To: cnyndwllr who wrote (264035 ) 11/11/2014 4:25:35 PM From: epicure Read Replies (1) | Respond to No way. They could never have defeated the combined forces of what was left of Europe, the UK and the US. As for the USSR, that wasn't a "mistake"- it's what Hitler always planned on doing. The majority of the Jews were there- and Hitler's whole reason for the war was to kill them- but he needed Europe for materials before he turned on the USSR. It's quite clear from the original documents from the war that the supreme goal was the extermination of every Jew everywhere (and given the anti-semitism of historical England and Europe, it really surprised Hitler that more people in other countries didn't understand the grand plan). Hitler was a loon- and if you read the missives from the occupied areas, you get letters like this- lots of them (and I paraphrase)- "We can't possibly meet our quotas if you expect us to kill all the Jews, some of whom are working on armaments"- to which Berlin replied- "The main point is killing the Jews. That's essential. Everything else is secondary." So if Hitler had been forced to be more "cautious" his own side probably would have taken him out- as they tried to do, but failed, and he would never have had access to as many Jews to exterminate- after all, there just weren't that many in Germany. The millions he exterminated (and not just Jews, of course) came from the occupied territories- put a hold on that, and you put a hold on his ability to kill, and allow his own citizens to take him out- because it's not like there wasn't any resistance in Germany, and the Germans were sensitive to internal as well as external pressure. That's why Rossenstrasse worked- and why they quit going after people with disabilities.
