Editing Lebensraum (section)

===Classification under the laws in the annexed territories===
The [[Volksliste#Himmler's solution|Deutsche Volksliste]] was split into four categories.<ref name="overy" /> Men in the first two categories were required to enlist for compulsory military service.<ref name="overy" /> Membership in the {{lang|de|[[Schutzstaffel]]}} (SS) was reserved for men from Category I only:
{| class = "wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+German People's List (''Deutsche Volksliste'')
! scope="col" | Classification&nbsp;<ref name="overy" />
! scope="col" | Translation
! scope="col" | Heritage
! scope="col" | Definition
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|de|Volksdeutsche}}
| Ethnically German
| German
| Persons of German descent who had engaged themselves in favour of the Reich before 1939
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|de|Deutschstämmige}}
| German descent
| German
| Persons of German descent who had remained passive
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|de|Eingedeutschte}}
| {{nowrap|Voluntarily Germanised}}
| Part-German
| Indigenous persons considered by the Nazis as partly Polonized (mainly [[Silesians]] and [[Kashubians]]); refusal to join this list often led to deportation to a concentration camp
|-
! scope="row" | {{lang|de|Rückgedeutschte}}
| Forcibly Germanised
| Part-German
| Persons of Polish nationality considered "racially valuable", but who resisted Germanisation
|}

Hitler, who was born in the ethnically diverse [[Austrian-Hungarian Empire]], avowed in {{lang|de|Mein Kampf}} (1926) that Germanising Austrian Slavs by language during the [[partitions of Poland|Age of Partitions]] could not have turned them into fully fledged Germans, because no "Negro" nor a "Chinaman" would ever "become German" just because he has learned to speak German. He believed that no visible differences between peoples could be bridged by the use of a common language. Any such attempts would lead to the "bastardization" of the German element, he said.<ref name="Hitler-801–803">{{harvp|Hitler|1939|pp=801–803}}</ref> Likewise, Hitler criticized the previous attempts at Germanisation of the Poles in the [[Prussian Partition]] as an erroneous idea, based on the same false reasoning. The Polish people could not possibly be Germanised by being compelled to speak German because they belonged to a different race, he said; "the result would have been fatal" for the purity of the German nation because the foreigners would "compromise" by their inferiority "the dignity and nobility" of the German nation.<ref name="Hitler-801–803" /> During the war, Hitler remarked in his "[[Hitler's Table Talk|Table Talk]]" that people should only be Germanised if they were to improve the German blood line:

[[File:Die 'großzügigste Umsiedlungsaktion' with Poland superimposed, 1939.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|[[Nazi Germany]] in 1940 (dark grey) after the [[Invasion of Poland|conquest of Poland]] together [[Soviet invasion of Poland|with the USSR]], showing pockets of German colonists resettled into the [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|annexed territories of Poland]] from the Soviet "sphere of influence" during the {{lang|de|[[Heim ins Reich]]}} action. A red outline of pre-war Poland is superimposed here over the original Nazi propaganda poster; the original German print made no mention of Poland.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lynn H. Nicholas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PeUKT6d9khIC |title=Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |year=2011 |isbn=978-0307793829 |page=194 |author-link=Lynn H. Nicholas |via=Google Books}}</ref>]]

