hitler's speech rather than a different speech altogether, contains this passage
Destruction of Poland in the foreground. The aim is elimination of living forces, not the arrival at a certain line.
The most reasonable interpretation of this passage is that it refers to the annihilation of the Polish armed forces, rather than the killing of the Polish civilian population. That is shown by a later passage in this document, which reads:
Complete destruction of Poland is the military aim.
To be sure, this version of Hitler's speech contains the phrases "have no pity", "brutal attitude", and "greatest severity". But it also contains this passage which is not compatible with an exterminatory intention toward the Polish people:
New German frontier according to healthy principles. Possibly protectorate as a buffer.
If Hitler was considering establishing a new border between Germany and Poland, with the remainder of the latter as a buffer state, then he was obviously not planning the extermination of the Polish people, as claimed by Domeier. German plans to allow the existence of a rump Polish state east of the new German eastern border are known from other sources, including statements by Frank on his appointment as Governor-General of the Occupied Polish Territories.
