The same pattern was repeated in Czechoslovakia. Henlein’s Free Corps played in that country the part of fifth column which the SS had played in Austria and was rewarded, in September 1938, by being placed under the jurisdiction of the Reichsfuehrer SS (_388-PS, Items 37, 38_). Moreover, a Most Secret OKW order of 28 September 1938, reveals that the SS had its own armed units, four battalions of _Totenkopf Verbaende_, actually operating in Czechoslovakian territory before the Munich Pact was signed (_388-PS, Item 36_).
But SS preparations for aggression were not confined to military forces. One of the departments of the SS Supreme Command, the _Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle_, was a center for fifth column activity. At the secret meeting between Ribbentrop and Henlein in March 1938, at which the line to be followed by the Sudeten German Party was determined, the _Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle_ was represented by Professor Haushofer and SS Obergruppenfuehrer Lorenz (_2788-PS_). And when the Foreign Office in August 1938 awarded further subsidies to Henlein’s Sudeten Party, the memorandum of that recommendation (_3059-PS_) contained the significant footnote:
“Volksdeutsche Mittlestelle will be informed.” (_3059-PS_)
(_c_) _SS participation in aggressive war._ When at last the time came to strike, the SS was ready. In the words of the National Socialist Yearbook for 1940 (_2164-PS_):
“When the march into the liberated provinces of the Sudetenland began on that memorable October 1, 1938, _Verfuegungstruppe_ as well as the Death Head Units were along with those in the lead. * * *”
“The 15th of March 1939 brought a similar utilization of the SS when it served to establish order in collapsing Czechoslovakia. This action ended with the founding of the protectorate Bohemia-Moravia.
“Only a week later, on the 29th of March 1939, Memel also returned to the Reich upon basis of an agreement with Lithuania. Again it was the SS, here above all the Eastern Prussian SS, which played a prominent part in the liberation of this province.” (_2164-PS_)
In the final act which set off the war, the attack on Poland in September 1939, the SS acted as stage manager. In his affidavit (_Affidavit A_), Maj. Gen. Erwin Lahousen describes the simulated attack on the radio station Gleiwitz by Germans dressed in Polish uniforms, as one of the most mysterious actions which took place in the _Abwehr_ office: