Adolf Hitler's Speech To His Commanders In Chief

The Weimar Republic rose from the ashes and ruins of World War I much smaller than the Hohenzollern Reich that had entered it. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles allotted Poland formerly German West Prussia, and the League of Nations jurisdiction over the shipping port of Danzig, due to disputes between Germany and Poland. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler rose to power in the 1930s with grand plans of creating an empire for the Aryan race that would grant racial and spatial security (Lebensraum). This was brought about by taking advantage of self-determination to annex ethnically German lands such as Austria, Sudetenland, and West Prussia (the Danzig Corridor). These annexations went unopposed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who instituted

Some of the statements that Hitler makes throughout the speech, such as "no one knows how much longer I shall live. Therefore, better a conflict now" and "an attempt on my life or [Benito] Mussolini's could change the situation to our disadvantage" demonstrate that Hitler had tremendous confidence in himself and Italy's Duce in securing the fate of their countries against potential British, French, and Soviet adversaries, and believed that only he and Mussolini were capable. The document also shows that Hitler portrayed the situation as one in which Germany faced impending danger, whether real or not, to draw support for his military conquests. In a few years, Hitler's confidence would bring the Third Reich above its carrying capacity; following in Napoleon's footsteps, the failed Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in 1941 would turn it into an ally of Britain and France, and the United States would join the war effort for the Allies that same year. In May 1945, Hitler was found dead in a bunker in Berlin with a self-inflicted bullet wound, and the Third Reich surrendered to the formerly friendly Red Army on German