{{Blockquote|There is one cardinal principle. This question of the Germanisation of certain peoples must not be examined in the light of abstract ideas and theory. We must examine each particular case. The only problem is to make sure whether the offspring of any race will mingle well with the German population and will improve it, or whether, on the contrary (as is the case when Jew blood is mixed with German blood), negative results will arise. Unless one is completely convinced that the foreigners whom one proposes to introduce into the German community will have a beneficial effect, well, I think it's better to abstain, however strong the sentimental reasons may be which urge such a course on us. There are plenty of Jews with blue eyes and blond hair, and not a few of them have the appearance which strikingly supports the idea of the Germanisation of their kind. It has, however, been indisputably established that, in the case of Jews, if the physical characteristics of the race are sometimes absent for a generation or two, they will inevitably reappear in the next generation.<ref>Hitler's Table Talk, p. 475</ref>}}
[[File:P_20221107_205156_vHDR_Auto_(1).jpg|thumb|Borders of [[Greater Germanic Reich]] envisaged in the [[Nazi Propaganda|Nazi-era propaganda]] map "''Das Grossdeutschland in der Zukunft''" (1943). The map depicts occupied Eastern Europe as a [[Settler colonialism|settler-colonial]] territory of Nazi Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kartenskizze eines zukünftigen Europa unter deutscher Herrschaft |trans-title=Sketch map of a future Europe under German rule |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/d2a24325 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170614003327/https://www.dhm.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/d2a24325 |archive-date=14 June 2017 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum}}</ref>]]
Informed by the [[blood and soil]] beliefs of ethnic identity—a philosophic basis of {{lang|de|Lebensraum}}—Nazi policy required destroying the [[USSR]] for the lands of Russia to become the [[granary]] of Germany. The Germanisation of Russia required the destruction of its cities, in an effort to vanquish [[Russianness]], [[Communism]], and [[Jewish Bolshevism]].<ref>[[Karel C. Berkhoff]], ''Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule'' pp. 35–36 {{ISBN|0-674-01313-1}}</ref> To that effect, Hitler ordered the [[Siege of Leningrad]] (September 1941 – January 1944), to raze the city and destroy the native Russian population.<ref>[[Edwin P. Hoyt]], ''Hitler's War'' p. 187 {{ISBN|0-07-030622-2}}</ref> Geopolitically, the establishment of German {{lang|de|Lebensraum}} in the east of Europe would thwart [[blockade]]s, like those that occurred during the First World War, which starved the people of Germany.<ref>Richard Bessel, ''Nazism and War'', p. 60 {{ISBN|0-679-64094-0}}</ref> Moreover, using Eastern Europe to feed Germany also was intended to exterminate millions of Slavs, by slave labour and starvation.<ref name="harvest45" /> When deprived of producers, a workforce, and customers, native industry would cease and disappear from the Germanised region, which then became agricultural land for settlers from Nazi Germany.<ref name="harvest45">Karel C. Berkhoff, ''Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule'' p. 45 {{ISBN|0-674-01313-1}}</ref>

The Germanised lands of Eastern Europe would be settled by the {{lang|de|[[Wehrbauer]]}}, a soldier–peasant who was to maintain a fortified line of defence, which would prevent any non–German civilisation from arising to threaten the [[Greater Germanic Reich]].<ref>Robert Cecil, ''The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology'' p. 190 {{ISBN|0-396-06577-5}}</ref> At a conference in 1941, Hitler stated:

{{Blockquote|text="There is only one task: Germanization through the introduction of Germans [to the area] and to treat the original inhabitants like [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]]. … I intend to stay this course with ice-cold determination. I feel myself to be the executor of the will of history. What people think of me at present is all of no consequence. Never have I heard a German who has bread to eat express concern that the ground where the grain was grown had to be conquered by the sword. We eat Canadian wheat and never think of the Indians."<ref>Minutes of Hitler Conference, 17 October 1941 reproduced in Czesław Madajczyk, ed., Generalny Plan Wschodni: Zbiór dokumentów (Warszawa: Glówna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce, 1990)</ref>}}

Plans for the Germanisation of western Europe were less severe, as the Nazis needed the [[collaborationism|collaboration]] of the local political and business establishments, especially that of local industry and their skilled workers. Moreover, Nazi racial policies considered the populations of western Europe more racially acceptable to Aryan standards of racial purity. In practice, the number and assortment of [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany#Germanization between 1939 and 1945|Nazi racial categories]] indicated that "East is bad and West is acceptable"; thus, a person's "race" was a matter of life or death in countries under [[Nazi occupation]].<ref>Lynn H. Nicholas, ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'' p. 263 {{ISBN|0-679-77663-X}}</ref>

The racist ideology of {{lang|de|Lebensraum}} also comprised the [[North German]] racial stock of the northern-European peoples of [[Scandinavia]] (Denmark, Norway, Sweden); and the continental-European peoples of Alsace and Lorraine, Belgium and northern France;{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} whilst the United Kingdom would either be annexed or be made a [[puppet state]].<ref name="Gerhard-2005">[[Gerhard L. Weinberg]], ''Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders'' p. 11 {{ISBN|0-521-85254-4}}</ref> Moreover, the poor military performance of the Italian armed forces forced [[Fascist Italian|Fascist Italy]]'s withdrawal from the war in 1943, which then made northern Italy a territory to be [[annexation|annexed]] to the Greater Germanic Reich.<ref name="Gerhard-2005" />

;Collaborationism
[[File:Vlassof.Himmler.jpg|thumb|right|Himmler and the Soviet defector general [[Andrey Vlasov]], the leader of the Russian collaborationist movement]]

