I couldn't find an appropriate existing thread for this, so I'll post it and let the "powers that be" move it if needed. It entails the launching of Barbarossa, and Hitler's past statements concerning world domination. It also blends in the awkward position Hitler put his nominal "allies", the Japanese into. From Time magazines of June, 1941. For what Adolf Hitler did this week, and what he hopes to do in the future, had been told to Hermann Rauschning in 1934 and published by him in 1939. Said Hitler then: Perhaps I shall not be able to avoid an alliance with Russia. I shall keep that as a trump card. Perhaps it will be the decisive gamble of my life. . . . But it will never stop me from firmly retracing my steps and attacking Russia when my aims in the West have been achieved. . . . We must win the victory of German race-consciousness over the masses eternally fated to serve and obey. We alone can conquer the great continental space, and it will be done by us alone, not through a pact with Moscow. We shall take this struggle upon us. It will open to us the door to permanent mastery of the world. (emphasis mine) From a Time magazine article of June 30th, 1941 (p.2): Germany: World or Ruin - TIME Who says Hitler didn’t have designs on world conquest! What does mastery mean if not that? This launching of Barbarossa put his nominal ally Japan into a bad position, they had been mauled by the Red Army and General Zhukov on two occasions in the recent past, and had decided to follow Hitler’s lead and sign a "non-aggression" pact with the Soviets. Japan’s dilemma as to "aiding Germany by attacking the Soviet Union" when Barbarossa developed was this. When the Russo-German war actually came, doomed country or not, Japan was forced to face the fact that her ambiguous diplomacy had put her on an ambiguous spot. By the Tripartite Pact she was bound to go to Germany's assistance, if Germany were attacked. (emphasis mine) By the neutrality agreement with Moscow, she must remain neutral if Russia were attacked.(emphasis mine) So she remained neutral, as Germany was the aggressor—an ugly thing for a nation to admit about its friend in public. Goto: Foreign News: Troubled Tokyo - TIME Of course those divisions (30?) of Red Army troops, hundreds of tanks, Red Air Force planes, and artillery were deterrents as well.
Thank you for your insight of the press of the time. People were warned indeed, and Hitler had broadcast his intentions in Mein Kampf if anyone cared to read it - I confess I never had the gut to read through the end. However, those in charge were already busy enough gazing their own navels while being collectively scared of the Communist bumbling bogey in the attic.
I retitled the thread Clint, to make it more visible. Hope that's OK. That's a hell of a Hitler quote, more on that, and others in the same theme here, from a 1942 book looking at different nation's intentions for the postwar world: Internet Archive: Free Download: The Eight Points Of Post War World Reorganization Full text of "The Eight Points Of Post War World Reorganization" The Eight Points Of Post War World Reorganization "The day of small -states is past. . . . We do not seek equality but mastery. We shall not waste time over minority rights and other such ideological abortions of sterile democracy." 'Hitler speaks' "After the end of the war Germany must digest the in- corporated territories. From the economic point of view this means adjustment to the German economy." - 'Volkischer Beobachter - 1940' "We must have Europe and its colonies. . . Germany will spread its might far beyond its borders in the East as well as in the South-East. . . . We have a right to South America. . . Natural instincts bid all living beings not merely conquer their enemies but destroy them". ('Hitler Speaks') (South America!?? ) "All soil and industrial property of inhabitants of non- German origin will be confiscated without exception and dis- tributed among the worthy members of the Party and soldiers who were accorded honors for bravery in this war. . . . This German aristocracy will have slaves assigned to it, these slaves to be their property and to consist of landless, non-German na- tionals. We actually have in mind a modern form of mediaeval slavery which we must and will introduce. . . . Work must be as cheap as possible in order that our economic conquest may spread extensively and rapidly." Etc. Perhaps taking into account some propagandic nature of such contemporary reporting of Adolf's words, those few quotes alone, even putting aside the other Nazi Horrors later discovered, underline that any sort of relativism or attempt to give Hitler the benefit of any doubt regarding his real territorial intentions is a dodgy line to follow. I seem to have read a few things of late from Internetters along the lines of "well, he was forced into things"; I'll never understand why anyone would portray the man as anything other than the voracious predator he was. There was no benefit to his overall intentions, and there is no doubt about what he was. ~A
We must be very thankful that our Fathers, Grandfathers, Uncles etc, that took part in WW2 for the Allies won the monumental struggle and our futures were secure as free people. People wonder what kind of world we are living in now, but just consider the other possibilities. It makes your mind boggle. Yes, we owe our veterans so much. Regards Tom
And the sickening thing is when you see enough of the internet you come across large affluent comfortable groups of young men and women who simply do not give a hoot. These individuals are more concerned with putting them down and dreaming about what a great place the world would have been had Hitler won and how much better off we all would have been , how misrepresented the great man was and how some conspiracy is afoot to deny him his rightful place as a respect world leader. Tom is quite correct we owe a debt , one which is often taken for granted or worse still ignored.
"Za...", I have had an old "Houghton Mifflin" second edition (with first edition exceptions footnoted) copy of Mein Kampf which I discovered it at a "Good Will" store (laugh at the irony) in 1982 which cost me fifty cents. It is now well thumbed, and well "paper-clipped" for quotes from the great mind (guffaw and snicker). It isn't an easy read, but well worth the time to begin to understand the man. For true "irony", remember that any new sales of the Houghton Mifflin, and the English Harcourt Brace copyright royalties are donated to something like a Jewish Relocation League. (that should make Himmler, Hitler, and others spin in their graves [where ever they are]!) Hitler himself later exclaimed something to the effect that "if I had even suspected I would eventually be in charge of Germany, I wouldn't have dictated this book to Hess!" (however he never took it out of print, nor declined the "royalties" which made him a multi-millionaire) That, in itself makes it more revealing of the man and his mind-set. One of the quotes I wrote down was; "If land was desired in Europe, it could be obtained by and large only at the expense of Russia, and this meant that the new Reich must again set itself on the march along the road of the Teutonic Knights of old, to obtain by the German sword; sod for the German plow and daily bread for the nations." (Mein Kampf, p.140)
I come to believe that Adolf's gripe with the Jews was that it was they who were the Chosen People, God never said anything about frigging Aryans at all
That, in itself makes it more revealing of the man and his mind-set. One of the quotes I wrote down was; "If land was desired in Europe, it could be obtained by and large only at the expense of Russia, and this meant that the new Reich must again set itself on the march along the road of the Teutonic Knights of old, to obtain by the German sword; sod for the German plow and daily bread for the nations." (Mein Kampf, p.140) As we can see from this, even in 1923, 5 years after the Armistice Hitler truly believed that Eastern Europe was to provide the lebesnraum for a greater Germany. The west inconveniently got itself in the way in 1939 and Hitler was forced into a war he didnt believe would happen for a few years more.
