Many have probably heard about the “General Plan Ost,” according to which Nazi Germany was going to “develop” the lands it had conquered in the East. However, this document was kept secret by the top leadership of the Third Reich, and many of its components and applications were destroyed at the end of the war. And only now, in December 2009, this ominous document was finally published.
Only a six-page excerpt from this plan appeared at the Nuremberg trials. It is known in the historical and scientific community as “Comments and proposals of the Eastern Ministry on the “General Plan “Ost”. As it was established at the Nuremberg trials, these “comments and proposals” were drawn up on April 27, 1942 by E. Wetzel, an employee of the Ministry of Eastern Territories, after familiarizing himself with the draft plan prepared by the RSHA. As a matter of fact, it was on this document that until very recently all research on Nazi plans for the enslavement of the “eastern territories” was based.
On the other hand, some revisionists could argue that this document was just a draft drawn up by a minor official in one of the ministries, and it had nothing to do with real politics. However, at the end of the 80s, the final text of the Ost plan, approved by Hitler, was found in the Federal Archives of Germany, and individual documents from it were presented at an exhibition in 1991.
However, only in November-December 2009 " General plan"Ost" - the foundations of the legal, economic and territorial structure of the East" was completely digitized and published. This is reported on the Foundation’s website “ Historical memory».
As a matter of fact, the German government’s plan to “free up living space” for Germans and other “Germanic peoples,” which included “Germanization” of Eastern Europe and mass ethnic cleansing of the local population did not arise spontaneously, and not out of nowhere. First developments in in this direction The German scientific community began to lead the way back under Kaiser Wilhelm II, when no one had heard of National Socialism, and Hitler himself was just a skinny rural boy.
As a group of German historians (Isabelle Heinemann, Willy Oberkrome, Sabine Schleiermacher, Patrick Wagner) clarifies in the study “Science, Planning, Expulsion: “The Ost General Plan of the National Socialists”: “Since 1900 on racial anthropology and eugenics, or racial hygiene can be spoken of as a certain direction in the development of science at the national and international levels. Under National Socialism, these sciences achieved the position of leading disciplines, providing the regime with methods and principles to justify racial policies. There was no precise and uniform definition of "race". Conducted racial studies raised the question of the relationship between “race” and “living space”.
At the same time, “the political culture of Germany already in the Kaiser’s empire was open to thinking in nationalist concepts. The rapid dynamics of modernization at the beginning of the twentieth century. greatly changed the way of life, daily habits and values and raised concerns about the “degeneration” of the “German essence”. “Salvation” from this irritating experience of a turning point lay, it seemed, in a re-awareness of the “eternal” values of the peasant “nationality.”
However, the way in which German society intended to return to these “eternal peasant values” was chosen in a very peculiar way - the seizure of land from other peoples, mainly to the East of Germany. Already in the First world war, after the capture of Western lands by German troops Russian Empire, the occupation authorities began to think about a new state and ethnic order for these lands. In the discussion about the goals of the war, these expectations were concretized. For example, the liberal historian Meinecke said: “Couldn’t Courland also... be useful to us as a land for peasant colonization if the Latvians are expelled to Russia? Previously this would have been considered fantastic, but it is not so impracticable.”
The not so liberal General Rohrbach put it more simply: “The land conquered by the German sword must serve exclusively the benefit of the German people. The rest can roll away." These were the plans for creating a new “national soil” in the East at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Around the same years, German scientists began to argue that “appearance, spiritual, psychological and cultural values” allow us to conclude that the Nordic race is superior. Therefore, it is necessary to put an end to the mixing of races in order to prevent degeneration.” So all that remained for Hitler was to collect these “scientific ingredients”, synthesize both the “racial theory” and the idea of a new “living space”. Which is basically what he did in his book Mein Kampf in 1925.
But it was just a journalistic brochure. The actual military conquest of vast territories populated by tens of millions of people prompted the Nazi leadership to approach the issue with truly German methodicality. This is how the “General Plan “Ost”” was created.
The mentioned group of German researchers reports that “in June 1942, agronomist Konrad Mayer handed over a memo to SS Reichsführer G. Himmler. This document became known as the “General Plan “Ost”. He personifies the criminal nature of National Socialist policy and the unscrupulousness of the experts who participated in it. “The General Plan Ost provided for the settlement of 5 million Germans in annexed Poland and in the occupied Western lands Soviet Union. Millions of Slavic and Jewish inhabitants were to be enslaved, expelled or exterminated.
The scope of the “General Plan Ost” is indicated by this map, made in 1993 by Karl Heinz Roth and Klaus Carstens based on studied documents.
At the same time, the Historical Memory Foundation “insists that the plan was developed in 1941 by the Main Directorate of Reich Security. And, accordingly, it was presented on May 28, 1942 by an employee of the Office of the Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of the German People, SS Oberführer Meyer-Hetling under the title “General Plan “Ost” - the foundations of the legal, economic and territorial structure of the East.”
However, this contradiction is apparent, since the German authors clarify that “in the period between 1940 and 1943. Himmler ordered the development of a total of five options for the violent reconstruction of Eastern Europe. Taken together, they formed a comprehensive plan called the Ost General Plan. Four options came from the office of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Statehood (RKF), and one from the National Security Main Office (RSHA).
These departments had some “stylistic” differences in their approaches to this issue. As the German authors admit, “according to the RSHA plans of November 1941, 31 million people of the “foreign population” were to be deported to the East or killed. For 14 million “foreigners,” a future as slaves was planned. “The General Plan “Ost” of Konrad Meyer from June 1942 placed emphasis differently: the local population should no longer be forcibly deported, but “transferred” within the occupied regions to collective farm lands. But this plan also provided for a decrease in population as a result of large-scale forced labor and the forced “liquidation of cities” (Entstdterung). In the future, it was a question of exterminating the vast majority of the population or dooming them to starvation.”
However, the Ost plan was preceded by the Rosenberg plan. This was a project developed by the Reich Ministry for Occupied Territories, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. On May 9, 1941, Rosenberg presented the Fuhrer with draft directives on policy issues in the territories that were to be occupied as a result of aggression against the USSR.
Rosenberg proposed creating 5 governorates on the territory of the USSR. Hitler opposed the autonomy of Ukraine and replaced the term “governorate” with “Reichskommissariat” for it. As a result, Rosenberg’s ideas took the following forms of implementation.
The first, the Reichskommissariat Ostland, was to include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. "Ostland", where, according to Rosenberg, a population with "Aryan" blood lived, was subject to complete Germanization within two generations.
The second governorate - Reichskommissariat "Ukraine" - included Eastern Galicia (known in fascist terminology as "District Galicia"), Crimea, a number of territories along the Don and Volga, as well as lands of the abolished Soviet Autonomous Republic Germans of the Volga region.
The third governorate was called the Reichskommissariat "Caucasus", and separated Russia from the Black Sea.
Fourth – Russia to the Urals.
The fifth governorate was to be Turkestan.
However, this plan seemed “half-hearted” to Hitler, and he demanded more radical solutions. In the context of German military successes, it was replaced by the “General Plan Ost”, which generally suited Hitler.
According to this plan, the Nazis wanted to resettle 10 million Germans to the “eastern lands”, and from there deport 30 million people to Siberia, and not only Russians. Many of those who glorify Hitler's collaborators as freedom fighters would also be subject to deportation if Hitler had won. It was planned to evict beyond the Urals 85% of Lithuanians, 75% of Belarusians, 65% of Western Ukrainians, 75% of residents of the rest of Ukraine, 50% of Latvians and Estonians each. By the way, about Crimean Tatars, about which our liberal intelligentsia loved to lament so much, and whose leaders continue to pump up the rights to this day. In the event of a German victory, which most of their ancestors served so faithfully, they would still have to be deported from Crimea. Crimea was to become a “purely Aryan” territory called Gotengau. The Fuhrer wanted to resettle his beloved Tyroleans there.
The plans of Hitler and his associates, as is well known, failed thanks to the courage and colossal sacrifices of the Soviet people. However, it is worth reading the following paragraphs of the above-mentioned “comments” to the Ost plan - and see that some of its “creative heritage” continues to be implemented, and without any participation of the Nazis.
“In order to avoid an increase in population that is undesirable for us in the eastern regions... we must consciously pursue a policy of reducing the population. By means of propaganda, especially through the press, radio, cinema, leaflets, short brochures, reports, etc., we must constantly instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have many children.
It is necessary to show how much money it costs to raise children, and what could be purchased with these funds. It is necessary to talk about the great danger to a woman’s health that she is exposed to when giving birth to children, etc. Along with this, the broadest propaganda of contraceptives must be launched. It is necessary to establish widespread production of these products. The distribution of these drugs and abortions should not be restricted in any way. We should do everything we can to expand the network of abortion clinics... The better quality abortions are performed, the more confidence the population will have in them. It is clear that doctors must also be authorized to perform abortions. And this should not be considered a violation of medical ethics.”
Plan details
Implementation time:
1939 – 1944
Victims: Eastern European and USSR populations (mostly Slavic)
Place: Eastern Europe, occupied territory of the USSR
Character: racial-ethnic
Organizers and implementers: the National Socialist Party of Germany, pro-fascist groups and collaborators in the occupied territories “Plan Ost” was a program of mass ethnic cleansing of the population of Eastern Europe and the USSR as part of a more global Nazi plan to “liberate living space” (the so-called Lebensraum) for the Germans and other “Germanic peoples” at the expense of the territories of “lower races” such as the Slavs.
The goal of the plan: Germanization of the lands" in Central and Eastern Europe, provided for the movement of populations in the de facto annexed regions of Western and Southern Europe (Alsace, Lorraine, Lower Styria, Upper Carniola) and from countries that were considered German (Holland, Norway, Denmark ).
Excerpt from the "General Plan Ost" Revision dated June 1942 Part C. Delimitation of settlement territories in the occupied eastern regions and principles of restoration: The penetration of German life into large areas of the East confronts the Reich with the urgent need to find new forms of settlement in order to bring the size of the territory into line and the number of German persons present. In the Ost General Plan of July 15, 1941, the delimitation of new territories was provided as the basis for development for 30 years.
Plan Description
Plan Ost was a plan of the German government of the Third Reich to “liberate living space” for Germans and other “Germanic peoples,” which included mass ethnic cleansing of the population of Eastern Europe. The plan was developed in 1941 by the Main Directorate of Reich Security and presented on May 28, 1942 by an employee of the Office of the Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of the German People, SS Oberführer Meyer-Hetling under the title “General Plan Ost - the foundations of the legal, economic and territorial structure of the East” .
The "Ost plan" was not preserved in the form of a completed plan. It was extremely secret, apparently existed in a few copies; at the Nuremberg trials, the only evidence of the existence of the plan was the "Comments and proposals of the Eastern Ministry" on the "Ost" master plan, according to prosecutors, written on April 27, 1942 by E. Wetzel, an employee of the Ministry of Eastern Territories, after familiarizing himself with the draft plan prepared by the RSHA. Most likely, it was deliberately destroyed.
According to Hitler’s own instructions, officials ordered that only a few copies of the Ost Plan be made for part of the Gauleiters, two ministers, the “Governor General” of Poland and two or three senior SS officials. The remaining SS Fuhrers of the RSHA had to familiarize themselves with the Ost Plan in the presence of the courier, sign that the document had been read, and return it. But history shows that it was never possible to destroy all traces of crimes on such a scale as those committed by the Nazis. Both in letters and in speeches of Hitler and other SS officers, references to the plan occur more than once. Two memos have also been preserved, from which it is clear that this plan existed and was discussed. From the notes we learn in some detail the contents of the plan.
According to some reports, the "Plan Ost" was divided into two - "Small Plan" "Big Plan". The Small Plan was to be carried out during the war. The German government wanted to focus on the Big Plan after the war. The plan provided for different percentages of Germanization for different conquered Slavic and other peoples were to be deported to Western Siberia. The implementation of the plan was to ensure that the conquered territories would acquire an irrevocably German character.
According to the plan, the Slavs living in the countries of Eastern Europe and the European part of the USSR were to be partially Germanized, and partially deported beyond the Urals or destroyed. It was intended that a small percentage of the local population be left behind to be used as free labor for the German colonists.
According to the calculations of Nazi officials, 50 years after the war the number of Germans living in these territories was supposed to reach 250 million. The plan applied to all peoples living in the territories subject to colonization: it also spoke about the peoples of the Baltic states, which were also supposed to be partially assimilated , and partially deported (for example, Latvians were considered more suitable for assimilation, unlike Lithuanians, among whom, according to the Nazis, there were too many “Slavic impurities”). As can be assumed from the comments to the plan preserved in some documents, the fate of the Jews living in the territories to be colonized was almost not mentioned in the plan, mainly because at that time the project of the “final solution of the Jewish question” had already been launched, according to which the Jews were subject to total destruction. The plan for the colonization of the eastern territories was, in fact, the development of Hitler’s plans regarding the already occupied territories of the USSR - plans that were especially clearly formulated in his statement of July 16, 1941 and then were further developed in his table conversations. He then announced the settlement of 4 million Germans on the colonized lands within 10 years and at least 10 million Germans and representatives of other “Germanic” peoples within 20 years. Colonization should have been preceded by the construction - by prisoners of war - of large transport highways. German cities were to appear near river ports, and peasant settlements along the rivers. In the conquered Slavic territories, the policy of genocide was envisaged in its most extreme forms.
Methods for implementing the GPO plan:
1) physical extermination of large masses of people;
2) population reduction through deliberate organization of famine;
3) population decline as a result of an organized decline in the birth rate and the elimination of medical and sanitary services;
4) extermination of the intelligentsia - the bearer and successor of scientific and technical knowledge and skills cultural traditions of every people and the reduction of education to a lower level;
5) disunity, fragmentation of individual peoples into small ethnic groups;
6) resettlement of masses of the population to Siberia, Africa, South America and other regions of the Earth;
7) agrarianization of the captured Slavic territories and deprivation of the Slavic peoples of their own industry.”
The fate of the Slavs and Jews according to Wetzel's comments and suggestions
Wetzel envisioned the expulsion of tens of millions of Slavs beyond the Urals. The Poles, according to Wetzel, “were the most hostile to the Germans, numerically the largest and therefore the most dangerous people.”
German historians believe that the plan included:
· Destruction or expulsion of 80-85% of Poles. Only approximately 3-4 million people were to remain on Polish territory.
· Destruction or expulsion of 50-75% of Czechs (about 3.5 million people). The rest were subject to Germanization.
· Destruction of 50-60% of Russians in the European part of the Soviet Union, another 15-25% were subject to deportation beyond the Urals.
· Destruction of 25% of Ukrainians and Belarusians, another 30-50% of Ukrainians and Belarusians were to be used as labor
According to Wetzel's proposals, the Russian people were to be subjected to measures such as assimilation ("Germanization") and population reduction through a reduction in the birth rate - such actions are defined as genocide.
From A. Hitler’s directive to the Minister for Eastern Affairs A. Rosenberg on the implementation of the General Plan “Ost” (July 23, 1942)
The Slavs must work for us, and if we no longer need them, let them die. Vaccinations and health protection are unnecessary for them. Slavic fertility is undesirable... education is dangerous. It is enough if they can count to one hundred... Every educated person is our future enemy. All sentimental objections should be abandoned. We must rule this people with iron determination... Military speaking, we must kill three to four million Russians a year.
