Germany’s War, Race & Space – Comprehensive Lecture Notes

CHST 811 Germanys War Race Space Part1

Ideological Cornerstones Driving Nazi War Policy

Redemptive Antisemitism

• Term coined by historian Saul Friedländer.

  • Differs from “ordinary” racial antisemitism:

  • In redemptive form, the entire worldview pivots on an existential, quasi-religious struggle between “Aryan” and Jew.

  • Other racist beliefs (anti-Slav, anti-Black, etc.) are secondary.

• Core propositions Hitler & the SS embraced:

  • Germany/Aryan humanity is “degenerating” because Jews have “penetrated” the body politic and bloodstream.

  • Redemption = liberation through expulsion or annihilation of Jews.

  • Fate rendered the conflict a zero-sum, to-the-death confrontation.

• Links to earlier lectures / 19th-century roots:

  • Echoes of Social-Darwinist race science, Eastern-Jewish-immigration panic, stab-in-the-back myth of WW I.

  • Religious language (“redemption,” “salvation”) merges with pseudo-biology.

• Political significance:

  • Antisemitic policy escalated in lock-step with territorial expansion.

  • Provided psychological framing for mass murder (T-4, ghettos, Einsatzgruppen, Final Solution).

Lebensraum ("Living Space")

• Direct quote from Mein Kampf: Germany must expand or “not exist at all.”

  • Geographic focus: Russia and its borderlands (Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic, etc.).

• Race & space are fused concepts:

  • Biological survival of the Volk requires vast, resource-rich territory.

  • Expansion expected to provide food, raw materials, and demographic room for a racially purified peasantry.

• Strategic outcome:

  • War in the East was not just geopolitical but colonial—the Nazi blueprint for an agrarian empire (“Generalplan Ost”).

  • Implied depopulation or enslavement of Slavs alongside annihilation of Jews.

Nazi Foreign-Policy Trajectory (1933-1939)

Guiding Priorities

1. Short-term: economic recovery & Versailles revision.

2. Long-term: secure Lebensraum and implement redemptive antisemitism.

Appeasement Context

• Britain & France repeatedly tolerated treaty breaches:

  • Sympathy for German grievances; view Versailles as too harsh.

  • Fear of Soviet communism—Germany seen as bulwark.

  • Military & economic unpreparedness; trauma of WW I sapped political will.

Step-by-Step Dismantling of Versailles

• $\text{Oct 1933}$ – Withdrew from Geneva Disarmament Conference & League of Nations.

• $\text{Jan 1934}$ – Non-aggression pact with Poland (tactical; flanks covered).

• $\text{Jan 1935}$ – Saar plebiscite: $90\%$ vote to rejoin Reich.

• $\text{Mar 1935}$ –

  • Public unveiling of Luftwaffe.

  • Re-introduction of conscription; army target jumps from $100{,}000$ to >500{,}000.

• $\text{Jun 1935}$ – Anglo-German Naval Agreement (allowed Kriegsmarine to $\approx 35\%$ of Royal Navy tonnage).

• $\text{Mar 1936}$ – Remilitarization of the Rhineland (≈$3{,}000$ troops).

  • Popular triumph at home; no Allied response.

Axis Collaboration & Spanish Civil War (1936-39)

• Germany & Italy aid Franco’s Nationalists; Germany sends $\approx 11{,}000$ personnel plus Condor Legion aircraft.

• Bombing of Guernica (April 1937): $\sim 100{,}000$ lbs of explosives; Picasso immortalizes atrocity.

• Field test for new weapons/tactics (dive-bombing, coordination of armor & air).

Anschluss with Austria (Mar 1938)

• Feb 1938: Chancellor Schuschnigg coerced at Berchtesgaden.

• Attempted plebiscite on Austrian independence triggers Nazi takeover.

• German troops enter on “friendly visit”; mass public acclaim.

• Consequences:

  • $\approx 175{,}000$ Austrian Jews absorbed; massive surge in violence & “Aryanization.”

  • By Aug 1938: $30{,}000$ of $33{,}000$ Jewish firms closed; $44{,}000$ of $70{,}000$ flats seized.

Sudeten Crisis & Munich Agreement (Sep 1938)

• Hitler agitates for incorporation of German-speaking border regions of Czechoslovakia.

• Munich Conference (Britain, France, Italy, Germany—no Czechs present).

  • Chamberlain’s “peace in our time”; Sudetenland ceded.

• Oct 1 1938: Wehrmacht occupies Sudetenland.

• Mar 1939: Full dismantling—Wehrmacht marches into Prague; Reich Protectorate of Bohemia & Moravia established.

• Britain & France finally guarantee Polish independence—appeasement ends.

Hitler’s Reichstag Speech (Jan 30 1939)

• Blames “international financial Jewry” for fomenting war yet refusing to accept Jewish refugees.

• Positions Germany as past victim (inflation, colonial losses) now “hardened.”

• Prophetic threat: If Jews cause another world war, result will be “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”

  • Early public articulation of genocidal intent—linking war’s outbreak to planned extermination.

Preconditions for War by Mid-1939

• Military: Hitler judged Wehrmacht at peak qualitative edge over foes.

• Economic: Autarky strained; further growth required conquest of resources/markets.

• Strategic sequencing: Must neutralize Western powers before turning on USSR.

Nazi-Soviet Pact (Aug 23 1939)

• Public clause: mutual non-aggression.

• Secret protocol: partition of Poland; Soviet claims to Baltic states, Bessarabia.

• Nazi motives:

  • Avoid two-front war; secure raw materials from USSR.

  • Free hand vs. Poland/West—temporary expedient (Hitler never intended permanence).

• Soviet motives (Stalin):

  • Distrust of Britain/France after years of rejection; desire strategic buffer.

  • Buy time for Red Army after purges; anticipate capitalist powers exhausting each other.

  • Immediate territorial & economic gains.

Ethical, Philosophical & Real-World Implications

• Demonstrates how extremist ideology can weaponize legitimate grievances (Versailles, economic hardship) to mobilize mass support for aggressive war & genocide.

• Illustrates failure of international institutions (League of Nations) and moral compromises (appeasement) in deterring expansionist dictatorships.

• Poses enduring questions about when & how democracies should intervene to stop human-rights catastrophes.

Forward Connections (Preview of Next Lecture Sections)

• 1939 invasion of Poland: Blitzkrieg, racial occupation policies, Einsatzgruppen actions.

• Domestic radicalization: T-4 euthanasia program runs parallel to military campaigns.

• 1940-41: Expansion into Western Europe; establishment of ghettos; Operation Barbarossa; mobile killing squads.