Hitler's Foreign Policy: A Look Back

Much of what the public knows about Hitler and his regime comes from text books in a “this is how it was, trust us” form, in that, typically a text book will describe major events, throw in a small reference and move on.  To a majority, delving deeper into the subjects, such as the world war II Germany, suddenly opens them up to public ridicule as a neo-Nazi or some other stereotype.  This scenario is such a horrible state of affairs; there is much to learn about German society and politics at the time.  It is especially important to learn from our past in order to protect ourselves in the future.  

A major Nazi argument, and party platform was in terms of “lebensraum” (living space, or elbow room in America).  That is, after world war I, many Germans felt a crunch after land and colonies were taken from them as required by after war agreements.  Especially jealous of some of the larger nations of the globe, the Nazi party argued that “real” Germans were entitled to more room of their own, and those not of the German “bloodline” could easily find places to inhabit in other countries.  Hitler remarked after unsuccessfully negotiating with the league of nations about exporting Jews to countries that had plenty of room for greater populations,”1. "We," that is the democracies, "are not in a position to take in the Jews." Yet in these empires there are not 10 people to the square kilometer. While Germany, with her 135 inhabitants to the square kilometer, is supposed to have room for them! 2. They assure us: We cannot take them unless Germany is prepared to allow them a certain amount of capital to bring with them as immigrants” (Hitler's speech of January 30, 1939 before the Reichstag ).  With hindsight, it is painfully interesting that a large amount of the Jewish population could have been absorbed by other democracies had they not been worried about the lack of capital that Nazi Germany would confiscated from them.