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Nuremberg – An End to Impunity

 

The country needed a leader to rally behind and promise to "restore" Germany to the previous power before the war. Hitler capitalized on this and using his eloquent speech promised exactly this to the German people. .
             Once in power Hitler quickly began to restore the economy and the military in order to strengthen and legitimize his power. Although strict sanctions had been put in place, Hitler was able to easily circumvent these by creating arms and munitions that were meant for "police" or a "small standing army". During this time from 1933-1938 Germany poured massive amounts of money into the industrial war preparation economy. To illustrate this the military expenditures for Germany in 1932 were a mere 1% of the nation's GNP. This changed in 1933 with a tripling of these expenditures to 3%, and by 1939 they would reach a staggering 23% of Germany's GNP. (Carroll, 1966, 114) It was clear to see that Germany was ramping up military production to massive scales, but despite the sanctions put in place by the victorious allied powers of WWI, nothing was done to intervene or heed these productive forces. .
             By the end of 1938 Hitler had produced more than enough munitions and had a sufficient standing army to begin his military campaign. Just before the invasion of Poland Hitler secretly met with Joseph Stalin to secure what is now known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact. "Signed 23 August 1939, Hitler and Stalin agreed to Poland's partition and dissolution." (Hastings, 2011, 4).
             With this newly secured pact signed with the Soviets, promising nonintervention upon a Polish invasion Hitler did just this. In the early morning hours of September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany, under the command of Adolf Hitler, would invade Poland and spark the largest conflict in modern history. The invasion of Poland would be what Hitler would refer to as expanding the German empire and providing what he called "Lebensraum".


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