Plan "Ost" About the Nazi program of extermination of entire nations. Great patriotic war plan ost

Date: 13.10.2019

dear comrades, the finished Russian translation of the "General Plan Ost" is posted ----- >> in pdf.
translations were made by the Essence of Time Club and posted on InoForum. Recently, NTV once again drew public attention to the topic of the Ost master plan, announcing that for the first time a text has been published in the public domain ... which has colossal historical value. In fact, the text of the document under discussion had long been “widely available” on the same site, it was simply added to its facsimile from the Bundesarchive (however, this is not the only inaccuracy in this short reportage). After participating in a couple of regular discussions on the topic of GPO, I realized that I was tired of repeating the same thing over and over again, and I decided to systematize the main questions and answers to them. Of course, this text is a “working” version and does not pretend to be a final closure of the topic of the “master plan”.

Most often found next questions:

2. What is the history of the occurrence of GPO? What documents relate to it?
3. What is the content of the GPO?
5. On the plan there is no signature of Hitler or any other high official of the Reich, which means that it is invalid.

8. When were the documents for the Ost plan discovered? Is there a possibility that they are falsified?
9. What can you read more about GPO?

1. What is the "General Plan Ost?"

Under the "General Plan Ost" (GPO) modern historians understand a set of plans, draft plans and memorandums devoted to the settlement of the so-called. "Eastern territories" (Poland and Soviet Union) in the event of a German victory in the war. The concept of the GPO was developed on the basis of the Nazi racial doctrine under the patronage of the Reichskommissariat for Strengthening German Statehood (RKF), which was headed by SS Reichsfuehrer Himmler, and was supposed to serve as the theoretical foundation for the colonization and Germanization of the occupied territories.

2. What is the history of the occurrence of GPO? What documents relate to it?

A general overview of the documents is given in the following table (with links to the materials posted on the web):

	Name	date	Volume	Prepared by	Original	Colonization objects
1	Planungsgrundlagen (Planning Basics)	February 1940	21 pages	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 p.	RKF planning department	facsimile in G. Aly, S. Heim "Bevölkerungsstruktur und Massenmord" (pp. 29-32)	Poland
3		July 1941	?	RKF planning department	lost, dating by cover letter	?
4	Gesamtplan Ost (cumulative plan Ost)	December 1941	?	planning group III B RSHA	lost; lengthy review of Dr. Wetzel (Stellungnahme und Gedanken zum Generalplan Ost des Reichsführers SS, 04/27/1942, NG-2325; an abbreviated Russian translation allows to reconstruct the content	The Baltic States, Ingermanlandia; Poland, Belarus, Ukraine (strong points); Crimea (?)
5	Generalplan Ost (master plan Ost)	May 1942	Chapter 84	Institute for Agriculture at the University of Berlin BA, R 49 / 157a, facsimile	BA, R 49 / 157a, facsimile	The Baltic States, Ingermanlandia, Gotengau; Poland, Belarus, Ukraine (strong points)
6	Generalsiedlungsplan (master settlement plan)	October-December 1942	planned 200 pages, prepared a general outline of the plan and the main digital indicators	RKF planning department	BA, R 49/984	Luxembourg, Alsace, Lorraine, Czech Republic, Styria, Baltic, Poland

Work on plans to settle the eastern territories began almost 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 for 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 above documents were prepared (Institute Agriculture, which appears in document 5, was directed by the same Mayer). It should be noted that the RKF was not the only agency that thought about the future of the eastern territories, similar work was carried out 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 particular, the criticality of the recall of the employee of the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories Wetzel on 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 dominance. Document 5, for example, speaks of "the priority of the Reich Commissioner for strengthening German statehood in matters of settlement (colonized territories) and planning."

