Norman Rich

Hitler's War Aims

"A remarkable work of serious scholarship, systematic in the best sense. . . . [Norman Rich] examines the structure and purpose, in relation to policy, of the whole Nazi system of power." —H. R. Trevor-Roper

Hitler's conquests—first diplomatic, ultimately military—took Germany farther beyond its boundaries in World War II than even its fanatical leader had contemplated. In this volume Norman Rich shows how Hitler's policies followed his blueprint of expansion, outlined in Mein Kampf and based mainly on racial ideology, until political and military necessities, real and imagined, drove him to war against nations that played no part in his ideological program.

After an introduction that places Hitler and the Nazi regime in the perspective of German history, Rich relates Hitler's actual theories to the rise of the Nazi state and the development of a system of men and institutions dedicated to carrying out the Fuhrer's orders. This system was to provide the machinery of expansion that becomes the focus of this study, as the spread of the Nazis is traced in detail from the annexation of Austria to Hitler's attack on Russia and the declaration of war against the United States.

"Dealing with the military phase of Hitler's expansion, Rich tells an absorbing story of Germany's relentless drive in every direction and provides a vivid account of the relations between Hitler and his newly acquired subjects and satellites." —Hans W. Gatzke, Political Science Quarterly