Czechoslovakia faced with the hostile attitudes of Germany and Italy in 1938
Czechoslovakia faced with the hostile attitudes of Germany and Italy in 1938

Summary/Abstract: Adolph Hitler’s Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Italy were both professed enemies of the Czechoslovak state. Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda of the Third Reich, did not try to conceal his negative attitude towards Czechoslovakia any more than the Italian Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano. The diaries of Goebbels and Ciano shed interesting light on foreign policy of Germany and Italy. Neither of the authors did try to conceal his aversion to the policy of Czechoslovakia, when analysing the chain of events on the political scene which, in their view, confirmed their opinion on the weakness of Prague.Goebbels paid attention to show trials in Russia and to the policy of Poland towards Lithuania, and declared that nothing would save Czechoslovakia. “This state has to disappear – he wrote – the sooner, the better”. Ciano, on the other hand, noted Benito Mussolini’s remarks, who – after the annexation of Austria into Germany – indicated Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and Belgium as the weak points to be erased from the map of Europe. He stressed that Italy was not interested in the fate of Prague. Highly symbolic was the order given by Ciano to the Italian ambassador in Berlin, Bernardo Attolico, to go to Ribbentrop and ask him about precise information on the plans of the Third Reich towards Czechoslovakia to allow Italy to make preparations for mobilisation so as not to be taken unawares.

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