Starvation Genocide in Occupied Eastern Europe 1939–1945: Food Confiscation by and for the Nazis

Abstract

<p>The genocide effected by the Nazi regime during World War II, intended for the local population in Eastern Europe, took the form of allocation of daily food rations: 100% for the Germans" 70% for the Poles" 30% for Greeks" 20% for Jews. Hermann Göring, the Reichsmarschall of the Nazi Empire created a blueprint for full alimentation of the occupying German forces through theft of land and food of the Soviet Union thus forcing its "racially inferior" population to starve, adopted on 29 April 1941. In the weeks leading to the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Reich Minister for Food, Richard Darré, and his State Secretary, Herbert Backe, developed the "Hunger Plan", which led to death by starvation of at least seven million Soviet civilians, Jews and gentiles. This article reviews responsibility for the formulation and implementation of this form of genocide.</p>