"Europe for the Europeans?" Topic

Hitler once told a reporter:

Europe for the Europeans, America for the Americans.

Do you think he actually meant it?

Given that Americans come from every continent on the earth, he was clearly speaking, as was his predilection, nonsense. And racist nonsense, needless to say.

Of course, all humans come from the same original stock & will undoubtedly submerge any minor differences in the future to become more homogenous.

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So how about 'Earth for Humanity' if that isn't being too discriminatory against the wonderful beings from Alpha Centauri.

Of course he meant it. Say what you like about Hitler but he was one serious dude.

Hitler said all sorts of things, and at the time he said them, I'm sure he actually meant some of them.

I suspect in this "Europeans" was a synonym for The Greater German Reich which as 1000 years.

For some Europeans but not other Europeans.

I'm pretty certain he was just stealing his lines from several US politicians in WW1, and WW2 for that matter.

I suspect Glengarry5 has nailed it: Hitler meant Europe for people that he defined as Europeans at any given moment. His contempt for the French meant they probably weren't Europeans in his view. The Italians might be allied to him, but they probably weren't proper Europeans in his view either…

I suspect the "America for Americans" part of the comment would have been subject to similar caveats…

America for Americans goo.gl/images/puYUD9

x42

So how about 'Earth for Humanity'

Nah … I hate those guys. All opposable thumbs and wallowing in their own filth (physically and metaphorically).

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And America is already for the Americans. We convert ~600K-700K every year. That, and a big batch of homemade …

I'd say it's linked to the huge problem of colonialism or rather the fact that it happened in a haphazard way on a first-come, first-served basis.

From the 18th century onwards you'll find a whole series of theories (usually by those who had come later to the game) that the colonial world should be "rationalized" and better divided and they always came up with a disarmingly logical system where they somehow, through some rather odd quirk of their seemingly equitable redistribution, got all the "good" colonies and the others were stuck with the "bad" ones.

Hitler was one of those who felt that Germany should have its own colonial empire. He never aspired to invade and hold places like France or Britain (though he would not undo it if it should happen) but rather grab a huge chunk from the East because he knew that an overseas empire is vulnerable should it lose control over its oceanic trade routes.

He felt that the Americans should keep to meddling with the rest of their continent and seek wealth there rather than get involved in the rest of the world so that there would be no future clashes.

Do I care if "he really meant it"? No.

This is ridiculous.

Now we're discussing the sincerity of the man who signed the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and who swore up and down that the Sudetenland was his last territorial demand in Europe?

Only when someone's words have meaning can you proceed to sincerity.

The German defenders on D-Day apparently believed they were defending Europe (not Germany) from the American plutocrats and the British Masons.

Well, at least they were told that and some of them believed it.

DBDD

Meanwhile, the Germans on the Eastern Front were told that they were defending Europe from the Bolshevik-led Untermenschen, who were actually something less than human.

He meant it.
What he meant was "You don't bother us, we won't bother you."

I have to laugh at those who said Hitler wanted to "conquer the world". That wasn't Nazi ideology, as much as it was communist, at least Trotskyite.

The Americans left Old Europe and colonized the New World to begin with, so it wasn't an unreasonable statement.

An extraordinary leap to connect that statement to colonialism. Agenda, anyone?

I would think that Hitler must have known that even if he conquered Europe, it would be at least a generation before 'Nazi' Europe could take on the conquest of North America. He didn't even have much of a surface navy or a suitable long-range air force.

Meanwhile, his 'lebensraum' seems to have been focused on Asia, not the Americas. But I don't think Hitler was promising to isolate himself to Europe only.

Given that Hitler was the ultimate opportunist, at the time he said it he would have believed it. That was one of the reasons why he was so convincing. It sounds like something he would have said in about 1936? For an opportunist, timing is everything.

But wasn't Hitler also driven by a fixed ideology?

Meanwhile, the Germans on the Eastern Front were told that they were defending Europe from the Bolshevik-led Untermenschen, who were actually something less than human.

Native Americans called themselves 'human beings'. Everyone else they had a name for.
But the OT was European version of the Munroe Doctrine.

"But wasn't Hitler also driven by a fixed ideology?"

And wasn't that the great debate started by AJP Taylor all those years ago? When the dust had settled the conclusion seemed to be – Yes, there were some fixed ideas, like hating Jews, colonising untermensch and the primacy of the herrenvolk – but nothing else was fixed and seemed to be a in a very fluid state. Is that enough to qualify as an ideology? I dunno about that.