After the end of the war, out of approximately 40 million dead Slavic peoples (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, etc.), the Soviet Union lost more than 30 million, more than 6 million Poles died and over 2 million inhabitants of Yugoslavia. “Generalplan Ost”, as should be understood, also meant the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” (German: Endlösung der Judenfrage), according to which the Jews were subject to total extermination. In the Baltics, Latvians were considered more suitable for "Germanization", but Lithuanians and Latgalians were not, since there were too many "Slavic admixtures" among them. Although the plan was supposed to be launched at full capacity only after the end of the war, within its framework, nevertheless, about 3 million Soviet prisoners of war were destroyed, the population of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland was systematically exterminated and sent to forced labor. In particular, in Belarus alone the Nazis organized 260 death camps and 170 ghettos. According to modern data, during the years of German occupation the losses of the civilian population of Belarus amounted to about 2.5 million people, that is, about 25% of the population of the republic.
Almost 1 million Poles and 2 million Ukrainians were - most of them not of their own free will - sent to forced labor in Germany. Another 2 million Poles from the annexed regions of the country were forcibly Germanized. Residents who were declared “racially undesirable” were subject to resettlement to Western Siberia; Some of them were supposed to be used as auxiliary personnel in the management of the regions of enslaved Russia. Fortunately, the plan could not be fully realized, otherwise we would not be here anymore.
Rosenberg's predecessor project
The master plan was preceded by a project developed by the Reich Ministry for Occupied Territories, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. On May 9, 1941, Rosenberg presented the Fuhrer with draft directives on policy issues in the territories that were to be occupied as a result of aggression against the USSR.
Rosenberg proposed creating five governorates on the territory of the USSR. Hitler opposed the autonomy of Ukraine and replaced the term “governorate” with “Reichskommissariat” for it. As a result, Rosenberg’s ideas took the following forms of implementation.
· The first - Reichskommissariat Ostland - was supposed to include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. Ostland, where, according to Rosenberg, a population with Aryan blood lived, was subject to complete Germanization within two generations.
· The second governorate - Reichskommissariat Ukraine - included Eastern Galicia (known in fascist terminology as District Galicia), Crimea, a number of territories along the Don and Volga, as well as the lands of the abolished Soviet Autonomous Republic of Volga Germans. According to Rosenberg's idea, the governorate was supposed to gain autonomy and become the support of the Third Reich in the East.
· The third governorate was called the Reichskommissariat Caucasus, and separated Russia from the Black Sea.
· Fourth - Russia to the Urals.
· The fifth governorate was to become Turkestan.
The success of the German campaign in the summer-autumn of 1941 led to a revision and tightening of the German plans for the eastern lands, and as a result, the Ost plan was born.
Among all the alternative history scenarios, the one most often discussed is: what if Hitler had won? What if the Nazis had defeated the Allied forces? What fate would they have prepared for the enslaved peoples?
Today, May 9, is the most suitable day to remember what “alternative future” our great-grandfathers saved us from in 1941-1945.
Very specific documents and evidence have survived to this day, allowing us to get an idea of what plans Hitler and his entourage had for the transformation of the defeated states and the Reich itself. These are the projects of Heinrich Himmler and the plans of Adolf Hitler, set out in their letters and speeches, fragments of the Ost plan in different editions and the notes of Alfred Rosenberg.
Based on these materials, we will try to reconstruct the image of the future that threatened the world in the event of a Nazi victory. And then we’ll talk about how science fiction writers imagined it.
Real projects of the Nazis
Project of a memorial to those who fell on the Eastern Front, which the Nazis intended to erect on the banks of the Dnieper
According to Plan Barbarossa, the war with Soviet Russia was supposed to end two months after it began with the entry of advanced German units to the “AA” line (Astrakhan-Arkhangelsk). Since it was believed that the Soviet army would still have some amount of manpower and military equipment, a defensive rampart should have been erected on the “A-A” line, which over time would turn into a powerful defensive line.
Geographical map of the aggressor: Hitler’s plan for the occupation and dismemberment of the USSR
The national republics and some regions that were part of the Soviet Union were separated from occupied European Russia, after which the Nazi leadership intended to unite them into four Reichskommissariats.
At the expense of the former Soviet territories, a project of phased colonization of the “eastern lands” was also carried out in order to expand the “living space” of the Germans. Within 30 years, 8 to 10 million purebred Germans from Germany and the Volga region should settle in the territories allocated for colonization. At the same time, the local population was supposed to be reduced to 14 million people, destroying the Jews and other “inferior” people, including the majority of the Slavs, even before the start of colonization.
But nothing good awaited that part of the Soviet citizens that would have escaped destruction. More than 30 million Slavs were to be evicted from the European part of the USSR to Siberia. Hitler planned to turn those who remained into slaves, prohibit them from receiving education and deprive them of their culture.
The victory over the USSR led to the transformation of Europe. First of all, the Nazis were going to rebuild Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. Munich became the museum of the National Socialist movement, Berlin became the capital of the Thousand-Year Empire, which subjugated the whole world, and Hamburg was to become a single shopping center, a city of skyscrapers, similar to New York.
Model of the new Wagner building opera house. After the war, Hitler intended to completely redesign Wagner's concert hall in Bayreuth
The occupied countries of Europe also expected the most extensive “reforms”. The regions of France, which ceased to exist as a single state, expected different fate. Some of them went to Germany’s allies: fascist Italy and Franco’s Spain. And the entire southwest was to turn into a completely new country - the Burgundian Free State, which was supposed to be an “advertising showcase” for the Reich. The official languages in this state would be German and French. The social structure of Burgundy was planned in such a way as to completely eliminate the contradictions between classes, which “are used by Marxists to foment revolutions.”
Some peoples of Europe faced complete resettlement. Most of the Poles, half of the Czechs and three-quarters of the Belarusians were planned to be evicted to Western Siberia, laying the foundation for centuries of confrontation between them and the Siberians. On the other hand, all the Dutch were going to be transported to Eastern Poland.
“Vatican” of the Nazis, a model of the architectural complex that was planned to be built around Wewelsburg Castle
Finland, as a loyal ally of the Reich, became Greater Finland after the war, receiving the northern half of Sweden and areas with a Finnish population. The central and southern territories of Sweden were part of the Great Reich. Norway was losing its independence and, thanks to developed system hydroelectric power plants, became a source of cheap energy for Northern Europe
Next in line is England. The Nazis believed that, having lost their last hope for help from the Continent, England would make concessions, conclude an honorable peace with Germany and, sooner or later, join the Greater Reich. If this did not happen and the British continued to fight, preparations for the invasion of the British Isles should have been resumed, ending this threat before the beginning of 1944.
In addition, Hitler was going to establish full Reich control over Gibraltar. If dictator Franco tried to prevent this intention, then he should have occupied Spain and Portugal within 10 days, regardless of their status as “allies” in the Axis.
The Nazis suffered from gigantomania: sculptor J. Thorak is working on a monument to the autobahn builders. The original statue was supposed to be three times larger
After the final victory in Europe, Hitler was going to sign a friendship treaty with Turkey, based on the fact that it would be entrusted with the defense of the Dardanelles. Turkey was also offered participation in the creation of a single European economy.
Having conquered Europe and Russia, Hitler intended to move into the colonial possessions of Britain. The headquarters planned the capture and long-term occupation of Egypt and the Suez Canal, Syria and Palestine, Iraq and Iran, Afghanistan and Western India. After establishing control over North Africa and over the Middle East, Chancellor Bismarck's dream of building railway Berlin-Baghdad-Basra. The Nazis were not going to give up the idea of returning African colonies, belonged to Germany before the First World War. Moreover, there was talk of creating the core of a future colonial empire on the “dark continent”. In the Pacific Ocean it was intended to capture New Guinea with its oil fields and the island of Nauru.
Fascist plans to conquer Africa and America
The United States of America was considered by the leaders of the Third Reich as “the last stronghold of world Jewry,” and they had to be “pressed” in several directions at once. First of all, an economic blockade would be declared on the United States. Secondly, a fortified military area was being built in North-West Africa, from where long-range seaplane bombers and A-9/A-10 intercontinental missiles were to launch to strike America.
Thirdly, the Third Reich had to conclude long-term trade agreements with Latin American countries, supplying them with weapons and pitting them against their northern neighbor. If the United States did not surrender to the mercy of the winner, then Iceland and the Azores should have been captured as springboards for the future landing of European (German and English) troops on US territory.
Das ist fantastic!
In the Third Reich, science fiction existed as a genre, although, of course, German science fiction writers of that time could not compete in popularity with the authors of historical and military prose. Nevertheless, Nazi science fiction writers found their readers, and some of their opuses were published in millions of copies.
The most famous was Hans Dominik, the author of “novels about the future.” In his books, the German engineer triumphed, constructing fantastic superweapons or coming into contact with alien beings - “uranids”. In addition, Dominic was an ardent supporter of racial theory, and many of his works are a direct illustration of the theses about the superiority of some races over others.
Another popular science fiction writer, Edmund Kiss, devoted his work to describing ancient peoples and civilizations. From his novels, the German reader could learn about the lost continents of Thule and Atlantis, on the territory of which the ancestors of the Aryan race allegedly lived.
This is what representatives of the “master race” - “true Aryans” - should have looked like
Alternative history from science fiction writers
An alternative version of history, in which Germany defeated the Allies, has been described by science fiction writers many times. The overwhelming majority of authors believe that the Nazis would have brought the world totalitarianism of the worst type - they would have destroyed entire nations and built a society where there is no place for kindness and compassion.
The first work on this topic - “Night of the Swastika” by Catherine Burdekin - was published in Britain before the Second World War. This is not an alternative history, but rather a warning novel. An English writer, publishing under the pseudonym Murray Constantine, tried to look seven hundred years into the future - into the future built by the Nazis.
Even then she predicted that the Nazis would not bring anything good to the world. After victory in the Twenty Years' War, the Third Reich rules the world. Big cities destroyed, medieval castles were erected on their ruins. The Jews were exterminated without exception. Christians are banned and gather in caves. The cult of Saint Adolphus is being established. Women are considered second-class creatures, animals without a soul - they spend their entire lives in cages, subjected to continuous violence.
During World War II, the dark theme developed. Apart from dozens of stories about what will happen to Europe after the Nazi victory, we can recall at least two major works: the novels “If We Lose” by Marion West and “Illusory Victory” by Erwin Lessner. The second one is especially interesting - it considers the option post-war history, where Germany achieved an armistice at Western Front and after a respite, gathering strength, she started a new war.
The first alternative fantasy reconstruction depicting the world of victorious Nazism appeared in 1952. In the novel "The Sound of the Hunting Horn" English writer John Wall, who performed under the pseudonym Sarban, showed Britain turned by the Nazis into a huge hunting reserve. Guests from the continent, dressed as Wagnerian characters, hunt here for racially inferior people and genetically modified monsters.
Cyril Kornblatt’s story “Two Fates” is also considered a classic. The famous science fiction writer showed America defeated in 1955 and divided into occupation zones by two powers: Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The peoples of the United States are subjugated, deprived of the right to education, partially destroyed and driven into “labor camps.” Progress is stopped, science is prohibited and complete feudalism is being imposed.
A similar picture was painted by Philip K. Dick in his novel The Man in the High Castle. Europe is conquered by the Nazis, the United States is divided and given to Japan, the Jews are exterminated, and a new global war is brewing in the Pacific region. However, unlike his predecessors, Dick did not believe that Hitler's victory would lead to the degradation of humanity. On the contrary, his Third Reich stimulates scientific and technological progress and prepares for the colonization of planets solar system. At the same time, the cruelty and treachery of the Nazis is the norm in this alternative world, and therefore the Japanese will soon face the fate of the perished Jews.
American Nazis from the film adaptation of The Man in the High Castle
A unique version of the history of the Third Reich was considered by Sever Gansovsky in his story “The Demon of History.” In his alternative world, there is no Adolf Hitler, but there is a charismatic leader, Jurgen Aster - and he, too, starts a war in Europe in order to throw the conquered world at the feet of the Germans. Soviet writer illustrated the Marxist thesis about predestination historical process: an individual does not decide anything, the atrocities of World War II are a consequence of the laws of history.
The German writer Otto Basil, in his novel If the Fuhrer Knew It, arms Hitler with an atomic bomb. And Frederick Mullaly in his novel “Hitler Wins” describes how the Wehrmacht conquers the Vatican. The famous collection of English-language authors, “Hitler the Victorious,” presents the most incredible outcomes of the war: in one story, the Third Reich and the USSR divide Europe after defeating democratic countries, in another, the Third Reich loses its victory due to a gypsy curse.
The most ambitious work about another war was created by Harry Turtledove. In the “World War” tetralogy and the “Colonization” trilogy, he describes how, in the midst of the battle for Moscow, invaders fly to our planet - lizard-like aliens who have more advanced technologies than earthlings. The war against aliens forces the warring parties to unite and ultimately leads to a scientific and technological breakthrough. IN final novel The first spaceship built by humans launches into space.
However, the topic is not limited to discussing the results of the war in alternative realities. Many authors use a related idea: what if the Nazis or their opponents learned to travel through time and decided to use future technologies to achieve victory? This twist on the old plot was played out in James Hogan’s novel “Operation Proteus” and in Dean Koontz’s novel “Lightning.”
Poster for the film "It Happened Here"
Cinema did not remain indifferent to the alternative Reich. In a rare pseudo-documentary style for science fiction, the film “It Happened Here” by English directors Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo tells about the consequences of the Nazi occupation of the British Isles. The plot with a time machine and the theft of technology is played out in Stephen Cornwell's action film The Philadelphia Experiment 2. A classic alternative history is presented in the thriller “Fatherland” by Christopher Menall, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris.
For example, we can cite Sergei Abramov’s story “A Quiet Angel Flew” and Andrei Lazarchuk’s novel “Another Sky.” In the first case, the Nazis, for no apparent reason, establish European-style democracy in the conquered Soviet Union, after which we suddenly have order and abundance. In Lazarchuk’s novel, the Third Reich also provides fairly comfortable conditions for the conquered peoples, but comes to stagnation and is defeated by the dynamically developing Siberian Republic.
Such ideas are not only harmful, but also dangerous. They contribute to the illusion that the enemy should not have been resisted, that submission to the invaders could change the world for the better. It should be remembered: the Nazi regime carried a colossal charge of hatred, and therefore war with it was inevitable. Even if the Third Reich had won in Europe and Russia, the war would not have stopped, but would have continued.
Fortunately, the majority of Russian science fiction writers do not believe that the Nazis could have brought peace and democracy to the USSR. In response to novels that portrayed the Third Reich as harmless, works appeared that gave it a sober assessment. Thus, in Sergei Sinyakin’s story “Half-Breed” all the known plans of the top of the Reich to transform Europe and the world are reconstructed. The writer recalls that the basis of Nazi ideology was the division of peoples into full-fledged and inferior, and no reforms could change the Reich’s movement towards the destruction and enslavement of hundreds of millions of people.
Dmitry Kazakov sums up this topic in his novel “The Highest Race.” A detachment of Soviet front-line intelligence officers encounters a group of Aryan “supermen” created in occult laboratories. And our people emerge victorious from the bloody battle.
* * *
Let's remember that in reality, our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers defeated Hitler's “superman”. And it would be the greatest disrespect for their memory and for the truth itself to claim that they did it in vain...
And here it is - real story. Not alternative
Maxim Khrustalev
Master plan "Ost"
“We must kill from 3 to 4 million Russians a year...”
From A. Hitler’s directive to A. Rosenberg on the implementation of the Ost General Plan (July 23, 1942):
“The Slavs must work for us, and if we no longer need them, let them die. Vaccinations and health protection are unnecessary for them. Slavic fertility is undesirable... education is dangerous. It is enough if they can count to one hundred... Every educated person is our future enemy. All sentimental objections should be abandoned. We must rule this people with iron determination... Military speaking, we must kill three to four million Russians a year.”
Many have probably heard about the “General Plan Ost”, according to which the Nazis were going to “develop” the lands they had conquered in the East. However, this document was kept secret by the top leadership of the Third Reich, and many of its components and applications were destroyed at the end of the war. And only now, in December 2009, this ominous document was finally published. Only a six-page excerpt from this plan appeared at the Nuremberg trials. It is known in the historical and scientific community as “Comments and proposals of the Eastern Ministry on the “General Plan ‘Ost’.”
As was established at the Nuremberg trials, these “comments and proposals” were drawn up on April 27, 1942 by E. Wetzel, an employee of the Ministry of Eastern Territories, after familiarizing himself with the draft plan prepared by the RSHA. As a matter of fact, it was on this document that until very recently all research on Nazi plans for the enslavement of the “eastern territories” was based.
On the other hand, some revisionists could argue that this document was just a draft drawn up by a minor official in one of the ministries, and it had nothing to do with real politics. However, at the end of the 80s, the final text of the Ost plan, approved by Hitler, was found in the federal archives, and individual documents from there were presented at an exhibition in 1991. However, it was only in November-December 2009 that the “General Plan “Ost” - the foundations of the legal, economic and territorial structure of the East” was fully digitized and published. This is reported on the website of the Historical Memory Foundation.
As a matter of fact, the German government’s plan to “free up living space” for Germans and other “Germanic peoples,” which included the “Germanization” of the East and mass ethnic cleansing of the local population, did not arise spontaneously, and not out of nowhere. The German scientific community began to carry out the first developments in this direction even under Kaiser Wilhelm II, when no one had heard of National Socialism, and Hitler himself was just a skinny rural boy. As a group of German historians (Isabelle Heinemann, Willy Oberkrome, Sabine Schleiermacher, Patrick Wagner) clarifies in the study “Science, planning, expulsion: the “Ost” General Plan of the National Socialists”:
“Since 1900, racial anthropology and eugenics, or racial hygiene, can be spoken of as a specific direction in the development of science at the national and international levels. Under National Socialism, these sciences achieved the position of leading disciplines, providing the regime with methods and principles to justify racial policies. There was no precise and uniform definition of "race". Conducted racial studies raised the question of the relationship between “race” and “living space”.
At the same time, “the political culture of Germany already in the Kaiser’s empire was open to thinking in nationalist concepts. The rapid dynamics of modernization at the beginning of the twentieth century. greatly changed the way of life, daily habits and values and raised concerns about the “degeneration” of the “German essence”. “Salvation” from this irritating experience of a turning point lay, it seemed, in a re-awareness of the “eternal” values of the peasant “nationality.” However, the way in which German society intended to return to these “eternal peasant values” was chosen in a very peculiar way - the seizure of land from other peoples, mainly to the East of Germany.
Already in the First World War, after the seizure of the western lands of the Russian Empire by German troops, the occupation authorities began to think about a new state and ethnic order for these lands. In the discussion about the goals of the war, these expectations were concretized. For example, the liberal historian Meinecke said: “Couldn’t Courland also... be useful to us as a land for peasant colonization if the Latvians are expelled to Russia? Previously this would have been considered fantastic, but it is not so impracticable.”
The not so liberal General Rohrbach put it more simply: “The land conquered by the German sword must serve exclusively the benefit of the German people. The rest can roll away." These were the plans for creating a new “national soil” in the East at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Around the same years, German scientists began to argue that “appearance, spiritual, psychological and cultural values” allow us to conclude that the Nordic race is superior. Therefore, it is necessary to put an end to the mixing of races in order to prevent degeneration.” So all that remained for Hitler was to collect these “scientific ingredients”, synthesize both the “racial theory” and the idea of a new “living space”. Which is basically what he did in his book Mein Kampf in 1925. But it was just a journalistic brochure. The actual military conquests of vast territories populated by tens of millions of people prompted the Nazi leadership to approach the issue with truly German methodicality. This is how the “General Plan “Ost”” was created.
The mentioned group of German researchers reports that “in June 1942, agronomist Konrad Mayer handed over a memo to SS Reichsführer G. Himmler. This document became known as the “General Plan “Ost””. He personified the criminal nature of National Socialist policy and the unscrupulousness of the experts who participated in it. The “General Plan Ost” provided for the settlement of 5 million Germans in annexed Poland and the captured western lands of the Soviet Union. Millions of Slavic and Jewish inhabitants were to be enslaved, expelled or exterminated. The scope of the “General Plan Ost” is indicated by this map, made in 1993 by Karl Heinz Roth and Klaus Carstens based on studied documents.
At the same time, the Historical Memory Foundation “insists that the plan was developed in 1941 by the Main Directorate of Reich Security. And, accordingly, it was presented on May 28, 1942 by an employee of the Office of the Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of the German People, SS Oberführer Meyer-Hetling under the title “General Plan “Ost” - the foundations of the legal, economic and territorial structure of the East.”
However, this contradiction is apparent, since the German authors clarify that “in the period between 1940 and 1943. Himmler ordered the development of a total of five options for the violent reconstruction of Eastern Europe. Taken together, they formed a comprehensive plan called the “General Plan “Ost””. Four options came from the office of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Statehood (RKF), and one from the National Security Main Office (RSHA).
These departments had some “stylistic” differences in their approaches to this issue. As the German authors admit, “according to the RSHA plans of November 1941, 31 million people of the “foreign population” were to be deported to the East or killed. For 14 million “foreigners,” a future as slaves was planned.
Konrad Meyer’s “General Plan Ost” of June 1942 placed emphasis differently: the local population should now not be forcibly deported, but “relocated” within the occupied regions to collective farm lands. But this plan also provided for a decrease in population as a result of large-scale forced labor and the forced “liquidation of cities” (Entstädterung). In the future, it was a question of exterminating the vast majority of the population or dooming them to starvation.”
However, the Ost plan was preceded by the Rosenberg plan. This was a project developed by the Reich Ministry for Occupied Territories, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. On May 9, 1941, Rosenberg presented the Fuhrer with draft directives on policy issues in the territories that were to be occupied as a result of aggression against the USSR. Rosenberg proposed creating five governorates on the territory of the USSR. Hitler opposed the autonomy of Ukraine and replaced the term “governorate” with “Reichskommissariat”. As a result, Rosenberg’s ideas took the following forms of implementation.
The first, the Reichskommissariat Ostland, was to include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. "Ostland", where, according to Rosenberg, a population with "Aryan" blood lived, was subject to complete Germanization within two generations.
The second governorate - Reichskommissariat "Ukraine" - included Eastern Galicia (known in fascist terminology as "District Galicia"), Crimea, a number of territories along the Don and Volga, as well as the lands of the abolished Soviet Autonomous Republic of Volga Germans.
The third governorate was called the Reichskommissariat "Caucasus", and separated Russia from the Black Sea.
Fourth – Russia to the Urals.
The fifth governorate was to be Turkestan.
