Review Of ' Ostkrieg ' Hitler 's War Of Extermination

From the very beginning of Adolf Hitler’s career, he had two goals. His primary goal was the forcible acquisition of living space, also known as Lebensraum, for the German people. Secondly, he plotted the extermination of the Jews. In 1935, Adolf Hitler openly violated the Treaty of Versailles by rapidly rebuilding the German Army. Other countries began to get nervous at the exponentially increasing German Army. Hitler assured fellow diplomats that the rapid growth was strictly a defensive measure. He claimed Germany had every right to build its forces to be on a level playing field with surrounding

Bullocks’ biography instead of concentrating on only the most notable events in Hitler’s life focuses also on the events which shaped Hitler’s ideas and made him into the man he eventually became. Adolf Hitler was born and in the neighborhood of Linz, a town in northern Austria. As an adolescent he was a below average student and showed signs of laziness and an inability to function as a productive member of society. He spent two years idle in Linz, where he pondered an

A third promise of Hitlers was that he would provide more living space. Hitler believed that Germany required more living space, or "Lebensraum", in order to survive. Instead of adding colonies to make Germany bigger, Hitler wanted to enlarge Germany within Europe. Hitler stated that the Soviet Union was run by the Jews, thus Germany had a right to take Russian land. With more living space, it was believed that this would make Germany stronger: stronger military, and built high hopes that Germany would become economically self-sufficient with the newfound wealth of food and raw material sources.

<br>As the war progressed, Hitler became more risky in his decision making, and made the crucial error of invading Russia in June 1941. This opened Germany up to communist attack by breaking the Soviet-German non-agression pact of August 1939, and also a two front war, and Hitler was forced to divert forces to Russia, which could have been spent on defeating Britain. Hitler's aim of invading Russia had been postponed due to the distractions in both North Africa, and also south eastern Europe. Hitler felt an urgency to begin the move to the east, even though the British remained undefeated in the west. The invasion of Russia was the largest military campaign of the war.

In this essay I will assess the significance of strategic bombing of Germany. I will do this by evaluating four key areas of the German war effort. This will include German and British moral, German economy, its effect on the outcome of the Eastern Front and the results of the preparation for D-Day. Overall allied bombing did not have a significant impact on the outcome of the war as for the majority of the war bombing techniques and technology were primitive and so had little effect. It only became a threatening tool latter on in the war, when the allies had effectively won.

The production focuses on the period before and during Koschorrek’s station in Stalingrad and places Hitler’s decision for a two-front war in a historical context. The documentary covers the massive success of ‘Operation Barbarossa’, Hitler’s artillery barrage strategy in 1941 up until the retreat of the German army in 1943. Hitler Turns East tells the audience how the German army ultimately failed despite its initial success. Although the German army quickly and powerfully dissolved Soviet defenses, the Red Army bought the German troops to a standstill. These aspects of the documentary are clearly accounted by Koschorrek in far more, firsthand detail in his memoir. The Soviet Army continually drives the German troops from their positions and this is specifically shown in Koschorrek’s entry of November 20th and December 13th 1942. Stationed along the Don, a river running along Stalingrad, Koschorrek records “the Russians have also broken through,” Romanian lines in the south, “and are coming at us from both sides, trying to take us in a pincer movement”. The documentary specifically remarks on the pincer strategy of the Soviet troops, a method that attempts to encircle and surround troops but cutting off defense lines at both sides. The documentary also remarks on the involvement of Romanian troops while Koschorreck goes into more detail of their social behavior (as soldiers) rather than

Living space then, was a necessary objective in Hitler 's eyes, but in order to achieve this space he needed to develop Germany 's army first. So he did. Between 1933 and 1939 the Treaty of Versailles was secretly avoided to massively increase the size of the German army, from 100,000 to 300,00017. The Luftwaffe, German air force, also rapidly increased and by 1940 it was the strongest among all the European powers. The German war machine was impressive, in just six years it went from being the weakest army to one of the strongest18. However, this created a vicious circle in terms of foreign policy for Germany: Hitler wanted living space, so he built up the army. However, in order to pay for this rapid rearmament, he had to conquer territories. Thus, Hitler made war profitable and a key part of the foreign policy of Germany19.

