Hitler at the Reichstag rostrum

On 28 April 1939, Hitler takes the Reichstag rostrum to answer the public appeal Roosevelt addressed to him two weeks earlier. The context is tense: Prague, Memel and Albania have just fallen, and the United Kingdom guaranteed Poland on 31 March.

The speech is an exercise in force. Hitler can use the rostrum to harden his tone and denounce the treaties that hamper him — the German-Polish non-aggression pact of 1934, grown cumbersome in the face of his designs on Danzig, and the Anglo-German naval agreement of 1935, symbol of an understanding with London now defunct. He can also turn Roosevelt's appeal to ridicule.

But escalation has a price. To denounce these agreements is to send Warsaw and London a signal of open hostility and to close diplomatic doors. Hitler must choose between publicly hardening his position by denouncing the treaties, keeping up a façade of moderation so as not to precipitate the crisis, or confining himself to answering on the ground of propaganda without touching the agreements. The tone he adopts will set the course for the months to come.