The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

From the mid-1930s to the outbreak of World War II, Hitler repeatedly bamboozled credulous world leaders with his “peace propaganda” (280). All the while, he orchestrated Germany’s rearmament and moved with calculated aggression against neighboring territories.

On March 16, 1935, in direct violation of the Versailles Treaty, Hitler announced that Germany would maintain a peacetime army of nearly 500,000 men. Western officials took no action. On March 7, 1936, Hitler’s forces moved into the Rhineland demilitarized zone and occupied it without resistance from the French. In October and November 1936, Nazi Germany concluded an “Axis” agreement with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and an Anti-Comintern Pact (directed against the Soviet Union) with Imperial Japan. For the most part, 1937 proved to be a quiet year—a year of no more “so-called surprises,” as Hitler told the Reichstag in January (300).

A “decisive turning point in the life of the Third Reich” occurred on the afternoon and evening of November 5, 1937 (305). In the Fuehrer’s office at the Reich Chancellery, at a meeting with six of his top military officials, Hitler conducted a meeting that lasted more than four hours. At this meeting, Hitler announced his intention to expand German territory, by force if necessary, as early as the following year.