Hitler's Foreign Policy

It is 5 November 1937. In the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Hitler calls a secret meeting of his top military commanders and foreign minister. His aide, Colonel Friedrich Hossbach, takes notes. What Hitler reveals over four hours will not become public until after the war — but it changes everything historians know about his intentions. Hitler is not reacting to events. He has a plan. He tells his generals that Germany must achieve Lebensraum — "living space" in the east — by 1943-45 at the latest. Austria and Czechoslovakia must be destroyed first. War is not something to be avoided; it is something to be prepared for. The "Hossbach Memorandum" is the smoking gun: proof that Hitler had a deliberate programme, not just a series of opportunistic reactions. By the time anyone outside that room reads it, 70 million people will have died.