Hunger Plan

The Hunger Plan (German: der Hungerplan; der Backe-Plan) was a partially implemented plan developed by Nazi bureaucrats during World War II to seize food from the Soviet Union and give it to German soldiers and civilians. The plan entailed the genocide by starvation of millions of Soviet citizens following Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union (see Generalplan Ost). The plan created a famine as an act of policy, killing millions of people.[1]

The Hunger Plan was first formulated by senior German officials during a Staatssekretäre meeting on 2 May 1941 to prepare for the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) invasion and the Nazi war of extermination (Vernichtungskrieg) in Eastern Europe. Its means of mass murder were outlined in several documents, including one that became known as Göring's Green Folder. As part of the plan, Nazi military forces were ordered to capture food stocks in occupied territories, redirect them to supply German troops and fuel the German war economy.[2][3] In addition to the extensive exploitation of resources to support German war economy, the Hunger Plan intended to create an artificial famine in Eastern Europe, which would have resulted in deaths of around 31 to 45 million inhabitants through forced starvation.[4][5]

  1. ^ Tooze 2006, pp. 476–485, 538–549.
  2. ^ Masiuk, Tony (20 March 2019). "Hitler's Manifest Destiny: Nazi Genocide, Slavery, and Colonization in Slavic Eastern Europe". Academia.edu. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022.
  3. ^ J. Kay, Alex (October 2006). "Germany's Staatssekretäre, Mass Starvation and the Meeting of 2 May 1941". Journal of Contemporary History. 41 (4): 685–700. doi:10.1177/0022009406067750. JSTOR 30036414 – via JSTOR.
  4. ^ Zimmerer, Jürgen (2023). From Windhoek to Auschwitz?: Reflections on the Relationship between Colonialism and National Socialism (English ed.). Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. pp. 141, 151. doi:10.1515/9783110754513. ISBN 978-3-11-075420-9. ISSN 2941-3095. LCCN 2023940036.
  5. ^ Masiuk, Tony (20 March 2019). "Hitler's Manifest Destiny: Nazi Genocide, Slavery, and Colonization in Slavic Eastern Europe". Academia.edu. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022.