The consequence of this was the renaming of the GPO into a "general settlement plan" (document 6), while, however, some of the territories that were present in the document 5 dropped out of the plan, to which Himmler immediately draws attention (letter to Mayer dated 01/12/1943, 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 should be fully 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 the data systematized by M. Burchard:

	Territory of settlement	Number of immigrants	Population subject to eviction / not subject to Germanization	Cost estimation
1.	87,600 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.	364,231 sq. Km	5.65 million	min. 25 million (90% Poles, 50% Estonians, more than 50% Latvians, 85% Lithuanians)	66 billion RM
6.	330,000 sq. Km	12.21 million	30.8 million (95% Poles, 50% Estonians, 70% Latvians, 85% Lithuanians, 50% French, Czechs and Slovenes)	144 billion RM

Let us dwell in more detail on the fully preserved and most elaborated document 5: it is supposed to be implemented in stages over 25 years, quotas of Germanization for various nationalities are introduced, it is proposed to prohibit the indigenous population from owning property in cities in order to displace it into the countryside and use it in agriculture. To control territories with an initially predominant German population, the form of margrave is introduced, the first three: Ingermanlandia ( Leningrad region), Gotengau (Crimea, Kherson), and Memel-Narev (Lithuania - Bialystok). In Ingermanland, the population of cities should be reduced from 3 million to 200 thousand. In Poland, Belarus, the Baltic States, Ukraine, a network of 36 strong points is being formed, providing effective communication between the margraves and the metropolis (see reconstruction). In 25-30 years, the margraves should be Germanized by 50%, and the strong points by 25-30% (In the already known review, Himmler demanded to reduce the implementation period of the plan to 20 years, to think over the complete Germanization of Estonia and Latvia and more active Germanization of Poland).

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 withstands 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.)

From a racial point of view, Russians were considered the least Germanici

by the people, who were also poisoned for 25 years by the poison of “Judo-Bolshevism”. How the policy of decimation of the Slavic population would have been carried out is difficult to say unequivocally. According to one of the testimonies, Himmler, before the start of Operation Barbarossa, called the goal of the campaign against Russia "to reduce the Slavic population by 30 million." Wetzel wrote about measures to reduce the birth rate (encouraging abortion, sterilization, refusal to combat child mortality, etc.), Hitler himself expressed himself more directly: “Local residents? We'll have to do some filtering. We will remove destructive Jews altogether. So far, my impression of the Belarusian territory is better than that of the Ukrainian one. We will not go to Russian cities, they must completely die out. We must not torment ourselves with remorse. We do not need to get used to the role of a nanny, we have no obligations to the local residents. Repairing houses, catching lice, German teachers, newspapers? No! We'd better open a radio station under our control, but otherwise they just need to know the signs road traffic so as not to get in our way! By freedom, these people understand the right to wash only on holidays. If we come with shampoo, it will not arouse sympathy. You need to retrain there. There is only one task: to carry out Germanization by bringing in Germans, and the former inhabitants must be regarded as Indians. "

4. In fact, the GPO was developed by a petty official, is it worth taking it seriously?

and the assistance of "my closest associates in the planning department and the general land office, as well as the financial expert Dr. Besler (Jena)." Additional funding went through the German Research Society (DFG): from 1941 to 1945, 510 thousand RM were allocated for "scientific and planning work to strengthen German statehood", of which 60-70 thousand were spent by Mayer on his working group, the rest went as grants to scientists who conducted research relevant to RKF. For comparison, the maintenance of a scientist with a scientific degree cost about 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 the RKF chief Himmler and in close connection with him, while the correspondence was carried out both through the head of the RKF headquarters 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.

5. The plan does not have the signature of Hitler or any other Nazi leader, which means that it is invalid.

The GPO actually did not advance beyond the design stage, which was in no small measure 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 for the post-war settlement of the occupied regions. In the very first sentence of document 5, this is stated directly: "Thanks to German weapons, the eastern territories, which have been the object of disputes that have been dragging on for many centuries, are finally annexed to the Reich."

Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to deduce from this the disinterest of Hitler and the Reich leadership in the GPO. As already shown above, the work on the plan took place on the instructions and under the constant patronage of Himmler, who, in turn, "would like to transfer this plan to the Fuehrer at a convenient time" (letter of 06/12/1942)

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, 02/03/1933, he, speaking to the generals of the Reichswehr, spoke of "the need to conquer living space in the east and its decisive Germanization" ), after the outbreak of the war, it acquired a clear outline. Here is a recording of one of Hitler's monologues from 10/17/1941:

Fuhrer once again in 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 greatly expanded. In the next twenty years, he will have three million prisoners at his disposal to solve this problem ... At large river crossings, German cities should arise in which the Wehrmacht, police, administrative apparatus and the party will be based.
German peasant farms will be established along the roads, and the monochromatic Asian-looking steppe will soon take on a completely different look. In 10 years 4 million Germans 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 the annexation of the Russian expanses. In Russian cities, those that will survive the war - Moscow and Leningrad should not survive it at any time - the foot of a German should not step. They have to vegetate in their own shit off the German roads. The Fuehrer 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 engaged ...
He, the Fuhrer, will introduce new management with an iron fist, what the Slavs will think of this does not touch him at all. Anyone who eats German bread today does not think too much about the fact that the fields east of the Elbe were conquered by sword in the 12th century.

Of course, his subordinates also echoed him. For example, on October 2, 1941, Heydrich described the future colonization as follows:

Other lands are eastern lands, partly inhabited by Slavs, these are lands on which it is necessary to clearly understand that kindness will be perceived as a manifestation 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 the service. These are lands in the east that we will have to manage and hold. These are the lands where, after the solution of the military question to the Urals itself, German control should be introduced, 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: a protective wall is being built far to the east, enclosing them from Asian storms, and from the west, the gradual annexation of these lands to the Reich begins. From this point of view, it is necessary to consider what is happening in the east. The first step will be the creation of a protectorate from 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 in due time will become completely German. And then further east, to the Baltic States, which will also in due time become completely German, although here you need to consider what part of the blood of Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians is suitable for Germanization. The best in the racial sense are Estonians, they have strong Swedish influences, then Latvians, and the worst are Lithuanians.
Then it will be the turn of the rest of Poland, this is the next territory, which should be gradually populated by the Germans, and the Poles should be squeezed further east. Then Ukraine, which at first as an intermediate solution should be using, of course, still dormant in the subconscious of the national idea, separated from the rest of Russia and used as a source of minerals and food under German control. Of course, not allowing the people there to gain a foothold or strengthen, increasing their educational level, since this may later grow into opposition, which, with the weakening of the central government, will strive for independence ...

A year later, on 11/23/1942, Himmler said the same thing:

The main colony of our Reich lies in the east. Today - the colony, tomorrow - the settlement area, the day after tomorrow - the Reich! [...] If in next year or in a year Russia will probably be defeated in a bitter struggle, we still have a great task before us. After the victory of the Germanic peoples, the settlement space in the east must be reclaimed, populated and incorporated into European culture. Over the next 20 years - counting from the end of the war - I 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 farm families there, the resettlement of the best bearers of German blood will begin and the ordering of the million 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 our families will settle there as legal owners.

As you can easily see, all three quotes perfectly correlate with the main provisions of the GPO.

6. GPO was a purely theoretical concept.

In a broad sense, this is true: there is no reason to implement the plan for the post-war settlement of the occupied territories until the war is over. This does not mean, however, that measures for the Germanization of individual regions were not carried out at all. First of all, it should be noted here the western regions of Poland (West Prussia and Warthegau) annexed to the Reich, the settlement of which was mentioned in document 1. During the multi-stage measures for the deportation of the Jewish and Polish in ghettos and extermination camps on their own territory: of the 435,000 Jews in Warthegau, 12,000 survived) by March 1941. more than 280 thousand people were taken out from Warthegau alone. Total number 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, as of March 1942, there were already 287 thousand in these two regions.

At the end of November 1942, on the initiative of Himmler, the so-called. "Akzia Zamosc", the aim of which was the Germanization of the Zamosc 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 went to the partisans. To protect future settlers, it was decided to use the enmity between Poles and Ukrainians and create a defensive ring of Ukrainian villages around the settlement area. Due to a lack of forces to maintain order, the action was stopped in August 1943. By that time, only about 9,000 of the 60,000 planned displaced persons had moved to the Zamosc district.

Finally, in 1943, the German town of Hegewald was created near Himmler's headquarters in Zhitomir: 10,000 Germans took the place of 15,000 Ukrainians expelled from their homes. At the same time, the first settlers went to Crimea.
All these activities are also quite correlated with GPO. It is interesting to note that prof. During his business trips, Mayer visited Western Poland, Zamosc, Zhitomir, and Crimea, that is, he assessed the feasibility of his concept on the ground.

7. Implementing such a plan is unrealistic.

Of course, one can only guess about the reality of the implementation of the GPO in the form in which it is described in the documents that have come down to us. We are talking about the resettlement of tens of millions (and, most likely, the extermination of millions) of people, the need for resettlers is estimated at 5-10 million people. The discontent of the expelled population and, as a result, a new round of armed struggle against the invaders are practically guaranteed. It is unlikely that the settlers would have rushed to the area where the partisan war continues.

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 impracticable obligations were set, the task of Germanizing the Baltic, Ingermanland, Crimea, Poland, parts of Ukraine and Belarus had to be solved in small steps for 20 years, along the way, the details (for example, the percentage of suitability for Germanization) would be adjusted and clarified. As for the “unreality 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 by an eight-digit number. And it took not 20 years, but five times less.

We will again emphasize that we were forced to occupy this or that area, to establish order in it and to secure it. In the interests of the population, we are forced to take care of peace, food, communication routes, etc., so we are introducing our own rules here. No one should recognize that in this way we are introducing our own rules forever! Everything necessary measures- shootings, evictions, etc. we, in spite of this, carry out and can carry out.
However, we do not want to prematurely turn anyone into our enemies. Therefore, for now, we will act as if this area is a mandated territory. But we ourselves should be perfectly clear that we will never leave it. [...]
The most basic:
Formations to the west of the Urals of a power capable of waging war should never be allowed, even if we will have to fight for another hundred years. All successors to the Fuhrer must know: the Reich will only be safe if there is no foreign army to the west of the Urals, Germany takes upon itself the protection of this space from all possible threats.
The iron law should read: "Nobody except Germans should ever be allowed to carry weapons!"

At the same time, it makes no sense to compare the situation of 1941-42 with the situation of 1944, when the Nazis made promises much easier, since they were glad of almost any help: an active conscription began in the ROA, Bandera was released, etc. Like the Nazis belonged to the allies who pursued goals not approved in Berlin, including those who stood up for (albeit puppet) independence in 1941-42, clearly shows the example of the same Bandera.

8. When were the documents for the Ost plan discovered? Is there a possibility that they are falsified?

The recall of Dr. Wetzel and a number of accompanying documents appeared already at the Nuremberg trials, documents 5 and 6 were found in American archives and published by Czeslaw Madayczyk (Przeglad Zachodni Nr. 3 1961).
Theoretically, the possibility that this or that document is falsified always exists. 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, minutes - in the classic Ch. Madaychik's collection contains more than one hundred relevant documents. Therefore, it is absolutely not enough to call one document a falsification, taking it out of the context of the rest. If, for example, document 6 is 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 document 6 embodies the instructions contained in this review? And most importantly, why do the documents of the GPO, 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 by whose malicious intent found in different time in different archives, the documents and speeches of the Nazi bosses are lined up in a coherent picture. And to question the reliability of individual documents (as some authors do, counting on the ignorance of the reading public) is quite pointless.

First of all, books in German:

Collection of documents compiled by C. 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)

Now there is no doubt that the plans of the German fascists were the elimination of millions of Slavs. On the other hand, no reliable evidence has been found that the so-called plan Ost existed. The allegation of the Nazi desire to exterminate the inhabitants of the European part appeared during the tribunal in Nuremberg. It is quite natural that even before that time such an idea was repeatedly voiced by allied information warfare professionals, but at that time it was just propaganda.

