Declaring war on America was an unnecessary act – a provocation which threw all prior caution to the winds: it was no accident that, instead of threatening to take action against the Jews in Europe in order to curb their warmongering in America, Hitler authorised the first deportations of German Jews at this time. There would be no de-escalation, no negotiated settlement. Once again the United States, Britain and Russia were ranged against Germany, just as in 1917. If Hitler’s political career had been dedicated to re-fighting and this time winning the First World War, now he had his ‘world
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