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Notes -
Germany could have not invaded Poland.
Because I live up on a hill in a big house with a nice moat of acreage in a very safe place, this is both true and hilariously similar to the conditions of Putin and Eastern Ukraine in contemporary times.
Had the Polish not been feeling their oats from their victories over the Soviets and actively persecuting Germans in their recently acquired territories shrug
This would suggest that Hitler and Co's priority was not combating Bolshevism but expansionist German nationalism. Glorifying Hitler for fighting against the Bolsheviks ignores the series of anti-Boshevik states that he destroyed on the way to Russia. Poland, as you note, had just come off fighting a war against the Soviets.
Hitler was never really very anti-Bolshevik, never moreso than he was anti-Slav. Had Hitler aligned with Poland and the Czechs against Russia, things might have gone differently, n'est pas?
Of course there is no readily available source, because of course there isn't, and I apologize but I'm just not gonna fight upstream to find the link, but there was a proposed German-Polish non-aggression pact renewal
I'm fairly certain from Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which I listened through recently that there were current treaties obligating Germany to respect and protect Poland's borders, and certainly there were treaties promising to hold to current Czech borders at the time that Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler was rather known for failing to respect treaties.
What would be more interesting, though still less dispositive than his actual real actions, would be if you could find a movement within Naziism (meaning Hitler) to rally an anti Bolshevik coalition in eastern Europe that predated Nazi plans to invade Poland. I don't think you can because Poland and Czechoslovakia and the Baltics were more or less part of the plan from Mein Kampf onward as I understand it.
I don't know how to say this without sounding like an asshole so please don't think I'm trying to be, but there's a lot of 'Rally Europe against Bolshevism' stuff in Mein Kampf
There's also a lot of "take over Poland and enslave/eliminate the inferior Slavs" stuff.
What comes to mind?
The whole take over Poland and use the poles as cannon fodder despite the fact that the Poles have a far longer and more distinguished history of fighting "on behalf of Europa" than the Prussians or Austrians comes to mind.
Wurst is the worst, Either choose the Chorizo or embrace Kielbasa supremacy. ;-)
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