However, this plan seemed “half-hearted” to Hitler, and he demanded more radical solutions. In the context of German military successes, it was replaced by the “General Plan Ost”, which generally suited Hitler. According to this plan, the Nazis wanted to resettle 10 million Germans to the “eastern lands”, and from there deport 30 million people to Siberia, and not only Russians. Many of those who glorify Hitler's collaborators as freedom fighters would also be subject to deportation if Hitler had won. It was planned to evict beyond the Urals 85% of Lithuanians, 75% of Belarusians, 65% of Western Ukrainians, 75% of residents of the rest of Ukraine, 50% of Latvians and Estonians each.
By the way, about the Crimean Tatars, about whom our liberal intelligentsia loved to lament so much, and whose leaders continue to pump up their rights to this day. In the event of a German victory, which most of their ancestors served so faithfully, they would still have to be deported from Crimea. Crimea was to become a “purely Aryan” territory called Gotengau. The Fuhrer wanted to resettle his beloved Tyroleans there.
The plans of Hitler and his associates, as is well known, thanks to the courage and colossal sacrifices of the Soviet people, failed. However, it is worth reading the following paragraphs of the above-mentioned “comments” to the Ost plan - and see that some of its “creative heritage” continues to be implemented, moreover, without any participation of the Nazis.
“In order to avoid an increase in population that is undesirable for us in the eastern regions... we must consciously pursue a policy to reduce the population. By means of propaganda, especially through the press, radio, cinema, leaflets, short brochures, reports, etc., we must constantly instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have many children. It is necessary to show how much money it costs to raise children, and what could be purchased with these funds. It is necessary to talk about the great danger to a woman’s health that she is exposed to when giving birth to children, etc. Along with this, the broadest propaganda of contraceptives must be launched. It is necessary to establish widespread production of these products. The distribution of these drugs and abortions should not be restricted in any way. We should do everything we can to expand the network of abortion clinics... The better quality abortions are performed, the more confidence the population will have in them. It is clear that doctors must also be authorized to perform abortions. And this should not be considered a violation of medical ethics..."
It is very reminiscent of what began to happen in our country with the beginning of “market reforms”.
Source – “Advisor” – a guide to good books.
Let me remind you that 6 pages of the plan appeared in the Nuremberg materials, and the rest was discovered in 1991 and fully published in 2009. And we are not talking about a project, but about one approved and endorsed by Hitler. So, questions and misconceptions.
1.What is “General Plan Ost?”
2. What is the history of the emergence of GPO? What documents relate to it?
3. What is the content of the GPO?
4. In fact, the GPO was developed by a minor official, should it be taken seriously?
5. The plan does not have the signature of Hitler or any other top official of the Reich, which means it is not valid.
6. GPO was a purely theoretical concept.
7. Implementing such a plan is unrealistic.
8. When were the documents on the Ost plan discovered? Is there a possibility that they are falsified?
9.What additional information can I read about GPO?
Brief answers and details under the cut
1. What is “General Plan Ost?”
By “General Plan Ost” (GPO), modern historians understand a set of plans, draft plans and memos devoted to the issues of settling the so-called. "eastern territories" (Poland and the Soviet Union) in the event of a German victory in the war. The GPO concept was developed on the basis of Nazi racial doctrine under the patronage of the Reichskommissariat for the Strengthening of German Statehood (RKF), which was headed by SS Reichsführer Himmler, and was supposed to serve as a theoretical foundation for the colonization and Germanization of the occupied territories.
A general overview of the documents is given in the table below:
| Name | date | Volume | Prepared by whom | Original | Objects of colonization | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Planungsgrundlagen (Planning Basics) | February 1940 | 21 pp. | RKF planning department | BA, R 49/157, S.1-21 | Western regions of Poland |
| 2 | Materialien zum Vortrag “Siedlung” (materials for the report “Settlement”) | December 1940 | 5 pages | RKF planning department | facsimile in G.Aly, S.Heim "Bevölkerungsstruktur und Massenmord" (p.29-32) | Poland |
| 3 | July 1941 | ? | RKF planning department | lost, dated according to cover letter | ? | |
| 4 | Gesamtplan Ost (overall plan Ost) | December 1941 | ? | planning group III B RSHA | lost; Dr. Wetzel's lengthy review (Stellungnahme und Gedanken zum Generalplan Ost des Reichsführers SS, 04/27/1942, NG-2325; abridged Russian translation) allows us to reconstruct the content | Baltic States, Ingria; Poland, Belarus, Ukraine (strong points); Crimea (?) |
| 5 | Generalplan Ost (general plan Ost) | May 1942 | 84 pp. | Institute of Agriculture at the University of Berlin | BA, R 49/157a, facsimile | Baltic States, Ingermanland, Gotengau; Poland, Belarus, Ukraine (strong points) |
| 6 | Generalsiedlungsplan (general settlement plan) | October-December 1942 | planned 200 pages, a general outline of the plan and main digital indicators have been prepared | RKF planning department | BA, R 49/984 | Luxembourg, Alsace, Lorraine, Czech Republic, Lower Styria, Baltics, Poland |
Work on plans for the settlement of the eastern territories began virtually immediately after the creation of the Reichskommissariat to strengthen German statehood in October 1939. Headed by Prof. Konrad Mayer, the planning department of the RKF presented the first plan concerning the settlement of the western regions of Poland annexed to the Reich already in February 1940. It was under the leadership of Mayer that five of the six documents listed above were prepared (the Institute of Agriculture, which appears in document 5, was led by the same Mayer ). It should be noted that the RKF was not the only department thinking about the future of the eastern territories; similar work was carried out both in the Rosenberg ministry and in the department responsible for the four-year plan, which was headed by Goering (the so-called “Green Folder”). It is this competitive situation that explains, in part, the critical response of Wetzel, an employee of the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories, to the version of the Ost plan presented by the RSHA planning group (document 4). Nevertheless, Himmler, not least thanks to the success of the propaganda exhibition “Planning and Building a New Order in the East” in March 1941, managed to gradually achieve a dominant position. Document 5, for example, speaks of "the priority of the Reichskommissar to strengthen German statehood in matters of settlement (of colonized territories) and planning."
To understand the logic of the development of the GPO, two responses from Himmler to the plans presented by Mayer are important. In the first, dated 06/12/42 (BA, NS 19/1739, Russian translation), Himmler demands to expand the plan to include not only the “eastern”, but also other territories subject to Germanization (West Prussia, the Czech Republic, Alsace-Lorraine, etc.). etc.), reduce the time frame and set the goal of the complete Germanization of Estonia, Latvia and the entire General Government.
The consequence of this was the renaming of the GPO into the “master settlement plan” (document 6), while, however, some territories present in document 5 were excluded from the plan, to which Himmler immediately draws attention (letter to Mayer dated January 12, 1943, BA, NS 19 /1739): "The eastern territories for settlement should include Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ingermanland, as well as Crimea and Tavria [...] The named territories must be completely Germanized/fully populated."
Mayer never presented the next version of the plan: the course of the war made further work on it pointless.
