ABSTRACT

The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 marked the beginning of what would become the bloodiest and most destructive war in human history. More so than any other conflict, the Second World War unfolded on a truly global scale, involving major campaigns in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Adolf Hitler desired Lebensraum, or living space, for Germany, by which he meant that Germans should pursue a program of massive territorial expansion in the East. Vast areas of Poland and the Soviet Union ought to belong to Germany, according to Hitler. A more serious obstacle to the conquest of Lebensraum was the Allies that had opposed Germany in the First World War, especially Britain, France, and Italy. The United States was now firmly isolationist. In addition, since Hitler sometimes claimed in public to have designs only on territory that was populated by ethnic Germans, to many Europeans it seemed that he was simply a German nationalist whose goals were limited.