A veteran diplomat with an extraordinary knowledge of Russian language, history and literature, Kennan recalls how, at the time of Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, he penned a private note to a State Department official, expressing the hope that `` never would we associate ourselves with Russian purposes in the areas of eastern Europe beyond her own boundaries ''.

* German leadership rejected Hartenstein's cease fire proposal, partly because Admiral Raeder did not think it wise to enter into a " deal " with the Allies, nothing was to interfere with Eisbär's surprise attack on Cape Town to strike at the supplies destined for the British and Soviets, and Hitler had directed that no word of Laconias sinking or the proposed Axis rescue be transmitted to the Allies, though subordinates ignored Hitler's orders and communicated messages to the Allies about the proposed rescue attempt.

In the Soviet Union, speaking to his generals in December, Stalin mentioned Hitler's references to an attack on the Soviet Union in Mein Kampf, and said they must always be ready to repulse a German attack, and that Hitler thought the Red Army would need four years to ready itself.

He died from a heart attack attributed to Nazi persecution following his publishing an article highly critical of Hitler's theories.

The only problem Raeder faced was Hitler's determination to attack Poland.

However, his adjutant, Fritz Wiedemann, recalled after the war that he was " very shocked " by Hitler's new plans to attack Britain and France 3 – 4 years after " deal with the situation " in Czechoslovakia.

From a purely military point of view, Rundstedt was apprehensive about Hitler's plans to attack Czechoslovakia, since he believed that Britain and France would intervene and Germany would be defeated.

Hitler's original plan was to attack in late November, before the French and British had time fully to deploy along their front.

During this hiatus, the group of senior officers who were plotting against Hitler's war plans, led by Halder, renewed their efforts, convinced that an attack in the west would lead to a war which Germany would lose.

Witzleben suggested that Rundstedt, Leeb and Bock should jointly refuse to carry out Hitler's orders to carry out the attack.

The pro-Nazi occupation government handed some of them over to the Nazis fearing that they — following the pro-Soviet party line — would resort to sabotage in Greece following Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

Determined to be more radical than his most bitter enemy, he also outdid them " Moreover, Fest argued in his defence of Nolte that the overheated atmosphere in Munich following the overthrow of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 "... gave Hitler's extermination complexes a real background " Finally, Fest wrote as part of his attack on the " singularity " of the Holocaust that :" There are questions upon questions, but no answer can be offered here.

Hácha suffered a heart attack during the meeting, and had to be kept awake by medical staff, eventually giving in and accepting Hitler's surrender terms.

After Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union, both the Polish Government in Exile and the Ukrainian OUN-B considered the possibility that in the event mutually exhaustive attrition warfare between Germany and the Soviet Union, the region would become a scene of conflict between Poles and Ukrainians.

In her memoir Until the Final Hour, published in English translation in 2003, one of Hitler's secretaries, Traudl Junge ( née Humps ), writes that in late 1943 or early 1944, Hitler spoke repeatedly of the possibility of a devastating bomber attack on the Wolfsschanze by the Western Allies.

The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR ) and the largest Soviet city.

Suffering disproportionally high losses compared to the Finnish troops, despite a fourfold Soviet superiority in troops and nearly absolute superiority in heavy weapons and aircraft, the Red Army appeared an easy target, which contributed to Hitler's decision to plan an attack against the Soviet Union.

Its final raid was an attack on Adolf Hitler's mountain retreat of Berchtesgaden on Anzac Day, 1945.

Died of heart attack in theatre in Prague, as he learned that Hitler's army had occupied Austria.

Although Roosevelt was under some domestic pressure to concentrate the United States war effort on Japan because of its attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, Adolf Hitler's declaration of war on the United States on December 11, 1941 made this decision more politically acceptable to opinion in the United States than it would otherwise have been.

Following Heiderich's funeral, the Elric brothers leave Munich with Noah, intending to destroy the weapons meant to be used in Hitler's attack and enjoy their new lives together on Earth.

At an address in Munich to the SA " old guard " on 8 November 1941 at the Buergerbrau beer cellar commemorating Hitler's 1923 failed putsch, he said that the term " blitzkrieg " was silly and never used it himself

Attlee responded the next day in the debate on increased air estimates that Hitler's speech contained unfavourable references to the Soviet Union but that " We see here a chance to call a halt in the armaments race ... We do not think that our answer to Herr Hitler should be just rearmament.

A huge ceremony was arranged on November 9, 1933 in which the Freikorps leaders symbolically gave their old battle flags to Hitler's SA and SS.

Historian Robert GL Waite claims that in Hitler's " Röhm Purge " speech to the Reichstag on July 13, 1934, he implies that the Freikorps are one of the groups of " pathological enemies of the state ".

# One day after the Reichstag fire on February 27, 1933, President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg, acting at Hitler's request and on the basis of the emergency powers in article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, issued the Reichstag Fire Decree.

Upon Hindenburg's death on 2 August 1934, Hitler's cabinet passed a law proclaiming the presidency vacant and transferred the role and powers of the head of state to Hitler as Führer und Reichskanzler ( leader and chancellor ).

Hitler's emphasis on maintaining high living standards postponed the full mobilization of the national economy until 1942, years after the great rivals Britain, Russia, and the U. S. had fully mobilized.

Himmler and Hitler met for the last time on 20 April 1945 — Hitler's birthday — in Berlin, and Himmler swore total loyalty to Hitler.

Goebbels knew how to play on Hitler's fantasies, encouraging him to see the hand of providence in the death of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 April.

He was emotionally dependent on Hitler's favour to the extent that he suffered from psychosomatic illnesses if Hitler was unhappy with him.

Hitler's meeting with de Brinon had a huge impact on French public opinion, and helped to put an end to the calls for a preventive war by convincing many in France that Hitler was a man of peace who only wanted to do away with Part V.

A notable contradiction existed in Hitler's strategic planning between embarking on an anti-British foreign policy, whose major instruments consisted of a vastly expanded Kriegsmarine and a Luftwaffe capable of a strategic bombing offensive that would take several years to build ( e. g. Plan Z for expanding the Kriegsmarine was a five year plan ), and engaging in reckless short-term actions such as attacking Poland that were likely to cause a general war.

The main target of the prosecution was Hermann Göring ( at the left edge on the first row of benches ), considered to be the most important surviving official in the Third Reich | Third Reich after Adolf Hitler | Hitler's death.

He bases his case on a moral law, a " rule about right and wrong " commonly known to all human beings, citing the example of Nazism ; both Christians and atheists believed that Hitler's actions were morally wrong.

This policy immediately raised the question of whether the Soviet Union could avoid being next on Hitler's list.

Operation Barbarossa's failure led to Hitler's demands for further operations inside the USSR, all of which eventually failed, such as continuing the Siege of Leningrad, Operation Nordlicht, and Battle of Stalingrad, among other battles on occupied Soviet territory.

Poznań fell to the Red Army ( assisted by Polish volunteers ) on 23 February 1945 following the Battle of Poznań, in which the German army conducted a last-ditch defence in line with Hitler's designation of the city as a Festung.

Rabbi David Dalin's The Myth of Hitler's Pope argues that critics of Pius XII are liberal Catholics and ex-Catholics who " exploit the tragedy of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to foster their own political agenda of forcing changes on the Catholic Church today " and that Pius XII was responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of Jews.

The grass-covered mound partly visible on the far left marks the site of Hitler's bunker.

Beginning in April 1934, and at Hitler's request, Heydrich and Himmler began building a dossier on Sturmabteilung ( SA ) leader Ernst Röhm in an effort to remove him as a rival for party leadership.