The following table uses data organized by M. Burchard:
| Territory of settlement | Number of displaced persons | Population subject to eviction/not subject to Germanization | Cost estimation. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 87600 sq. km. | 4.3 million | 560,000 Jews, 3.4 million Poles in the first stage | - |
| 2 | 130,000 sq. km. | 480,000 farms | - | - |
| 3 | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 4 | 700,000 sq. km. | 1-2 million German families and 10 million foreigners with Aryan blood | 31 million (80-85% Poles, 75% Belarusians, 65% Ukrainians, 50% Czechs) | - |
| 5 | 364231 sq. km. | 5.65 million | min. 25 million (99% Poles, 50% Estonians, more than 50% Latvians, 85% Lithuanians) | RM 66.6 billion |
| 6 | 330,000 sq. km. | 12.21 million | 30.8 million (95% Poles, 50% Estonians, 70% Latvians, 85% Lithuanians, 50% French, Czechs and Slovenes) | RM 144 billion |
Let us dwell in more detail on the fully preserved and most elaborate document 5: it is expected to be gradually implemented over 25 years, Germanization quotas are introduced for various nationalities, it is proposed to prohibit the indigenous population from owning property in cities in order to displace them into countryside and use in agriculture. To control territories with an initially non-dominant German population, a form of margraviate is introduced, the first three: Ingria (Leningrad region), Gotengau (Crimea, Kherson), and Memel-Narev (Lithuania - Bialystok). In Ingria, the population of cities should be reduced from 3 million to 200 thousand. In Poland, Belarus, the Baltic states, and Ukraine, a network of strongholds is being formed, with a total of 36, ensuring effective communication of the margraviates with each other and with the metropolis (see reconstruction). In 25-30 years, the margraviates should be Germanized by 50%, and strongholds by 25-30% (In the review we already know, Himmler demanded that the implementation period of the plan be reduced to 20 years, that the complete Germanization of Estonia and Latvia and a more active Germanization of Poland be considered).
In conclusion, it is emphasized that the success of the settlement program will depend on the will and colonization power of the Germans, and if it passes these tests, then the next generation will be able to close the northern and southern flanks of colonization (i.e., populate Ukraine and central Russia.)
It should be noted that documents 5 and 6 do not include specific numbers of residents subject to eviction; however, they are derived from the difference between the actual number of residents and the planned number (taking into account German settlers and the local population suitable for Germanization). The territories to which residents who are not fit for Germanization should be evicted are named in document 4 Western Siberia. About the desire to Germanize European territory The leaders of the Reich have repeatedly spoken to Russia before the Urals.
From a racial point of view, Russians were considered the least Germanized people, moreover, poisoned for 25 years by the poison of “Judeo-Bolshevism”. It is difficult to say unequivocally how the policy of decimation of the Slavic population would be carried out. According to one of the testimonies, Himmler, before the start of Operation Barbarossa, called the goal of the campaign against Russia "decrease in the Slavic population by 30 million.". Wetzel wrote about measures to reduce the birth rate (encouraging abortion, sterilization, abandoning the fight against infant mortality, etc.), Hitler himself expressed himself more directly: "Local residents? We will have to start filtering them out. We will remove the destructive Jews altogether. My impression of the Belarusian territory is still better than that of the Ukrainian one. We will not go to Russian cities, they must completely die out. We should not torment ourselves with remorse. We there is no need to get used to the role of a nanny, we have no obligations to the local residents to repair houses, catch lice, German teachers, newspapers. No, it’s better if we open a radio station under our control, but for the rest, it’s enough for them to know the traffic signs so as not to get caught? We are on our way! By freedom, these people understand the right to wash only on holidays. If we come with shampoo, it will not cause sympathy. There is only one task: carrying out Germanization by importing Germans, and the former residents must be treated as Indians."
A minor official, Prof. Konrad Mayer was not. As mentioned above, he headed the planning department of the RKF, as well as the land department of the same Reichskommissariat and the Institute of Agriculture at the University of Berlin. He was a Standartenführer, and later an Oberführer (in the military table of ranks above colonel, but below major general) of the SS. By the way, another popular misconception is that the GPO was supposedly a figment of the fevered imagination of one crazy SS man. This is also not true: agrarians, economists, managers and other specialists from academic circles worked on the GPO. For example, in the cover letter to document 5, Mayer writes about facilitating "my closest collaborators in the planning department and the general land office, as well as the financial expert Dr. Besler (Jen)." Additional funding went through the German Research Society (DFG): for “scientific planning work to strengthen German statehood” from 1941 to 1945. 510 thousand RM were allocated, of which Mayer spent 60-70 thousand a year on his working group, the rest went as grants to scientists conducting research relevant to RKF. For comparison, maintaining a scientist with a scientific degree costs approximately 6 thousand RM per year (data from the report of I. Heinemann.)
It is important to note that Mayer worked on the GPO on the initiative and on the instructions of RKF chief Himmler and in close connection with him, while correspondence was conducted both through the chief of staff of the RKF Greifelt and directly. The photographs taken during the exhibition “Planning and Building a New Order in the East”, in which Mayer speaks to Himmler, Hess, Heydrich and Todt, are widely known.
The GPO actually did not advance beyond the design stage, which was greatly facilitated by the course of hostilities - from 1943 the plan began to quickly lose relevance. Of course, the GPO was not signed by either Hitler or anyone else, since it was a plan post-war settlement of the occupied regions. The very first sentence of Document 5 states this directly: Thanks to German weapons, the eastern territories, which had been the subject of centuries-long disputes, were finally annexed to the Reich.
Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to infer from this the disinterest of Hitler and the Reich leadership in the GPO. As shown above, work on the plan took place according to instructions and under the constant patronage of Himmler, who, in turn, I would like to convey this plan also to the Fuhrer at a convenient time.(letter dated June 12, 1942)
Let us recall that already in Mein Kampf Hitler wrote: "We stop the eternal advance of the Germans to the south and west of Europe and direct our gaze to the eastern lands". The concept of “living space in the east” was repeatedly mentioned by the Fuhrer in the 30s (for example, immediately after coming to power, on 02/03/1933, he, speaking to the Reichswehr generals, spoke about “the need to conquer living space in the east and its decisive Germanization” ), after the start of the war it acquired clear outlines. Here is a recording of one of Hitler’s monologues dated 10/17/1941:
... the Fuhrer once again general outline outlined his thoughts on the development of the eastern regions. The most important thing is the roads. He told Dr. Todt that the original plan he had prepared needed to be significantly expanded. In the next twenty years, he will have three million prisoners at his disposal to solve this problem... German cities should appear at large river crossings in which the Wehrmacht, the police, the administrative apparatus and the party will be based.
German peasant farms will be established along the roads, and the monotonous Asian-looking steppe will soon take on a completely different appearance. In 10 years, 4 million will move there, in 20 - 10 million Germans. They will come not only from the Reich, but also from America, as well as Scandinavia, Holland and Flanders. The rest of Europe can also take part in annexing Russian spaces. The Russian cities, those that will survive the war - Moscow and Leningrad must not survive it under any circumstances - should not be touched by a German. They must vegetate in their own shit away from German roads. The Fuhrer again raised the topic that “contrary to the opinion of individual headquarters,” neither the education of the local population nor the care of it should be dealt with...
He, the Fuhrer, will introduce new control with an iron hand; what the Slavs will think about this does not bother him at all. Anyone who eats German bread today doesn't think much about the fact that the fields east of the Elbe were conquered by the sword in the 12th century.
Of course, his subordinates echoed him. For example, on October 2, 1941, Heydrich described future colonization as follows:
Other lands are eastern lands, partly inhabited by Slavs, these are lands where one must clearly understand that kindness will be perceived as a sign of weakness. These are lands where the Slav himself does not want to have equal rights with the master, where he is used to being in service. These are the lands in the east that we will have to manage and hold. These are lands where, after the military issue is resolved, German control should be introduced up to the Urals, and they should serve us as a source of minerals, labor, like helots, roughly speaking. These are lands that must be treated as when building a dam and draining the coast: far in the east a protective wall is being built to protect them from Asian storms, and from the west the gradual annexation of these lands to the Reich begins. It is from this point of view that we must consider what is happening in the east. The first step would be to create a protectorate of the provinces of Danzig-West Prussia and Warthegau. A year ago, another eight million Poles lived in these provinces, as well as in East Prussia and the Silesian part. These are lands that will gradually be populated by the Germans; the Polish element will be squeezed out step by step. These are lands that will one day become completely German. And then further east, to the Baltic states, which will also one day become completely German, although here you need to think about what part of the blood of Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians is suitable for Germanization. The best in a racial sense are the Estonians, they have strong Swedish influences, then the Latvians, and the worst are the Lithuanians.
