Adolf Hitler was against German settlement in Eastern Europe.
Adolf Hitler . As dictator of the German Reich , he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 , and was central to the Holocaust . Hitler sought Lebensraum ( `` living space '' ) for the German people in Eastern Europe . Drang nach Osten ( [ ˈdʁaŋ nax ˈʔɔstn̩ ] , `` yearning for the East '' , `` thrust toward the East '' , `` push eastward '' , `` drive toward the East '' or `` desire to push East '' ) was a term coined in the 19th century to designate German expansion into Slavic lands .