Date of Award
1960
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
First Advisor
Elizabeth Cochran
Keywords
Germany -- Foreign Relations -- 1933-1945, National Socialism -- Germany, Race Discrimination -- Germany
Abstract
This study is an outgrowth of an interest first cultivated when the author spent some fourteen months in Germany in the U. S . Armed Forces. It is, for the most part, the satisfaction of a question aroused by numerous contacts with the German people who seem to be among the most gentle and cultivated peoples on the face of the earth. The question is: How could a cultivated and educated German populace subscribe to the racist theory of a militant and warped minority? This paper has been an outgrowth of this question in that it has attempted to answer it by stressing how the racial factor was a guiding star in German political institutions for many years and how it finally reached fruition in National Socialism; in particular, in their foreign policy.
The nature of this topic has necessitated a historical perspective of rather wide scope reaching back into the very foundations of Western civilization. Proceeding from this developmental stage, it covers the racism of the nineteenth century. The body of the paper is concerned with racial factors as they reached their ultimate development in National Socialism.
Fortunately, documentary evidence was in abundance for this particular subject. The most important of these were: Louis L. Snyder's Documents of German History, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, The trial of the Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, and Documents of Germany Under Occupation, 1945-1954.
A secondary work that has been of considerable aid is: Hitler's Ten Year War on the Jews, published by the Institute of Jewish Affairs. Two works have been greatly helpful in providing an insight into the workings of the German ideology. These are Hans Kohn's two books: The Mind of Germany and The Idea of Nationalism. Especially is the former valuable for it is a new work (published in 1960) which clarifies the traditional ideological separation of Germany from the rest of Western civilization as a factor which was instrumental in bringing on both World War I and World War II. Another work that was helpful in pointing out the importance of the school of Geopolitik for German expansionism was Andreas Dorpalen's The World of General Haushofer.
Therefore, not only documentary evidence was in abundance for this particular subject but secondary works are in good supply too. It is fortunate for those interested in German history that so much has been written and so many documents have been collected that pertain to some aspect of Germanic civilization.
Recommended Citation
Mitchell, Otis C. Jr, "Racial Factors in National Socialist Foreign Policy" (1960). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 502.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/502
Comments
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