Then the turn of the rest of Poland will come, this is the next territory that should be gradually populated by the Germans, and the Poles should be squeezed out further to the east. Then Ukraine, which at first should be used as an interim solution, of course, still dormant in the subconscious national idea, separated from the rest of Russia and used as a source of minerals and provisions under German control. Of course, without allowing the people there to strengthen or strengthen themselves by raising their educational level, since from this later an opposition could grow, which, if weakened, central government will strive for independence...
A year later, on November 23, 1942, Himmler spoke about the same thing:
The main colony of our Reich lies in the east. Today - a colony, tomorrow - a settlement area, the day after tomorrow - the Reich! [...] If next year or the year after Russia is likely to be defeated in a bitter struggle, we will still have a great task before us. After the victory of the Germanic peoples, the settlement space in the east must be reclaimed, settled and integrated into European culture. Over the next 20 years - counting from the end of the war - I have set myself the task (and I hope that I can solve it with your help) to move the German border about 500 km to the east. This means that we must resettle farming families there, the resettlement of the best carriers of German blood will begin and the ordering of the million-strong Russian people for our tasks... 20 years of struggle to achieve peace lie before us... Then this east will be cleansed of foreign blood and ours families will settle there as legal owners.
As is easy to see, all three quotes perfectly correlate with the main provisions of the GPO.
In a broad sense, this is true: there is no reason to implement a plan for the post-war settlement of the occupied territories until the war is over. This does not mean, however, that measures to Germanize certain regions were not carried out at all. First of all, it should be noted here that the western regions of Poland (West Prussia and Warthegau) annexed to the Reich, the settlement of which was discussed in document 1. During the multi-stage measures for the deportation of Jews and Polish (the former were first deported, like the Poles, to the General Government, then they were taken into ghettos and extermination camps on their own territory: of the 435,000 Jews of Warthegau, 12,000 remained alive) by March 1941. More than 280 thousand people were taken from Warthegau alone. Total number those deported from West Prussia and Warthegau to the General Government of the Poles are estimated at 365 thousand people. Their yards and apartments were occupied by German settlers, of whom there were already 287 thousand in these two regions by March 1942.
At the end of November 1942, on the initiative of Himmler, the so-called "Action Zamość", the goal of which was the Germanization of the Zamość district, which was declared the "first area of German settlement" in the General Government. By August 1943, 110 thousand Poles were evicted: about half were deported, the rest fled on their own, many joined the partisans. To protect future settlers, it was decided to take advantage of the hostility between Poles and Ukrainians and create a defensive ring of Ukrainian villages around the settlement area. Due to a lack of forces to support order, the action was stopped in August 1943. By that time, only about 9,000 of the 60,000 planned settlers had moved to the Zamość district.
Finally, in 1943, not far from Himmler’s headquarters in Zhitomir, the German town of Hegewald was created: the place of 15,000 Ukrainians expelled from their homes was taken by 10,000 Germans. At the same time, the first settlers went to Crimea.
All these activities also fully correlate with GPO. It is interesting to note that prof. Mayer visited Western Poland, Zamosc, Zhitomir, and Crimea during business trips, i.e. assessed the feasibility of his concept on the ground.
Of course, one can only guess about the reality of implementing the GPO in the form in which it is described in the documents that have reached us. We are talking about the resettlement of tens of millions (and, apparently, the extermination of millions) of people; the need for migrants is estimated at 5-10 million people. The discontent of the expelled population and, as a consequence, a new round of armed struggle against the occupiers is practically guaranteed. It is unlikely that settlers would be eager to move to areas where guerrilla warfare is ongoing.
On the other hand, we are talking not just about the fixed idea of the Reich leadership, but also about scientists (economists, planners, managers) who projected this fixed idea onto reality: no supernatural or impossible obligations were set, the task of Germanization of the Baltic states, Ingermanland, Crimea, Poland, parts of Ukraine and Belarus were to be resolved in small steps over 20 years, with details (for example, the percentage of suitability for Germanization) being adjusted and clarified along the way. As for the “unrealism of the GPO” in terms of scale, we must not forget that, for example, the number of Germans expelled during and after the end of World War II from the territories in which they lived is also described as an eight-digit number. And it took not 20 years, but five times less.
Hopes (expressed today, mainly by adherents of General Vlasov and other collaborators) that some part of the occupied territories would gain independence or at least self-government are not reflected in real Nazi plans(see, for example, Hitler in Bormann’s entry, 07/16/41: ...we will again emphasize that we were forced to occupy this or that area, restore order in it and secure it. In the interests of the population, we are forced to take care of peace, food, communications, etc., so we are introducing our own rules here. No one should recognize that in this way we are introducing our rules forever! Despite this, we are carrying out and can carry out all the necessary measures - executions, evictions, etc.
We, however, do not wish to prematurely turn anyone into our enemies. Therefore, for now we will act as if this area is a mandated territory. But it must be absolutely clear to us that we will never leave it. [...]
The most basic:
The formation of a power to the west of the Urals capable of waging war should never be allowed, even if we have to fight for another hundred years. All the successors of the Fuhrer must know: the Reich will only be safe if there is no foreign army west of the Urals; Germany takes upon itself the protection of this space from all possible threats.
The iron law should read: “No one other than Germans should ever be allowed to bear arms!”)
At the same time, it makes no sense to compare the situation in 1941-42. with the situation in 1944, when the Nazis made promises much more easily, since they were happy with almost any help: active conscription into the ROA began, Bandera was released, etc. How did the Nazis treat the allies who were pursuing goals not approved in Berlin, incl. who stood up for (albeit puppet) independence in 1941-42, is clearly shown by the example of the same Bandera.
Dr. Wetzel's opinion and a number of accompanying documents appeared already at the Nuremberg trials; documents 5 and 6 were discovered in American archives and published by Czeslaw Madajczyk (Przeglad Zachodni Nr. 3 1961).
Theoretically, the possibility that a particular document is falsified always exists. IN in this case However, it is important that we are dealing not with one or two, but with a whole complex of documents, which includes not only the main ones discussed above, but also various accompanying notes, reviews, letters, protocols - in the classic collection of Ch. Madaychika collected more than a hundred relevant documents. Therefore, it is absolutely not enough to call one document a falsification, taking it out of the context of the others. If, for example, document 6 is a falsification, then what does Himmler write to Mayer in his response to it? Or, if Himmler’s review of 06.12.42 is a falsification, then why is Document 6 embodied the instructions contained in this review? And most importantly, why do the GPO documents, if they are falsified, correlate so well with the statements of Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich, etc.?
Those. here you need to build a whole conspiracy theory explaining why malicious intent found in different time in various archives, documents and speeches of Nazi bosses are built into a coherent picture. And to question the reliability of individual documents (as some authors do, counting on the uneducated reading public) is quite pointless.
First of all, books in German:
- collection of documents compiled by Ch. Madayczyk Vom Generalplan Ost zum Generalsiedlungsplan, Saur, München 1994;
- Mechthild Rössler, Sabine Schleiermacher (Hrsg.): Der „Generalplan Ost“. Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs- und Vernichtungspolitik, Akademie, Berlin 1993;
- Rolf-Dieter Müller: Hitlers Ostkrieg und die deutsche Siedlungspolitik, Frankfurt am Main 1991;
- Isabel Heinemann: Rasse, Siedlung, deutsches Blut. Das Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS und die rassenpolitische Neuordnung Europas, Wallstein: Göttingen 2003 (partially available)
Lots of materials, incl. used above, on the thematic site of M. Burchard.