For political expediency, the Nazis continually modified their racist politics towards non–Germanic peoples—and so continually redefined the ideological meaning of {{lang|de|Lebensraum}}—in order to collaborate with other peoples, in service of the Reich's foreign policy. Early in his career as leader of the Nazis, Adolf Hitler said he would accept friendly relations with the USSR, on condition that the Soviet government re-establish the disadvantageous borders of European Russia, which were demarcated in the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Russia–Central Powers)|Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] (1918). This made possible the restoration of Russo–German diplomatic relations.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31">Peter D. Stachura. ''The Shaping of the Nazi State''. p. 31.</ref>

In 1921–22, Hitler said that German {{lang|de|Lebensraum}} might be achieved with a smaller USSR, created by sponsoring anti-communist Russians in deposing the Communist government of the [[Bolshevism|Bolsheviks]]; however, by the end of 1922, Hitler changed his opinion when there arose the possibility of an Anglo–German geopolitical alliance to destroy the USSR.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31" /> However, following the invasion of the USSR in [[Operation Barbarossa]] (1941), the strategic stance of the Nazi régime towards a smaller, independent Russia was affected by political pressure from the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]], who asked Hitler to endorse the creation of the anti–Communist [[Russian Liberation Army]] (ROA) and its integration into the [[Wehrmacht]] operations in Russia. The ROA was an organization of [[defectors]], led by General [[Andrey Vlasov]], who meant to depose the régime of [[Joseph Stalin]] and the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Russian Communist Party]].<ref>Geoffrey A. Hosking. ''Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union''. Harvard University Press, 2006 p. 213.</ref>

Initially, Hitler rejected the idea of collaborating with the peoples in the East.<ref>[[Michael Burleigh]], ''The Third Reich: A New History'', pp, 544, 551</ref> However, Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels and Alfred Rosenberg were in favor of collaboration against Bolshevism and offering some independence to the peoples of the East.<ref>Ulrich Herbert, ''Hitler's Foreign Workers: Enforced Foreign Labor in Germany Under the Third Reich'', pp. 260–261</ref><ref>Robert Edwin Herzstein, ''The war that Hitler won: Goebbels and the Nazi media campaign'', p. 364</ref> In 1940, Himmler opened up membership for people he regarded as being of "related stock", which resulted in a number of right-wing Scandinavians [[Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts|signing up to fight in the Waffen-SS]]. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, further volunteers from France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, and Croatia signed up to fight for the Nazi cause.<ref name="Waffen-SS1">{{Cite AV media |url=http://www.worldmediarights.com/index.php?hidAction=episode&eid=50 |title=The Waffen-SS |series=Gladiators of World War II |access-date=26 April 2015 |website=worldmediarights.com}}</ref> After 1942, when the war turned decisively against Nazi Germany, further recruits from the occupied territories signed up to fight for the Nazis.<ref name="Waffen-SS1" /> Hitler was worried about the foreign legions on the Eastern Front; he remarked that "One mustn't forget that, unless he is convinced of his racial membership of the Germanic {{lang|de|Reich}}, the foreign legionary is bound to feel that he's betraying his country."<ref>Trevor-Roper, Gerhard L. Weinberg, ''Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944: Secret Conversations'', p. 305</ref>

After further losses of manpower, the Nazis tried to persuade the [[forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced foreign laborers in the Reich]] to fight against Bolshevism. [[Martin Bormann]] issued a memorandum on 5 May 1943:
{{Blockquote| It impossible to win someone over to a new idea while insulting his inner sense of worth at the same time. One cannot expect the highest level of performance from people who are called beasts, barbarians, and subhuman. Instead, positive qualities such as the will to fight Bolshevism, the desire to safeguard one's own existence and that of one's country, commitment and willingness to work are to be encouraged and promoted. Moreover, everything must be done to encourage the necessary cooperation of the European peoples in the fight against Bolshevism.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martin Bormann's Circular of May 5, 1943, which included a Memorandum on the General Principles Governing the Treatment of Foreign Laborers Employed in the Reich (dated April 15, 1943) |url=http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/docpage.cfm?docpage_id=2943}}</ref>}}

In 1944, as the German army continually lost battles and territory to the [[Red Army]], the leaders of Nazi Germany, especially {{lang|de|Reichsfuhrer-SS}} Heinrich Himmler, recognized the political, ideological, and military value of the collaborationist ROA in fighting Bolshevism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andreyev |first=Catherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORYvFXeW8OAC |title=Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement: Soviet Reality and Emigré Theories |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0521389600 |location=1st paperback edition. Cambridge, England |pages=53, 61}}</ref> Secretly, Himmler in his Posen speeches remarked: "I wouldn't have had any objections, if we had hired Mr. Vlasov and every other Slavic subject wearing a Russian general's uniform, to make propaganda against the Russians. I wouldn't have any objections at all. Wonderful."<ref name="himmler" />