Too Many Mouths to Feed


Why did Hitler attack his ally at the time, the Soviet Union? When did the Nazis make the decision to kill Jews en mass?

Your answers were probably: (1) Because of Hitler’s megalomania; and (2) Pretty much from the beginning. Wrong, writes Peter Frankopan in his bestseller, The Silk Roads. Believe it or not, the common thread to both decisions was… food. Or rather, Germany not having enough food.

From the 1930’s, Hitler was concerned about Germany’s “inadequacy of domestic agriculture”. So he wanted control of Ukraine and its fertile soil. That was one of the key drivers for the Nazi pact with Stalin: to secure food (via Ukraine). Sure, securing oil from Russia and ensuring Russia did not attack Germany too mattered. Right after the agreement, Hitler attacked Poland (an event that set off World War II). Why Poland? To have a “direct” line from Germany to Ukraine.

As the Soviet Union proved to be unreliable in its supplies to Germany, Hitler began to wonder whether it made sense to just take over Russia, and take control of Russia’s crops (and other resources). His advisor on agriculture agreed that the policy was worth the effort and risk. Once the Nazi attack on Soviet Union started, Goebbels announced that the war with Russia was for “grain and bread, for a well-stocked breakfast, lunch and dinner table”. Hatred and contempt for Slavs, Bolsheviks and communism added fuel to the fire.

The Nazi plan for Jews had been to move them to… Poland, Madagascar, Serbia and Palestine, anywhere else. In fact, even 12 months before the start of the Holocaust in 1941, Zionist groups were talking to the Nazis to ship Jews to Palestine. Why? It would increase the number of Jews to fight the Arabs, allow for creation of a Jewish state, a weakened Arab world would be bad for Britain (who got their oil from Arabs), and also provide a destination for a pan-European problem: we don’t want them here, but where do we send them?

Right about then, however, the food situation was becoming dire. If there wasn’t enough food for Germans, surely it didn’t make sense to feed the Jews and other enemies of the state? All of these groups were already segregated (Jews) or in prisons (enemies of the state). The solution seemed obvious, the now infamous “Final Solution” to kill them all.

But how to kill so many people fast? Techniques were tried on, not Jews, but Soviet prisoners of war, who weren’t worth wasting food over either. Pesticides, carbon monoxide poisoning were all tried on the Soviet POW’s in 1941. The “better” techniques made their way to the concentration camps from there…

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