The political aims of National Socialism have been written so clearly
in history in the past 10 years that it does not appear necessary to
discuss them at length here.
The detailed program of the Nazi Party consists of the 25 points which
were adopted on February 24, 1920 at a party mass meeting in Munich.
(The 25-point program appears in the Appendix as document 12, _post_
p. 222.) The points of particular interest in this study are the first
four, which are set forth below:
1. We demand the union of all Germans to form a Great
Germany on the basis of the right of the self-determination
enjoyed by nations.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German People in its
dealings with other nations, and abolition of the Peace
Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the
nourishment of our people and for settling our superfluous
population.
4. None but members of the nation may be citizens of the
State. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed,
may be members of the nation. No Jew, therefore, may be a
member of the nation.[94]
_1. Internal Objectives_
A statement of the internal objectives of National Socialism is made
by Gauweiler in his _Legal Organization and Legal Functions of the
Movement_ (document 8, _post_ p. 204). The laws of the Reich must seek
to establish and promote the five basic values recognized by Nazi
ideology:
1. Race: The legal protection of the race, which has created
a new concept of nationality [_Volkszugehörigkeit_], is
consciously put in first place, for the most significant
historical principle which has been established by the
victory of National Socialism is that of the necessity for
keeping race and blood pure. All human mistakes and errors
can be corrected except one: "the error regarding the
importance of maintaining the basic values of a nation."
The purpose of this legal protection of the basic value of
_race_ must be the prevention for all time of a further
mixture of German blood with foreign blood, as well as the
prevention of continued procreation of racially unworthy and
undesirable members of the people.
2. Soil [_Boden_]: The living-space and the basis for the
food supply of the German people are its territory and soil.
The farmer is the first and deepest representative of the
people since he nourishes the people from the fertility of
the earth and he maintains the nation through the fertility
of his own family. Here National Socialism had to accomplish
two great legal ends: the reestablishment and the protection
of the farmer class and the securing of its land for the
farmer family.
3. Work: The nation's work as a basic national value is
grounded on the leading concept of "work of the hands and of
the head" within and for the community of the people and the
elevation of work to the only criterion for the value of an
individual within the community. In place of the idea of
class warfare, National Socialism had to establish the
national community legally; in place of the defamation of
work and its degradation to an object of barter, National
Socialism had to raise it to an ethical duty and the right
to work had to become the most clearly defined personal
right of the individual. The concept of the honor of work
had to be established as the basic concept of the national
honor.
4. The Reich: With the securing of the three basic values of
race, soil, and work arises the National Socialist Reich.
The infusion of foreign cultural and legal influences in
Germany was a consequence of the weakening of the central
authority of the German Reich since the Middle Ages. The
creation and insuring of a strong central authority in
contrast to the disorganized, federalistic system of the
Weimar Republic became one of the principal lines of
National Socialist legal policy. In consequence of the
National Socialist revolution, the Reich took on the legal
form of a totalitarian state and received a supreme and
completely authoritative lawgiver in the person of the
Führer. The principle of a division of power could no longer
maintain itself: The formulation, the interpretation, and
the execution of the law are all performed by the Führer
himself or under his authority.
5. Honor: The fifth great value of the nation is its honor.
The honor of the people, the Reich, the party, the Führer,
and the individual citizen are all regarded as goods to be
protected by law. The basis of national honor is loyalty.
National Socialist criminal law is therefore essentially
organized as a system of punishment for breaches of faith.
Every crime and offense against the community is a breach of
faith which must result in loss of honor.[95]
_2. Foreign Policy_
The close connection between the internal political program of the
National Socialist movement, as expressed in the foregoing paragraphs,
and its foreign policy was indicated by Hitler when he wrote in _Mein
Kampf_ (document 13-I, _post_ p. 226):
As National Socialists we can further set forth the
following principle with regard to the nature of the foreign
policy of a folk-state:
_It is the task of the foreign policy of a folk-state to
secure the existence on this planet of the race which is
encompassed by the state and at the same time to establish a
healthy, viable, natural relation between the number and
growth of the folk on the one hand and the size and quality
of its soil and territory on the other hand._[96]
And in the same work he states:
Yes, we can only learn from the past that we must undertake
the setting of aims for our political activity in two
directions: _Soil and territory as the goal of our foreign
policy, and a new, philosophically firm and uniform
foundation as the goal of our domestic political
activity._[97]
The political objectives of National Socialism, then, by definition of
Hitler himself, are the internal unification of the German people and
external expansion.
