Legal reason of the termination of the Soviet-German Non-aggression Pact.

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RedRight
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Joined: 18 Mar 2017, 13:30
Location: Poland

Legal reason of the termination of the Soviet-German Non-aggression Pact.

#1

Post by RedRight » 14 Dec 2018, 19:15

I think Hitler believed every major power is trying to conquer the world by an aggressive war when strong enough and the Soviet Union would be stronger than Germany. Therefore a non-aggression pact is void due to future aggression, the other party may attack to prevent an future attack.
Hitler in his speech to the German People: 22 June 1941 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_F%C3 ... _June_1941said:
"For weeks constant violations of this frontier have taken place, not only affecting us but from the far north down to Rumania.
Russian airmen consider it sport nonchalantly to overlook these frontiers, presumably to prove to us that they already feel themselves masters of these territories.
During the night of June 17 to June 18 Russian patrols again penetrated into the Reich's territory and could only be driven back after prolonged firing".

I think Hitler wanted a legal reason to justify his attack. Is the above justification really the full legal reason for such a great war with the world at stake?

Max Payload
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Joined: 21 Jun 2008, 15:37

Re: Legal reason of the termination of the Soviet-German Non-aggression Pact.

#2

Post by Max Payload » 15 Dec 2018, 01:34

By 1941 there was no jurisdiction under which Hitler’s actions in international affairs could have been legally held to account in any meaningful way. All he needed to do was justify his actions to his domestic audience who mostly, after two decades of anti-Soviet propaganda, took his claims of Soviet provocation at face value. Despite the non-aggression treaty, the inevitability of a military clash with the ‘Bolshevik menace’ was a common assumption in Germany and Hitler could be confident that his claims of provocation would be widely seen as adequate justification for war and would not be subject to factual scrutiny. Two years earlier he had successfully sold the invasion of Poland as a counter offensive.


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