Himmler (Peter Padfield's Second World War)

by Peter Padfield

It was entirely in character that Hitler sought to meet the crisis by will power, advancing rather than retreating from the unalterable aims of the policy which had caused the crisis in the first place – namely rearmament for the conquest of Lebensraum. And since his arguments in the memorandum express ideological views identical to those in Mein Kampf and in his second book, and his speeches, it can be argued that the decision to increase the pace of rearmament, to put the economy on a controlled war footing and to take the first steps in decoupling Germany from the world market emanated from his ego, his will and his Weltanschauung more or less unaided – except perhaps by Göring’s ambition.