Nazi Foreign Policy Summary

Christian Leitz’s Nazi Foreign Policy, 1933-1941: The Road to Global War thoroughly examines Nazi Germany’s interaction with major countries between 1933-1941. Leitz focuses specifically on major countries and regions. These areas include: Italy, France, Britain, Poland, Soviet Union, American hemisphere, Southeast Europe, and East Asia. Leitz does this my dividing the book into seven chapters, each one devoted to a particular area. This allows for an analysis of Nazi Germany’s international relationships and foreign policy and how how this lead to the eventual development of war and the Holocaust (pg. 8).
This book not only focuses on the Nazi regime as a whole but directly approached Hitler’s decisions and actions during this time. Hitler …show more content…
The chapter heavily focused on relationship of Nazi German and the Soviet Union. This chapter is a great example of how Hitler’s personal ideologies played a major role in the Nazi Germany foreign policy. One of the biggest enemies of the Nazis was communism. Communists throughout Germany suffered the brutal consequences of the Nazis hostility towards them (pg. 78). Hitler’s distain for communism was felt by the Soviet Union as well. However, this did not stop them from forming a relationship. Once again, Lietz describes a very unique relationship between Nazi Germany and another country. The economic relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union was very important. Similar to the relationship between German and Spain, the Nazi government had a political agenda that which caused them to work towards a relationship with this country. The Nazis wanted to continue to expand. If they were to expand into the Soviet Union, the Germans would receive more people and more resources. The relationship between these two countries had became almost exclusively confined to the economic arena (pg. 81). The German and Soviet Union relationship was very shaky, but still existed. In his interaction with the Soviet Union, Hitler once again does not complete disclose his true intentions. Lietz references Hitler’s alternative motives in regards to his negotiations with the Soviet Union. “To Hitler the August 1939 Pact with Stalin was a necessary and useful deviation from his main goal (pg. 87).” Germany and the Soviet Union had negotiated official economic agreement, but Hitler still held on to his original Anti-communist perception of the Soviet Union. The Germans would have a hard time upholding their part of their economic relationship with the Soviet Union. Also, it was only a matter of time before Hitler reestablished his original plan to attain part of Soviet