Figure 1.-Hitler expicitly stated in "Mein Kampf" which he published in 1925 that Germany needed to obtain Lebenraum in Russia. That of course meant war. Thus no one should have been surprised when he invaded the Soviet Union. What he did not say in "Mein Kamp" was what was to be done with the more than 90 million Slavs and other non-Germans that already occupied the land. That question was answered by Generalplan Ost (1941). This snapshot was taken by a German soldier. Few Whrmsct soldiers had any idea what the NAZI leadership planned for the people they encountered as they drove east.i

Generalplan Ost (Feneral Plan East) was the NAZI blueprint for the most horendous crime ever envisioned in human history. The Holocaust directed at Europe's 11 million Jews was just one part of Generalplan Ost. The basic outline for Generalplan Ost was sketched out by Hitler in Mein Kampf. The invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia gave the NAZIs the first slice of eastern territory to begin their transformation of eastern Europe (March 1939). But the NAZIs considered the Czechs to be the most advanced Slavs. Anbd they needed Czech industry for arms production. So the Czechs were left with a pupet government and Germinization was put off least it disrupt arms production. Polandd was the next slize of the East. It was auch bigger slice and the Poles were Slavs that Hitler dispised. Himmler launched into aminization process in the EWartergau, but Frank protested with Himmler began dumping Jews and Poles in the General Government. So again Germinization and whole-scale deportations had to be delayed. Himmler and NAZI Party officials argued about Eastern policy. Himmler wanted to settle Germans in the East and to carefully select the existing populations for German blood. Some NAZI Party officials wanted to pursue a less biolgically oriented policy and to accept large numbers of the existing population which was anti-Bolshevik. The debate over Eastern policy raged in NAZI circles for 2 years. With the stunning success of Opperation Barbarossa (June 1941), Hitler finally decided. He essentially acceopted Himmler's approach and SS planners began preparing Generalplan Ost. It was developed in secret. The principal area covered was the Sovie Union (including the Baltics), but Poland and Czehoslovakia was also included. Himmler and Heydrich was anxious to put it into operation. The major impediment to carrying it out was the Red Army.

Historic Drang nach Osten (Drive to the East)

Germans during the Middle Ages pushed east into lands occupied by the Slavs and Blts. Historians now use the term "Der Drang nach Osten". This term was not used in the Middle Ages. Rather the Germans at the time used the term "Ostsiedlung" or "east colonization". It was the German effort to expand their culture, language, and settlement east. The Germans had been push west by the Huns, Avars, and other nomadic warriors from Central Asia. These pressure from Central Asia subsided and Eastern Europe was settled by Slavs and Balts. With the fall of the Roman Empire, Germanic tribes over ran the West and established medieval kingdoms. These kingdoms, especially the ones in the east began to push east to expand their territory. After the Darl Ages the comonies of Europe began to increase as commerce quickened and agricultural technology increased yields. The result was an expanding population. German at the time was the Holy Roman Empire. Germans from the Rhenish, Flemish, and Saxon territories of Empire eastwards began tomigrate east into the less-densly populated areas of the Baltic and Poland. This population movements were supported by the German nobility and the medieval Church. It was also supported by Slavic kings and nobility. This is because the increased population and the skills of the German settlers meant increased income and taxes. Much of this migration was peaceful. There were also military campaigns launched against the Poles and still pagan Balts. This is sometimes referred to as the Northern Crusades. One of the Baltic tribes attacked was the Prussei (1018-1285) and the future state of Prussia would take on the name of the defeated tribe. The Teutonic Knights played a major role in the conquest of the Balts. Konrad of Masovia invited the Knights to northern Poland. The Teutonic Knights became a Polish vassal (1466). Der Drang nach Osten is a German term that appeared in the 19th century with the rise of German nationalism. It became a centerpiece of NAZism culminating in Germany's World War II invasion of Poland and the Soviet Union.

