Hjalmar Schacht to the Nuremberg Tribunal, see IMT, XIII; also Bullock, Hitler, which quotes Kirkpatrick's record of Hitler's remark to Sir Horace Wilson on 27th September 1938:
'If France and England strike, let them do so. It is a matter of complete indifference to me. I am prepared for every eventuality. It is Tuesday today and by next Monday we shall all be at war.'
Before he flew to Bad Godesberg, Neville Chamberlain aptly remarked that he was setting out to do battle with an evil beast (see Freund, Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Vol. I).