Hunger Plan

The Hunger Plan was a partially implemented plan developed by <a href="/facts/Nazi_Germany/8kRbqRpo">Nazi</a> bureaucrats during <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a> to seize food from the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a> and give it to German soldiers and civilians. The plan entailed the <a href="/facts/Genocide/IjkNvg7y">genocide</a> by <a href="/facts/Starvation/xXxdp2CM">starvation</a> of millions of Soviet citizens following <a href="/facts/Operation_Barbarossa/YKjYBQWn">Operation Barbarossa</a>, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union (see <a href="/facts/Generalplan_Ost/JmPmGnoj">Generalplan Ost</a>). The plan created a <a href="/facts/Famine/EUEEuh4h">famine</a> as an act of policy, killing millions of people.
The Hunger Plan was first formulated by senior German officials during a <a href="/facts/Staatssekret%25C3%25A4r/Ie66xVGH">Staatssekretäre</a> meeting on 2 May 1941 to prepare for the <a href="/facts/Wehrmacht/cVGQH8JW">Wehrmacht</a> (German armed forces) invasion and the Nazi <a href="/facts/War_of_annihilation/IQgEJ6rP">war of extermination</a> (Vernichtungskrieg) in Eastern Europe. Its means of <a href="/facts/Mass_killing/1Jc577pI">mass murder</a> were outlined in several documents, including one that became known as <a href="/facts/G%25C3%25B6ring%2527s_Green_Folder/dyqmJ2SF">Göring's Green Folder</a>. 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. In addition to the extensive exploitation of resources to support the German war economy, the Hunger Plan intended to create an artificial famine in <a href="/facts/Eastern_Europe/f5CDGzNA">Eastern Europe</a>, which would have resulted in deaths of around 31 to 45 million inhabitants through <a href="/facts/Mass_starvation/EUEEuh4h">forced starvation</a>.

Hunger Plan open-in-new

Hunger Plan