German-Polish Conflict

The German-Polish conflict in modern history began with the Polish Partitions (18th century). The Germans had established themselves as te ruling class all along the souther Baltic coast east of Denmark. Most of the cities were founded by Germans and members of the Hanseatic League. Germans also owned large agricultural estates where the Baklts labored as serfs. When Peussiacquired areas of western Poland this same basic pattern contunued, although Poland was aarger piopulation group with an established nobility. Russia acquired most of Poland, but Prussia acquired its smaller share. Polish workers once within the German Empire began to move west and Polisg population began to increase in eastern Germany. German nationalists became increasingly concerned. German landowners ironically were partly responsible. They hired Poles who would work for less than their German workers and in many cases began to acquire land. Other Germans moved west seaking the higher paying jobs in the industrial cities of the Ruhr. Thus the Poles began to displace Germans. This was a sensitive issue because to some Germans there was an almost mystical attachment to the land. Even Chancelor Bismarck lent his name to government efforts to promote German land ownership. These efforts were only marginally successful. After World War I, areas of eastern Germany were transferred to the new Polish republic. This included the Polish corridor to provide Poland and access to the sea. Some areas of the Corridor included sunstantial German populations. And the Polish Govenment copied some of the policies of the former Imperial German Government, but to greater effect to promote Polish land ownership.

Mein Kampf (1925)

The basic outline for Generalplan Ost was sketched out by Hitler in Mein Kampf which he published (1925). Hitler devoted more verbage to castigating the Jews than the Slavs, but his intentions toward the Slavs very clear. Many were surprised with what Hitler did because they dismissed what he wrote in Mein Ksampf. Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that the Slavs were not capable of creating real civilization -- only copying it from truly creative peoples like the Germans. He pointed to the role of the Rus (Swedish Vikings) in creating the first Slavic state. For Hitler, culture coming from Russia was the product if German blood. Hiutler in Mein Kampf adopted the geopolitical concept of "Lebensraum" or the living space needed for the German people and nation. He wrote, "Only an adequately large space on this earth assures a nation of freedom of existence." The larger a nation, according to Hitler, the larger its influence a\nd power in international affairs. He believed that the greatness of a nation was decided by territorial expansion. He wrote, "what is refused to amicable methods, it is up to the fist to take." He saw that it was in the East that Germany's future lay an in Mein Kampf he made it very clear. The need for living space in Europe for the expanding German population "could be obtained by and large only at the expense Russia, and this meant that the new Reich must again set itself on the march along the road of the Teutonic Knights of old, to obtain by the German sword sod for the German plow and daily bread for the nation." This of course meant war. Russia was not about to teaen land over to Germany. What Hitler did not address in Mein Kampf was what to be done with the Slavs and other non-German people already on the land.

Himler's Romantic German Mysticism

One might think that harkening back to the medieval Germanic Drang nach Osten and Gerrman mysticism was unrealistic in the 20th century. The only thing is that such concepts were very important to some German nationlists. One of those nationalists was SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. He beieved the backbone of the German nation was the small, peasant farmer. And he founded the Schutzstaffeln (SS) which grew inton a multi-headed hydra. The SS he fashioned was a kind of medieval brotherhood--a modern version of the Teutonic knights. He was next to Hitler the most powerful man in Europe. He in essence had the power to make medieval fantasies come true. Hitler was more practical and did not share his attachment to German mysticism. The two men did, however, share a Germanic vision for the East. They saw German settlers founding agricvultural settlents in the East. And the SS that Himmler constructed provided an instrument carry out that vision.

Preliminary Steps (1939-41)

The invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia gave the NAZIs the first slice of eastern territory to begin their transformation of eastern Europe (March 1939). But the NAZIs considered the Czechs to be the most advanced Slavs. And they needed Czech industry for arms production. So the Czechs were left with a puppet government and Germinization was put off least it disrupt arms production. There were other even more facored Slavs (the Slovakians and Croatians). Poland was the next slize of the East seized by Gwermany (September 1939). It was a much bigger slice and the Poles were Slavs that Hitler dispised. Himmler launched into aminization process in the EWartergau, but Frank protested with Himmler began dumping Jews and Poles in the General Government. So again Germinization and whole-scale deportations had to be stopped and delayed.

NAZI Debate Over Eastern Policy

Himmler and NAZI Party officials argued about Eastern policy. Himmler wanted to settle Germans in the East and to carefully select the existing populations for German blood. Some NASZI Party officials wanted to pursue a less biolgically oriented policy and to accept large numbers of the existing population which was anti-Bolshevik. The debate over Eastern policy raged in NAZI circles for 2 years.

