Dupuy Т. European Land Battles 1939-1943

Franklin Watts, Inc., 1962. ― 102 p. ― (The Military History of World War II Volume 01)
How World War II Began
The Plan or Conquest
On November 5, 1937, Adolf Hitler, chancellor and supreme dictator of Nazi Germany, held a secret meeting in the Reichstag. There, behind locked doors, he confided in his foreign ministers and his top military commanders that he was preparing to go to war. He said that Germany was not large enough for its growing population, and that the country needed Lebensraum (living space). Since none of Germany’s neighbors was likely to give up land without a struggle, the problem of living space for Germany, said Hitler, could he solved only by the use of force. But the use of force must he justified — not only politically but also in the eyes of international law. The conditions that would justify the use of force by Germany must be created before the attack could begin.