Editing Nero Decree (section)

==Background==
By the beginning of 1945, the situation for Germany was desperate.<ref name="Wired">{{cite news| url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/03/72855 | magazine=Wired | title=March 19, 1945: Blow It All Up | date=19 March 2007}}</ref> Most of the conquered territories had been liberated or recaptured, the [[Battle of the Bulge|Ardennes Offensive]] had failed, and Allied armies were advancing on Germany proper from both the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|East]] and the [[Western Front (World War II)|West]]. However, Hitler was not willing to accept the terms of [[unconditional surrender]], and considered this as repeating the same shame as [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles]].<ref name="Wired"/> Moreover, according to some around him, Hitler came to view the German people as having failed him, unworthy of their great mission in history and thus deserving to die alongside his regime.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7SMUnuEk8SYC&pg=PA443|title=US Army in WW II: The Last Offensive (Paperback)|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-16-089940-9|language=en}}</ref>

This was not the first time Hitler had tried to destroy infrastructure before it could be taken. Hitler had issued orders to enact a [[scorched earth]] policy upon the Netherlands in late 1944, when it became obvious that the Allies were about to retake the country, but [[Arthur Seyss-Inquart]], the ''Reichskommissar'' in charge of the Netherlands during its occupation, was able to greatly limit the scope to which the order was executed.<ref name=Judseyss>{{Cite web |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judseyss.asp |title=Judgement : Seyss-Inquart |publisher=[[Avalon Project|The Avalon Project]]}}</ref>