Barbarossa (June 1941)

The Battle of Britain in many ways changed the course of the War. An invasion of Britain was impossible without air superiority. Hitler, fearing a cross-Channel invasion, decided that the only way to force the British to seek terms was to destroy the Soviet Union. He began shifting the Wehrmacht eastward to face the enemy that he had longed to fight from the onset--Soviet Russia. The nature of the War changed decisevely in the second half of 1941. The Germans invaded Russia in June 1941, launching the most sweeping military campaign in history. It is estimated that on the eve of battle, 6.25 million men faced each other in the East. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. Stalin ignored warnings from the British who as a result of Ultra had details on the German preparations. Stalin was convinced that they were trying to draw him into the War and until the actual attack could not believe that Hitle would attack him. The attack was an enormous tactical success. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. The Soviet Air Force was destoyed, largely on the ground. The Germans captured 3.8 million Soviet soldiers in the first few months of the campaign. No not knowing the true size of the Red Army, they thought they had essentally won the War. German columns seized the major cities of western Russia and drove toward Leningrad and Moscow. But here the Soviets held. The Japanese decision to strike America, allowed the Sovierts to shift Siberian reserves and in December 1941 launch a winter offensive stopping the Whermacht at the gates of Moscow--inflicting irreplaceable losses. The army that invaded the Soviet Union had by January 1942 lost a quarter of its strength. Hitler on December 11 declared war on America--the only country he ever formally declared war on. In an impassioned speech, he complained of a long list of violations of neutality and actual acts of war. [Domarus, pp. 1804-08.] The list was actually fairly accurate. His conclusion, however, that actual American entry into the War would make little difference proved to a diasterous miscalculation. The Germans who months before had faced only a battered, but unbowed Britain now was locked into mortal combat with the two most powerful nations of the world. The British now had the allies that made a German and Japanese victory virtually impossible. After the Russian offensive of December 1941 and apauling German losses--skeptics began to appear and were give the derisory term " Gröfaz ".

The Holocaust

The Holocaust was a crime without presidence in modern history. The Holocaust was directed at Europe's 11 million Jews was just one part of Generalplan Ost. The NAZIs agreed that the Jews had to go, although murder was not at first envisioned. This was, however, after extensive debate the Final Sollution that Hitler ordered. Mass killings of Jews began behind the front kines as German armies swept East. Once this prescedent was set and it looked like the War was won, the fate if Jews in NAZI hands was sealed. Eliminating the JHews was just one part of auch larger plan to remake the ethnic map of Europe by Germanizing the East. The NAZIs agreed over Germanizing the East. They were not in such agreement as to what should be done with the Slavs and other non-German people in Eastern Europe.

German Administration

Part of the mythology of the NASZI state was the efficeny of the Führer Principle. A highly centralized state which acted on the instructions of the Führer. The actual situation, especially in the East was almost Byzantine. The administration and policy in the East was fought over by the Whermascht, the traditional civil service, the new Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete (RMBO) Ministry for the occupied Eastern Territories), the SS, and the NAZI Party through powerful gaulitiers (district heads/govenors) that Hitler appointed to govern the East. In World War I it was the Germany Army that goverened the occupied Eastern territories. In World War II the SS and the Party were the tweo mahor bodies bodies that struggled for control. Hitler did not want the Wehrmacht or the civil service to control the occupied sareas, believing that they would not act with the needed decisivness. It might be though that Rosenberg's RMBO would have controlled the East, but this was not the case. When conflicts developed between the Party gaulitiers (who Hitler appointed personally), Hitler ordered Rosenberg not to interfere.

