Hi
Did the Nazis confine their occupation of Poland only to areas they deemed part of the ancient/medieval Altreich?
I look forward to your feedback.
And for that matter, were there other areas of Eastern Europe they occupied on the grounds that it was part of the ancient Altreich?
No.
The extent of Nazi occupation was almost entirely determined by their agreement with the Soviet Union. The line of demarcation had nothing to do with old claims.
Thank you RickJay. Very helpful
If you need more, the official name the Nazis gave the largest chunk of Poland was “Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete”, referring to the area as occupied Polish territory. The plan was to colonize the area, I have never seen it referred to as re-colonize.
Also, as I recall it, Altreich was the term the Nazis used to describe Germany before the Austrian Anschluss. Then there was the Grossdeutsches Reich, the partly aspirational boundaries of the empire they were trying to effectuate by invading, occupying and, in cases, colonizing a big chunk of Europe. This included Iceland, Sweden and Norway which had never been part of any prior German entity, Flanders and the Netherlands which might have been if you count being held by the Habsburgs once as “qualifying”, and seemingly arbitrary chunks of Russia, Poland, Ukraine, as well as Switzerland, France and various East European countries where maybe at some point some people may have sometimes spoken some version of German.
Perhaps when Hitler & Ribbentrop were drawing their “want list” they had that in the back of their mind, but as Rick sez, it was based upon Realpolitik.
Well, further tyo the point, objective history didn’t matter a lot to Nazis, and doesn’t today. Hitler’s regime pulled from history, biology and current affairs whatever justification it needed.
The purpose of the Nazi regime was not to restore the Altreich, or restore anything, really; it was to wage war and engage in conquest. After all, a moment’s glance at a map of the old German Kingdom shows it included not a square inch of Russia, but you may recall the Germans spending a little time in Russia, and indeed their plan was to completely occupy it, exterminate its entire population except for a small number to be retained as slaves, and turn it into more Germany.
Had they succeeded in that, more war would have followed. There was no point at which they were going to stop.