While the Nazis have never concealed the first of these objectives,
the second was the subject for a great deal of dissimulation up to the
outbreak of the present war. Typical of the false front which the
Nazis presented to the outside world with reference to their foreign
policy objectives are the statements made by Dr. Scurla in _Basic
Principles of National Socialism With Special Reference to Foreign
Countries_. Dr. Scurla quotes Hitler's speech of May 17, 1933 in which
he said, "We see the European nations around us as given facts.
French, Poles, etc., are our neighbor peoples, and we know that no
conceivable historic occurrence could change this reality,"[98] and
comments:
This folk principle, which has grown out of the National
Socialist ideology, implies the recognition of the
independence and the equal rights of each people. We do not
see how anyone can discern in this a "pan-Germanic" and
imperialistic threat against our neighbors. This principle
does not admit the difference between "great powers" and
"minor states," between majority peoples and minorities. It
means at the same time a clear rejection of any imperialism
which aims at the subjugation of foreign peoples or the
denationalization of alien populations. It demands the
unqualified acknowledgment of the right to live of every
folk, and of every folk-group, which is forced to live as a
foreign group in another state. The western European
national state together with its parliamentary democracy was
not able to do justice to the natural and living entities,
the peoples, in their struggle for existence.[99]
Farther on in the same work Scurla states:
Out of its fundamental ideologic view, however, Germany
rejects every form of imperialism, even that of peaceful
penetration. It is unable to concede to any people the
authority to develop ideas and ways of living, to which then
another people has to subordinate itself, even if some other
order is suited to its essential nature ... It does not at
all, however, consider the German order obligatory for other
peoples. National Socialism, as has been said a hundred
times, is exclusively the sum total of the German
world-view.[100]
Similar assurances by Nazi leaders were frequently made in order to
induce a sense of security in neighboring countries. Hitler, for
example, in a proclamation opening the party congress at Nuremberg on
September 11, 1935 said:
National Socialism has no aggressive intentions against any
European nation. On the contrary, we are convinced that the
nations of Europe must continue their characteristic
national existence, as created by tradition, history and
economy; if not, Europe as a whole will be destroyed.[101]
But such assurances, which were intended exclusively for foreign
consumption, were refuted by the basic policy laid down in _Mein
Kampf_, which has been persistently pursued throughout the 10 years of
the Nazi regime and has been realized to the extent that Germany now
dominates and is in control of most of the European continent. In
_Mein Kampf_ (document 13-I, _post_ p. 226) Hitler wrote:
_Our task, the mission of the National Socialist movement,
however, is to lead our folk to such political insight that
it will see its future goal fulfilled not in the
intoxicating impression of a new Alexandrian campaign but
rather in the industrious work of the German plow, which
waits only to be given land by the sword._[102]
Hitler suggests a future foreign policy for Germany which would assure
_Lebensraum_ and domination of the European continent. In _Mein Kampf_
he states:
But the political testament of the German nation for its
outwardly directed activity should and must always have the
following import:
_Never tolerate the establishment of two continental powers
in Europe. See an attack against Germany in every attempt to
organize a second military power on the German borders, even
if it is only in the form of the establishment of a state
which is a potential military power, and see therein not
only the right but also the duty to prevent the formation of
such a state with all means, even to the use of force, or if
it has already been established, to destroy it again. See to
it that the strength of our folk has its foundations not in
colonies but in the soil of the European homeland. Never
regard the foundations of the Reich as secure, if it is not
able to give every off-shoot of our folk its own bit of soil
and territory for centuries to come. Never forget that the
most sacred right in the world is the right to the soil
which a man wishes to till himself, and the most sacred
sacrifice is the blood which he spills for this soil_.[103]
It is impossible to adduce from the writings of Hitler, or other Nazi
leaders direct statements indicating that they aspire to the
domination of the entire world. Such expressions, however, may be
inferred not only from the direction of German foreign policy and the
effusions of the geopoliticians but also from the following statement
made by Hitler in _Mein Kampf_ (document 13-I, _post_ p. 226):
... If the German folk, in its historical development, had
possessed that herdlike unity which other peoples have
enjoyed, the German Reich would today be mistress of the
globe. World history would have taken another course, and no
one can tell whether in this way that might not have been
attained which so many deluded pacifists are hoping today to
wheedle by moaning and whining: a peace supported not by the
palm branches of tearful pacifistic female mourners but
founded by the victorious sword of a master race
[_Herrenvolk_] which places the world in the service of a
higher culture.[104]
Like Hitler, Rosenberg envisaged the extension of Nazi power far
beyond the borders of Germany. In his _Nature, Principles, and Aims of
the NSDAP_ he stated, "But National Socialism also believes that, far
beyond Germany's borders, its principles and its ideology ... will
lead the way in the unavoidable struggles for power in the other
countries of Europe and America."[105]