Hunger Plan

• 1. Origins And Ideology

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  Germany in the 1930s relied on foreign imports to feed its population. This dependency worsened when war broke out and the military requisitioned tractors, horses, and fuel for itself. Reserve grain stocks were consumed by 1941 while occupation of Europe only deepened the crisis since most occupied countries were net food importers. Hitler feared that Allied blockades during World War I had caused Germany's defeat through starvation. He believed preserving food supplies for Germany was essential even if it meant sacrificing civilian lives abroad. The combination of Nazi racism against Jews and Soviet civilians with this wartime food shortage created a deadly policy framework. German leadership viewed the Hunger Plan as both a practical necessity and an ideological imperative.

• 2. Architects And Planning

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  Herbert Backe orchestrated the original plan alongside Heinrich Himmler within a coalition of Nazi politicians. They dedicated themselves to securing Germany's food supply at any cost. By the 2nd of May 1941 the strategy reached advanced stages ready for discussion among major state ministries. General Georg Thomas headed the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht office of economics where these discussions took place. A Staatssekretäre meeting on that same day concluded that the entire Wehrmacht must be fed from Russia in the third year of the war. Minutes from the meeting stated clearly that taking what was needed would cause tens of millions to die of starvation. Hans-Joachim Riecke produced economic policy guidelines three weeks later on the 23rd of May 1941 for his agricultural section. These documents outlined how Ukraine's grain surpluses would feed the Reich while creating northern deficit zones. Backe noted there existed a surplus population of 20 to 30 million people who could be cut off from food supplies.

• 3. Implementation Mechanisms

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  Nazi military forces received orders to capture food stocks in occupied territories and redirect them to German troops. The lack of Soviet railway capacity meant armies had to live off land they conquered in western regions. Economic Staff East under Hans-Joachim Riecke managed direct responsibility for exploiting soon-to-be-occupied Soviet territories. Plans called for annihilation of populations deemed superfluous including Jews and residents of large cities like Kiev. Extreme ration reductions applied to Ukrainians remaining in cities while farming populations consumed fewer foodstuffs. Officials created a northern grain deficit zone alongside southern surplus zones where Ukraine resided. Grain from the south would travel to the Reich while northern industrial centers faced deliberate starvation. Tens of thousands of deaths were expected within the first year of occupation according to carefully planned schedules. German planners believed the assault on the Soviet Union could not succeed without this systematic deprivation.

• 4. Soviet Starvation Deaths

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  Historian Timothy Snyder estimates that 4.2 million Soviet citizens died from deliberate famine policies between 1941 and 1944. Most victims were Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians rather than other nationalities. Starvation rates reached particularly high levels among Jews forced into ghettos by Nazi authorities. Jews were prohibited from purchasing eggs, butter, milk, meat or fruit during their imprisonment. Rations provided to Jews in Minsk and other Army Group Centre controlled cities amounted to no more than 700 calories daily. Tens of thousands of Jews died of hunger-related causes over winter 1941, 1942 alone. The most reliable figures show 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war died out of 5.7 million captured between June 1941 and February 1945. Two million of these prisoners had already perished by early February 1942. This enormous death toll resulted directly from a deliberate policy of starvation directed against Soviet POWs. Planning staffs had reckoned on feeding up to two million prisoners within eight weeks of the war's start.

• 5. The Leningrad Siege

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  About one million people died during the blockade of Leningrad as part of this systematic starvation campaign. Germans attempted to starve Kiev and Kharkov in German-occupied Ukraine with similar tactics. During occupation approximately 80,000 residents of Kharkov died of starvation according to available records. The lack of food also contributed to deaths among slaves and concentration camp inmates inside Germany itself. By end of 1941 plans to starve entire civilian populations were abandoned due to military failures. Germans lacked manpower to enforce food blockades around Soviet cities without causing major uprisings. They could not confiscate enough food despite supplementing grain stocks from Ukrainian granaries significantly. The siege demonstrated how effectively starvation tactics worked when applied to specific urban centers. Historical analysis shows this was the most drastic application of Hunger Plan principles across all occupied territories.

• 6. Occupied Europe Famine

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  More than 300,000 Greeks died of starvation during the Great Famine under Nazi occupation. Starvation affected other parts of German-occupied Europe including Greece and Poland though no identical plan existed there. In Poland Jewish populations suffered most severely within ghettos while ethnic Poles faced increasing hunger levels. Raul Hilberg estimated that 500,000 to 600,000 Jews died in Polish ghettos and labor camps partly due to starvation. Hans Frank estimated three million Poles would face starvation as a result of the Plan by early 1943. Warsaw was cut off from grain deliveries in August before bumper harvests saved many lives later. Western Europe received third priority for food redistribution with shipments coming from France and other western territories. As many as 22,000 people died during the Dutch famine of 1944, 1945 following German embargoes on food transport. Mid-1941 data showed German minorities received full daily rations while Poles received only 26 percent of needs. Jewish ghetto residents received merely 7.5 percent of required human daily caloric intake.