What is the reason behind Hitler, one of the most important figures in the modern history of the world, who committed the inhumane massacre of the Jews during World War II, but did not attack China?
At the height of World War II, Hitler undoubtedly had the strength to attack China, but he chose to stand by and watch. This made people of later generations wonder why the ambitious Hitler would let go of China, a seemingly attractive "treasure land"? To explore the reason why Hitler did not attack China, we must start from his youth.
Hitler's life as a teenager was not as good as he could have been, but he received generous assistance from a Chinese family surnamed "Zhang" from Austria. Not only did they give him a one-time gift of 500 Austrian Imperial shillings for tuition and living expenses, but they also often invited him to dinner at home. This experience gave Hitler a special affection for the Chinese, whom he considered kind and selfless to come from the "ancient civilizations of the Far East."
Before World War II broke out, Hitler had dreams of co-ruling Eurasia with China, with East and Southeast Asia and Eastern Siberia under Chinese control. However, as the war dragged on, Germany became an ally with Japan, and Hitler eventually severed ties with China.
Although there is no doubt that Hitler had received help from the Chinese because of his difficult life, in his autobiographical book Mein Kampf, he expressed a deep hatred for the Japanese. It turned out that he was angry with two Japanese teenagers who broke his car, and since then he believes that there is an essential difference between the nature of Chinese and Japanese, which is why he despises Japanese.
In front of the SS commander, he angrily said, "You really shouldn't trust these hateful Japanese." In order to preserve relations with the allies, he even deleted this description from the Japanese and Chinese translations.
However, from multiple perspectives, Hitler's hatred of the Japanese and his affection for the Chinese are obvious. As for why Hitler did not fight China, some experts believe that although Hitler may indeed have been helped by the Chinese, the more critical reason is that China is too far away from Germany. If Hitler had chosen to go on an expedition to China, he would not have been able to take care of the battlefields in Europe and might have found himself in a situation where he would have been exposed to the enemy on his back.
In addition, China is a vast territory, and even if Hitler attacks China, he may not be able to achieve the desired results. Therefore, although China seemed to be an attractive "treasure land", Hitler could only look at the ocean and sigh, and had no time to take care of it. As for whether he was really helped by the Chinese, perhaps it was just a legend made up for him not to attack China.