Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression As early as 1923 Hitler outlined this theory in some detail
in Mein Kampf, where he stated? at page 641 of the Houghton
Mifflin English edition:
"There are two reasons which induce me to submit to a
special examination the relation of Germany to Russia:
"1. Here perhaps we are dealing with the most decisive
concern of all German foreign affairs; and
"2. This question is also the touchstone for the
political capacity of the young National Socialist
movement to think clearly and to act correctly."
Again, at page 654 of the same edition:
"And so we National Socialists consciously draw a line
beneath the foreign policy tendency of our pre-war
period. We take up where we broke off six hundred years
ago. We stop the endless German movement to the south
and west, and turn our gaze toward the land in the
east. At long last we break off the colonial and
commercial policy of the pre-war period and shift to
the soil policy of the future.
"If we speak of soil in Europe today, we can primarily
have in mind only Russia and her vassal border states."
The political portion of this dichotomy of purpose is
clearly reflected in the stated purposes, previously
discussed, of the organization which Rosenberg set up to
administer the occupied Eastern Territories. In a speech
which Rosenberg delivered, two days before the attack, to
the people most interested in the problem of the East, he
restated in his usual somewhat mystic fashion the political
basis for the campaign and its interrelationship with
[Page 831]
the economic goal (1058-PS). A short extract from that
speech reads as follows:
"The job of feeding the German people stands, this
year, without a doubt, at the top of the list of
Germany's claims on the East; and here the southern
territories and the northern Caucasus will have to
serve as a balance for the feeding of the German
people. We see absolutely no reason for any obligation
on our part to feed also the Russian people with the
products of that surplus territory. We know that this
is a harsh necessity, bare of any feelings. A very
extensive evacuation will be necessary, without any
doubt, and it is sure that the future will hold very
hard years in store for the Russians. A later decision
will have to determine to which extent industries can
still be maintained there (Wagon Factories, etc.). The
consideration and execution of this policy in the
Russian area proper is for the German Reich and its
future a tremendous and by no means negative task, as
might appear, if one takes only the harsh necessity of
the evacuation into consideration.
"The conversion of
Russian dynamics towards the East is a task which
requires the strongest characters. Perhaps, this
decision will also be approved by a coming Russia
later, not in 30 but maybe in a 100 years. For the
Russian soul has been torn in the struggle of the last
200 years. The original Russians are excellent artistic
craftsmen, dancers and musicians. They have certain
hereditary talents, but these talents are different
from these of the Western people. The fight between
Turgenjew and Dostejewsky was symbolic for the nation.
The Russian soul found no outlet, either way. If we now
close the West to the Russians, they might become
conscious of their own inborn, proper forces and of the
area to which they belong. An historian will maybe see
this decision in a different light, in hundreds of
years than it might appear to a Russian today." (1058-PS)
As has been indicated, the failure of the Nazi conspirators
to defeat Britain had served further to strengthen them in
their belief in the political necessity of eliminating the
Soviet Union as a European factor before Germany could
completely achieve her role as the master of Europe.
The economic motive for the aggression was disclosed in the
previous discussion of the organization set up under Goering
and General Thomas to carry out the economic exploitation of
the territory to be occupied. The purely materialistic basis
for the attack was unmistakable. If any doubt existed that
at least one of
[Page 833]
the main purposes of the invasion was to steal the food and
raw material needed for the Nazi war machine, regardless of
the consequences to the Russian people which such robbery
would entail, that doubt is dispelled by a memorandum
showing clear and conscious recognition by the Nazis that
their plans would no doubt result in starving to death
millions of people. (2718-PS) On 20 June 1941 General Thomas
wrote a memorandum along a similar line, in which he stated
that Keitel had confirmed to him Hitler's present conception
of the German economic- policy concerning raw materials
(1456-PS). This policy expressed the theory that less
manpower would be used in the conquest of sources of raw
materials than would be necessary to produce synthetics in
lieu of such raw materials. This memorandum reads, in part:
"The following is the new conception of the Fuehrer,
which Minister Todt has explained to me and which has
been confirmed later on by Field Marshal Keitel:
"1. The course of the war shows that we went too far in
our autarchical endeavors. It is impossible to try and
manufacture everything we lack, by synthetic
procedures, or other measures. For instance, it is
impossible to develop our motor fuel economy to a point
where we can entirely depend on it. All these
autarchical endeavors ask for a tremendous amount of
manpower, and it is simply impossible to provide it.
One has to choose another way. What one does not have,
but needs, one must conquer. The commitment of men
which is necessary one single time, will not be as
great as the one that is currently needed for the
running of the synthetic factories in question. The aim
must also be to secure all territories, which are of
special interest to us for the war economy, by
conquering them.
"At the time the 4-year-plan was established, I issued
the statement where I made it clear that a completely
autarchical economy is impossible for us, because the
need of men will be too great. Nevertheless, my
solution was always to provide the necessary reserves
for missing stocks respectively to secure the delivery
in wartime through economic alliances." (1456-PS)
On this macabre note the story of this aggression comes to
an end. In view of the solemn pledge of non-aggression; the
base and sinister motives involved; the months of secret
planning and preparation; and the suffering intentionally
and deliberately wrought; it may perhaps not be too much to
say that in the history of relations between sovereign
nations, a blacker chap-
[Page 834]
ter has never been written than the one which tells of the
Nazi conspirators' unprovoked invasion of the territory of
the Soviet Union.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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Volume
I Chapter IX
Aggression Against the U.S.S.R.
(Part 15 of 16)