> stalin was going to attack sooner rather than later.  thats the official version by the nazi governement but im not convinced both were paranoid conniving intelligent leaders, "strongmen" as the media buzzword goes so things were pretty tense however i dont believe at all that the soviets were planning an attack simply because they saw themselves as way weaker than germany and it would have taken a long long while for that to change if ever realistically both of them would have gotten nukes before the sockets ever got serious ideas about invading nazi owned europe simply out of the balance of power so i feel pretty convenient in saying that if hitler didnt attack them there would never have been a war (soviets/stalin remain paranoid and afraid of the german power but doesnt attack since he is weaker, both build up strength as frenemies until both sides get nukes+enormous armies making any war silly due to mad which would rave them exposed to being conquered by china or the usa) > germany should've done more, but we should also recognize what they did do. the ss was recruiting foreign volunteers from the start, and the wehrmacht had tons of ex-soviets in support and frontline roles. they didn't have the benefit of hindsight, so treating former enemies like allies was going to take time. "former enemies" was only the case because the german elites of the past and contemporary were hell bent on an ideology of taking over europe through many wars of expansion prussia went from almost a city state to owning most of europe in 1942 by doing nothing but attacking all their neighbours whenever they smelled weakness aka the only reason there were enemies with anyone in the first place is because they wanted to if the nazi movement of germany hadnt been so influenced by both prussian elites worldview and propaganda they wouldnt have been so antagonistic towards all their neighbours  there probably would have been war and occupation all the same
France