Page "Joachim von Ribbentrop" Paragraph 99

Ribbentrop liked and admired Stalin, and was against the attack on the USSR in 1941.

He passed a word to a Soviet diplomat: " Please tell Stalin I was against this war, and that I know it will bring great misfortune to Germany.

" In the spring of 1941, upon hearing of the coup in Baghdad that brought Rashid Ali al-Gaylani to power, Ribbentrop dispatched Dr. Fritz Grobba on a secret mission to Iraq to make contact with the new government.

When Grobba reported that the Iraqis as Arab nationalists saw the British and the Jews as their enemies and wished to ally themselves with Germany against their common foes, Ribbentrop was delighted and become obsessed with the idea of an Iraqi-German alliance.

In pursuit of his Iraq project, Ribbentrop strongly pushed for German aid to the Rashid Ali al-Gaylani government in Iraq, where he saw a great opportunity for striking a blow at British influence in the Middle East.

It was Ribbentrop's hope that a striking German success in Iraq might lead to Hitler abandoning his plans for Operation Barbarossa, and focusing instead on the struggle with Britain.

The abject failure of Ribbentrop's Iraq scheme in May 1941 had a totally opposite effect to the one intended.

When it came to time for Ribbentrop to present the German declaration of war on 22 June 1941 to the Soviet Ambassador, General Vladimir Dekanozov, Paul Schmidt described the scene :" It is just before four on the morning of Sunday, 22 June 1941 in the office of the Foreign Minister.

He is expecting the Soviet Ambassador, Dekanozov, who had been phoning the Minister since early Saturday.

Dekanozov had an urgent message from Moscow.

He had called every two hours, but was told the Minister was away from the city.

At two on Sunday morning, von Ribbentrop finally responded to the calls.

Dekanozov was told that von Ribbentrop wished to meet with him at once.

An appointment was made for 4 amVon Ribbentrop is nervous, walking up and down from one end of his large office to the other, like a caged animal, while saying over and over, " The Führer is absolutely right.

We must attack Russia, or they will surely attack us!

" Is he reassuring himself?

Is he justifying the ruination of his crowning diplomatic achievement?

Now he has to destroy it " because that is the Führers wish ".

When Dekanozov finally appeared, Ribbentrop read out a short statement saying that the Reich had been forced into " military countermeasures " because of an alleged Soviet plan to attack Germany in July 1941.

Ribbentrop did not actually present a declaration of war to General Dekanozov, instead confining himself to reading out the statement about Germany being forced to take " military countermeasures ".