Political Division of the East

Planning

After Hitler ordered Himmler to cease his radical plan to deport Jews and Poles from the western areas of Poland into the General Government, Himmler did noit give up on his desire to eathnically clense western Poland. He began a major planning and study effort with the SS during 1940. This study effort was coordinated by SS-Standartenführer Dr. Hans Ehlich, a high officisal in the RSHA. The study groups created the Ostforschung, studies, and research projects, Various academic centrers were involved. The research effort drew on work begun even before the War. Himmler was obseessed with the whole idea--the final completion of the ancient Germanic Drang nach Osten (Drive East). He must have discussed this with Hitler even before the War. He also discussed the work being done with the SS study groups with trusted SS colleagues. One such colleague was SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski. (After the War Bach-Zelewski dtestified at the trial of officials of the SS Rasse und Siedlungshauptamt RuSHA (SS Office of Race and Settlement). Ehlich drawing on the vasrious study groups drafted Generalplan Ost which was essentially ready in 1940, but Himmler did not get the goahead from Hitler. Hitler hesitated not because he disagreed with the objectives of the OSP. Rather it was all the havioc Himmler had created in 1939 which Hitler saw a disrupting the War effort.

Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA)

The SS agency which drafted the Generalplan Ost (GPO) was the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA -- Reich Security Office). This was the SS unit responsible for combating the enemies of National Socialism and the German Reich. Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's most poweful subordinate and with direct access to the Führer, headed the RSHA. Under Himmler's deft hand, the cRHSA was created (1939). It combined the NAZI security aparatus under one command. It included the Sicherheitsdienst (SD -- Security Police), Kriminalpolizei (Kripo, the state criminal police), and the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo the state secret police). Many authors refer to the Gestapo as the NAZI secret police. In fact the Gestapo was only one part of the NAZI security aparatus. In fact the correct term is the RSHA. Because of the highly biological/racial concept of Germandom, the Jews were one of the groups considered to be enemies of the Reich. A unit of the RSHA was Amt VI headed by SS Colonel Adolph Eichmann who oversaw the mechanics of the Holocaust. Other groups, especially the Slavs were seen as enenies of the Reich. Thus the planning for GPO was another undertaking of the RSHA.

The Plan

With the stunning success of Opperation Barbarossa (June 1941), Hitler finally decided on the future shape of the NAZI dominions in the East and the fate of the people there. He essentially accepted Himmler's approach. SS planners had been hard at work since 1940 on preparing Generalplan Ost (GPO). It was developed in absolute secrecy. The final plan was never released to the public or even widely distributed to the NAZI leadership. It was know by only to those in the highest level of the NAZI leadership. The principal area covered was the Soviet Union (including the Baltics), but Poland and Czehoslovakia was also included. Himmler and Heydrich was anxious to put it into operation and the SS provided the organization capable of putting it into action. The major impediment to carrying it out proved to be te Soviet Red Army, which unlike Hitler's expectations did not collapse, and the small number of Germans available to settle the vast vEast.

Documentation

An actual copy of Generalplan Ost (GPO) has never been fiound. Unlike the Holocaust, GPO was never fully implemnented as a result of the course of the War shifting against the Germans in the East. Thus there is much less documentary evidence for GPO than the Holocaust. And as much of the documentation was in RSHA officers in Berlin, the paperwork involved was more easily destroyed. RSHA officials suceeded in destroying the documentation in the final weeks of the War. [Poprzeczny, p. 186.] There is no doubt, however, thast such a plan existed and used as a organizational guide by NAZI security and occupation authorities. SS officials like Ehlich's mentioned OSP. And documents survived which refer to OSP. It is thus possible to reconstruct OSP from the testimony of SS officials and the many surviving documents. One of the most importasnt of these dicuments is a memorandum written by Dr. Erich Wetzel, the director of the Central Advisory Office on Questions of Racial Policy at the National Socialist Party (Leiter der Hauptstelle Beratungsstelle des Rassenpolitischen Amtes der NSDAP). The memorandum was titled Stellungnahme und Gedanken zum Generalplan Ost des Reichsführers SS ("Opinion and Ideas Regarding the General Plan for the East of the Reichsführer-SS") (April 27, 1942). It was apparently written to inform Reichsminister Rosenberg of what Himmler was planning. The two had very different visions of the East, but Rosenberg despite the ministeriual post and gaudy uniforms was a light-weight in the NAZI heirarchy and it was Himmler's vision which prevailed in GPO.

Soureces

Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kasmpf (1925).

Poprzeczny, Joseph. Odilo Globocnik: Hitler's Man in the East (McFarland: 2004).

Created: 3:31 AM 6/26/2009
Last updated: 3:31 AM 6/26/2009