This pact prevented Hitler, “From seeking the goal of German foreign policy in the one and only place possible: space in the east.” Gaining Lebensraum for Germany’s surplus population was one motive for Hitler’s attack into the Soviet Union in 1941, but there were also other reasons behind the attack.

From the time of ‘Mein Kampf’ Hitler had outwardly expressed his desire to move toward Russia in his quest for ‘Lebensraum,’ however in 1939, it was beneficial for him

These interpretations continue throughout the 1930s and even into the 1940s, both Hillgruber and the functionalist Hans Mommsen, point to a famous speech of Hitler’s given on January 30, 1939 in which he vowed “if international Jewish Finance… should succeed once again in plunging the nations in to a world war, the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth and hence Jewry’s victory, but the extermination of the Jewish race in Europe.” While Hillgruber takes this statement at face value and gives little context but the paragraph it was part of, Mommsen points out that within the same speech he spoke of the emigration of the Jews and the necessity of putting “pressure on the United States and other Western nations to provide money for

On August 31, 1939, SS soldiers dress as fake Polish soldiers and fire at the German soldiers right outside of Poland. The next day, Hitler declares that Poland troops fired at the SS by Poland and he orders an invasion. England and France declare war on Nazi controlled Germany to protect their allies, Poland. Helmuth hears of this news and is disgusted, but what saddens him even more is when his eldest brother, Gerhard Kunkel is drafted to the reich labor service for six months. Germany is striking Poland with a new technique they call Blitzkrieg, which is a way to win a war by breaking through ones defense by striking short, fast and powerful attacks. It eventually breaks through their defense and allows you to take dislocate the inside of the country and the rest of the troops in them. They refer to it as the “lightning war” because of how fast the Nazi’s could move in and take a country by using the Blitzkrieg. After Hitler captures Poland, he makes a new law, one stating that it is illegal to listen to foreign radio stations, they could only listen to Volksempfanger, or the people’s

If an event like Nazi extermination happened in today’s world I think part of the world would know about it and be prepared and the other parts will have a limited amount of information of what is happening. We would be ready because we could communicate faster and easily put together an army, but the other part of the world wouldn’t be prepared because of the lack of resources. First, during 1944, they it was difficult communicate with people from other countries. If something happened in one country it could take weeks for other regions to find out. Nowadays we can talk to people that are on the other side of the world with a click of a button. Therefore, if any danger is present in the world we would know about it right away. Second, we

Although the concept of Lebensraum was being used long before Hitler came into power, the Germans during this time thought of this “living space” as adding colonies to make Germany larger. However, Hitler wanted to expand Germany within Europe. In order to accomplish this, Hitler put a racist twist on Lebensraum “by stating that the Soviet Union was run by

Causes and Consequences of Operation Barbarossa On June 22nd 1941, German forces crossed the Russian frontier and began to fight their way into Soviet territory. Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's codename for the attack on Russia, had begun. In this essay I am going to describe the causes, events and consequences of Operation Barbarossa. What happened when the 'unbeatable' Hitler and Germany met the sheer determination and patriotism of Stalin and the USSR?

His policy of Lebensraum, which was the belief that Germany needed to occupy more territory or they would not survive, justified his firm use of military and aggression to expand Germany. His determination for victory was the spark that ignited World War Two(WW2). This war caused the loss of millions of young soldiers and the murderous treatment of the Jewish population. The ultra-nationalistic beliefs presented in the source were terrorizing for the world during WW2 and upset the peace. These beliefs should not be embraced as they promote chauvinism and upset the collective peace of the