ABSTRACT

The German attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 had a major impact on the New Order discourse. The German distinction between a Jewish-Bolshevist ruling class and the population it oppressed did not translate into a mission to liberate the rest of the local population. In the volkisch interpretive frame, the Slavic population counted as inferior, and in the economic interpretive frame it stood in the way of meeting the needs of the German Volk. The war and its necessities inspired and legitimised different imaginations of Europe. Anti-Communist creeds mixed with anti-Semitism, expectations of foodstuffs and raw material supplies, the sense of racial superiority, dreams of additional Lebensraum, and plans for future settlement areas for the German ‘Volk ohne Raum’ took up considerably more room than before. In the eyes of many National Socialists, the Jewish population in the newly occupied Eastern territories was the most pressing problem.