I ask because I was recently thinking about the German professor (who could barely speak English BTW) who taught (tried to teach?) me differential equations. In one of the moments he was not talking about math he oddly mentioned that if Hitler had died in the summer of 1939 he would have been remembered as one of Germany's greatest leaders. I found this odd.
From a nationalist point of view I could see unifying Germany and Austria would have been remembered and maybe Germany would have been able to keep the Sudetenland but I just don't see how the occupation of Czech lands would have been sustainable without a war. True, Czechs had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but clearly they had their own language and national identity so I can't see those lands being retained by a German state. Same goes for Memel as it was majority Lithuanian so I don't see how it could remain in German hands in the age of 20th century nationalism.
The of course there is the issue of treatment of Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities (ethnic, religious, and political). Maybe this could be white washed as just another European pogrom but I'm pretty sure this was violent, well organized, and exceptionally wide spread even by the standards of your average Russian pogrom. What do you think? If Hilter had been killed before the war started but after his big pre-war land grabs how would history see him?
From a nationalist point of view I could see unifying Germany and Austria would have been remembered and maybe Germany would have been able to keep the Sudetenland but I just don't see how the occupation of Czech lands would have been sustainable without a war. True, Czechs had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but clearly they had their own language and national identity so I can't see those lands being retained by a German state. Same goes for Memel as it was majority Lithuanian so I don't see how it could remain in German hands in the age of 20th century nationalism.
The of course there is the issue of treatment of Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities (ethnic, religious, and political). Maybe this could be white washed as just another European pogrom but I'm pretty sure this was violent, well organized, and exceptionally wide spread even by the standards of your average Russian pogrom. What do you think? If Hilter had been killed before the war started but after his big pre-war land grabs how would history see him?
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