Give two examples to show that Hitler followed an imperialist policy and committed
acts of aggression.
Answers
Execution of Jews and invasion in Poland are the two examples of imperialist policy and committed acts of aggression.
Answer: Between 1935 and 1939, Nazi Germany began taking aggressive steps toward rebuilding the German military and expanding the Third Reich across Europe. At the same time, Nazi hostility toward Jews within the Reich intensified, culminating in the 1938 pogroms known as Kristallnacht. This chapter explores the open aggression of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s toward both neighboring countries and individuals within its borders, as well as the dilemmas faced by leaders around the world in response.
Explanation:
Introduction:
Adolf Hitler maintained that the German Volk (a national or ethnic group defined by its supposed race) was destined to control Eastern Europe. He saw parts of Eastern Europe as the German people’s rightful Lebensraum ("living space"). Roundup of the Jews of Lubny, shortly before they were massacred by Einsatzgruppe detachments. [LCID: 83575]
Roundup of the Jews of Lubny, shortly before they were massacred by Einsatzgruppe detachments. This photo, originally in color, was part of a series taken by a German military photographer. Copies from this collection were later used as evidence in war crimes trials. Lubny, Soviet Union, October 16, 1941.
Hitler’s goal was not only to conquer Eastern Europe. He also sought to replace most of its “inferior” indigenous population with Germans and those considered to have “Germanic blood.” Nazi racist imperialism led Germany to pursue very different occupation policies in Eastern Europe than in Western and Southern Europe.
Nazi plans for the East were both imperialist and colonialist. The Nazis directly incorporated some territories, primarily in Poland, into the Reich. They administered and exploited others as colonies. This called for the settlement of “racially acceptable” Germans in conquered territories and the expulsion or murder of “indigenous peoples.”
The Nazi vision of Lebensraum rested on long-held, false historical view of a Germanic East. The Nazis radicalized this view with a racist and imperialist ideology that saw mass murder and ethnic cleansing as legitimate means to an end. While it never achieved its ultimate goal, this ideology inspired policies that caused the death of millions of people from starvation, disease, and outright murder.