From the East a bitter wind bearing snowflakes bigger than bullets swept over the land of the Czechs and Slovaks last week. From the West came Hitler.
In power politics Adolf Hitler exhibits all the amazing intuitive timing and swift footwork that his namesake, Adolf Wolgast, pugilist of German extraction, used to show in the prize ring. Adolf Hitler has made only one error in timing—when he started a punch at Austria in 1934 and was blocked by Benito Mussolini. The speed, precision and preparation with which Adolf Hitler moves should no longer surprise the world. But last week he outdid himself. The four familiar steps of a Hitler conquest—preliminary propaganda, conference with victims, march of troops, and triumphal entry—followed each other like the rapid fire of a machine gun. His culminating campaign in Czecho-Slovakia lasted exactly three days.
Monday. "German boys," lied Berlin papers on Monday, "are mishandled with brass knuckles . . . while Jews applaud. . . . German houses are fired on by Czech armored cars. . . . Murder and arson rule again in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. . . ." Radio announcers talked of "Communists in Czech gendarme uniforms." Next day the push began in earnest.
Tuesday, 4 p.m. Peremptorily Hitler commanded President Emil Hácha to come to Berlin from Prague for a conference. Accompanied by his daughter and Foreign Minister Frantisek Chvalkovsky, Dr. Hácha boarded a special train. Week's best example of how fast the Hitler machine was turning over: Dr. Hácha's train was one hour late in Berlin because of traffic congestion caused by troop trains already on their way to Bohemia.
10:40 p.m. Dr. Hácha and his party, arriving in Berlin, were treated with the greatest consideration. The President's daughter was given a great big bouquet of yellow roses tied with a red bow (on which was stamped a swastika). The party, taken to the Adlon Hotel to wash up, found their suite banked with "more flowers than had ever been in the hotel before." (There were also more steel-helmeted military sentries in the hotel than usual.) As a sobering sight, Nazis let Dr. Hácha review some troops while he waited.
Wednesday 1 a.m. A summons called the visiting diplomat to the Chancellery. Dr. Hácha was ushered into Herr Hitler's work room. There, besides the Führer and his aides, were numerous army generals, who throughout the interview were periodically sent out for mysterious phone calls to Prague. (The same form of pressure was applied to Kurt von Schuschnigg at Berchtesgaden.)
4:15 a.m. Dr. Hácha, still in conference, was handed a communiqué describing the conference and told to sign. He did.
"Both sides," it read, "unanimously expressed the conviction that the aim must be to assure calm, order and peace in this part of Central Europe. The Czechoslovak State President . . . trustfully laid the fate of the Czech people and country into the hands of the Führer of the German Reich. . . ."