ADOLF HITLER'S STATE DINNER FOR PRINCE PAUL OF YUGOSLAVIA Fascinating grouping of documents concerning the state visit of Prince Regent Paul and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia to Berlin in June, 1939 during which Hitler and the Nazi Party put on an enormous military parade and feted the pair in an effort to convince the future king to sign a pact aligning Yugoslavia with Germany. The premier item in the lot is a printed seating arrangement for the state dinner held for the royal couple on June 1, 1939, 4pp. legal, which opens into a 16 1/2" x 14" plan. The plan also bears pencil corrections and additions by its original owner, OTTO MEISSNER (1880-1953) Nazi Nuremburg defendant who served as Reichsminister and Minister of the Presidential Chancellory. Fittingly, Hitler, the Prince and Princess, Hermann Goering and Joachim von Ribbentrop are seated at the head of the table. Also seated close to them at the u-shaped table are Adm. Erich Raeder, Josef Goebbels, Robert Ley, Alfred Rosenberg, Heinrich Himmler, and Wilhelm Frick. All-in-all, over 200 of the Third Reich's most influential politicians attended the function, with an additional table and a few moves made by Meissner. Also included is a Konig printed portrait of the royal couple, a 7" x 5" sepia photo of goose-stepping soldiers passing before Hitler and the Prince in review, a T.L.S. on Hans Frank's letterhead, 1p. 4to., Berlin, May 25, 1939, declining to attend the dinner (signed by an aide), and related material. Prince Paul was able to see through much of Hitler's show, noticing that the same tank units passed in review before him several times! He never did formally align Yugoslavia with Germany, and Yugoslavia refrained from joining the Axis until March 25, 1941, when it made this move under duress. Two days later, a pro-Western military coup took place in Belgrade and Yugoslavia's alliance with the Axis was aborted. The invasion of Yugoslavia by German, Hungarian and Bulgarian forces began a week and a half later (April 6), and the Yugoslav army lay down its arms on April 18.