Besides the persecution and annihilation of the Jewish community, the quest for Lebensraum was a pillar of the Nazi’s ideology. The march east, operation ‘Barbarossa’ (1941), was essentially the final part of the geopolitics of the Third Reich. Historian Pierik takes readers into the world of ideas behind these politics, where cold blooded, rational elements go hand in hand with myths and radical beliefs. An example of solid and, more importantly, understandable historiography -Jan Jespers Important step in a necessary discussion -Louis Ferron Orpheus-like descent -Herman Veenhof