“withdrawn,” leaving everything in suspense. “Okay,” replied
Göring “I’m going to order the invasion.... Tell those in charge
that anybody resisting us will be turned over to our drumhead
courts-martial. Is that clear?”
As they pensively trooped back to the conference room,
Hitler slapped his thigh. “All right,” he announced. “We go in!”
Hitler signed the executive order at eight-thirty. Back at
the ball, an invisible tension, taut as a bandsman’s drumskin,
held the building as Göring returned to the floor. He took Gen-
eral Milch aside and murmured, “We go in at dawn.”
It was not a secret that could be kept. In whispers and
asides the news rippled across the floor. Göring reassured Mas-
simo Magisrati that no German troops would advance south of
Innsbruck; the diplomat’s response was glacial. Then the surface
tension eased, as droplets of good news arrived. At : ..
Wilhelm Keppler phoned from Vienna President Miklas was
ordering Austrian troops not to resist. As the Prussian State Op-
era corps de ballet began to pirouette and whirl around the
floor, Göring, sitting at the center table of the guests, tore a
blank page from his program and penciled a note to Sir Nevile
Henderson:
As soon as the music is over I should like to talk to
you, and will explain everything to you.They met in his private room. The British ambassador said,
“Even if Schuschnigg has acted with precipitate folly, that is no
excuse for Germany to be a bully.”
Two hours later Mussolini gave his assent to Hitler’s action.
He had told Prince Philipp frankly that he had written off Aus-
tria as soon as Schuschnigg had committed the plebiscite
“Dummheit.”