From the beginning, the National Socialist movement
claimed that its object was to unite the German People in the
consciousness of their mission and destiny, based on inherent
qualities of race, and under the guidance of the Führer.
For its achievement, two things were deemed to be essential: the
disruption of the European order as it had existed since the Treaty
of Versailles, and the creation of a Greater Germany beyond the
frontiers of 1914. This necessarily involved the seizure of foreign
territories.
War was seen to be inevitable, or at the very least, highly
probable, if these purposes were to be accomplished. The German
People, therefore, with all their resources, were to be organized as
a great political-military army, schooled to obey without question
any policy decreed by the State.
Preparation for Aggression
In Mein Kampf Hitler had made this view
quite plain. It must be remembered that Mein Kampf was no mere
private diary in which the secret thoughts of Hitler were set down.
Its contents were rather proclaimed from the house-tops. It was used
in the schools and Universities and among the Hitler Youth, in the SS
and the SA, and among the German People generally, even down to the
presentation of an official copy to all newly-married people. By the
year 1945 over 6 1/2 million copies had been circulated. The general
contents are well known. Over and over again Hitler asserted his
belief in the necessity of force as the means of solving
international problems, as in the following quotation:
"The soil on which we now live was
not a gift bestowed by Heaven on our forefathers. They had to conquer
it by risking their lives. So also in the future, our people will not
obtain territory, and therewith the means of existence, as a favor
from any other people, but will have to win it by the power of a
triumphant sword."
Mein Kampf contains many such passages, and
the extolling of force as an instrument of foreign policy is openly
proclaimed.
The precise objectives of this policy of force
are also set forth in detail. The very first page of the book asserts
that "German-Austria must be restored to the great German
Motherland," not on economic grounds, but because "people
of the same blood should be in the same Reich."
The restoration of the German frontiers of 1914 is declared to be
wholly insufficient, and if Germany is to exist at all, it must be as
a world power with the necessary territorial magnitude.
Mein Kampf is quite explicit in stating where the
increased territory is to be found: