KAUNAS, Lithuania, March 22, 1939 (TOP) – Lithuania returned Memel to Nazi Germany today under an implicit ultimatum that if annexation were carried out peacefully, Germany would “generously consider” Lithuania’s economic interests.
A Lithuanian delegation arrived in Berlin to work out the details.
The Führer Hitler will make a triumphal entry into Memel probably at night. It was preceded by German troops from East Prussia.
All Lithuania placed under transitional martial law.
Lithuanian troops reportedly withdrew from the territory and unconfirmed reports indicated that German troops had already begun to enter the area.
Upon surrender, Germany regained 1,099 miles of territory with a population of 152,000 that had been taken from it after World War II and passed into Lithuania in 1923.
[Berlins that Lithuania, now cut off from the sea with Memel’s surrender, has become, at least economically, a vassal state, United Press reports. ]
It is the moment of the triumph of Adolf Hitler in seven days, a week after his entry into Prague.
The announcement of the capitulation was:
Two press releases