Hitler

32 Pages 8102 Words

ontradictory statements made by Hitler which can be used by both sides
equally. Yet the personal nature of this conflict in historical scholarship
has created an unnecessary polarization of views. Unfortunately the majority
of historians that have written on this topic, except the notable work of
Ian Kershaw, have been unwilling to fathom any shades of grey, any
relationship between the two camps.
Hitler did have a foreign policy program that he laid down, however
sickening it was, in 1925 with the writing of Mein Kampf.(4) In this book
Hitler described to all the world his three main foreign policy intentions.
Germany needed rearmament and domestic consolidation, coupled with the
gaining of alliances with Britain and Italy. Then would come the
subjugation of France in the west, to protect its rear. All allowing for
the conquest of Lebensraum or living space in the east for the cramped
German folk at the expense of Judeo-Bolshevism. This foreign policy program
fit nicely with his racial dogma that was based on a vulgarized view of
social darwinism. Hitler believed that the history of mankind was really
only a struggle for space among peoples, and that the strong survived by
gaining the necessary living space from which they could continue to grow
numerically, and in terms of racial quality. The rise and fall of
civilizations was due to their success or failure in maintaining racial
purity. The internal divisions of society were racially determined, and
this was seen when the Jews caused the internal collapse of Germany in 1918.
Hitler wished to eliminate this racial disparagement in phase one of his
program, thus allowing for the supreme goal of attaining Lebensraum.(5)
Through his reign he was of course subject to “forces at work, both in and
outside Germany, conditioning the framework of Hitler’s actions, which
naturally, did not take place in a vacuum as a free expression of autonomo...