Supporters of the idea of the extermination of the Slavs by the Germans refer to several documents at once. The general plan of the Ost is the main one, even though its true version has not been discovered to this day. Be that as it may, he was still mentioned during the only time that then only "Suggestion and comments to the plan" were available. The authorship of this document is attributed to E. Wetzel, who during the war led one of the departments of the Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories. In general, it was a pencil sketch in a regular notebook. The source that was officially published consists of four parts. The first of these was "Notes to be made in the Ost plan." The second section is "Remarks on Germanization" and the third is "The Solution to the Polish Question." The document ended with a part entitled “The question of the future treatment of the Russian population”.

According to Wetzel, on

waste land on initial stage four and a half thousand Germans were to be resettled. At the same time, racially undesirable local residents should have been sent to the West Siberian region. As for the Jews, they had to be exterminated even before that. In the second part, the question of including the Germans of Nordic origin in the Reich orbit is considered, and in the next part, the Poles are named as the most dangerous people. At the same time, he stressed that it was impossible to eliminate them completely to solve the problem. In the final, fourth, section, the author admires the racial type of Russians, therefore, notes the inadmissibility of their liquidation. Despite everything, in the comments that need to be made to the Ost plan, there are many obvious inaccuracies and errors that relate directly to the activities of the department entrusted to Wetzel. All this casts great doubt on the authenticity of this document and gives rise to the idea of its falsification. It is possible that specialists representing the interests of the allies have previously worked on it.

The majority of Western historians and scholars have long ceased to take this document seriously and do not consider it authentic. On the other hand, it is by no means possible to assert that the fascist plan of Ost is fiction, even though even a copy of it has not been found. Be that as it may, the monstrous deeds of the Nazis during the war had to be regulated by something. Without a doubt, Hitler's plans included the destruction of a huge number of Jews and Slavs, which numbered in the millions. Whether or not such a document as the Ost plan actually existed, it becomes not so important against this background.

Plan Ost is a fairly broad topic for discussion and it is easy to write a whole book about it, which we will not do now. In this article, we will look at the Ost plan briefly and to the point. And let's start, perhaps, from the definition of this term.
Plan Ost or General Plan Ost (there is also such a term) is a very extensive policy of domination in the world of the Third Reich by Nazi Germany in the territory of Eastern Europe.
One of the main goals of the Germans in the course of the Ost plan was the full-scale eviction of the population of Poland (approximately 85%) and the settlement of these territories by the Germans.
This plan was to be fully implemented over a long thirty years. The development of this project was carried out by the famous political and military leader of the Reich - Heinrich Himmler. In addition to him, such a person as Erhard Wetzel should also be noted, because he was one of the main authors of this plan.
The idea called the Ost plan appeared most likely back in 1940, and the same Himmler was its initiator.
Himmler conceived to implement his plan immediately after the imminent victory over the USSR, but the turning point in the Great Patriotic War completely rejected the implementation of this project, in 1943 it was completely abandoned, since the Reich had to find a way to regain its advantage in the war.
Contents of the Ost plan
"Comments and Proposal for the Master Plan Ost" is the main document that can tell all the goals of the Nazis regarding the settlement of Eastern Europe.
In total, this document is divided into four large sections, which should be discussed in detail.
The resettlement of Germans is discussed in the first section. Hence, according to the plan, they were to occupy the eastern territories. At the same time, representatives of the Slavic peoples were to remain in these territories, but their number should not exceed 14 million people - these are small numbers, approximately 15% of the total population of those territories. In addition, this section says that all Jews living in these territories, and this is at least 6 million people, must be completely eliminated - that is, they all had to be killed without any exceptions.
The second question does not deserve special attention, but the third is not the case. It discussed the most pressing issue - the Polish one, because the Nazis believed that it was the Poles who were the most hostile ethnic group towards the Germans and their issue had to be resolved cardinally.
The author of the document says that it is impossible to kill all Poles, this would completely undermine the confidence of other peoples in German, which the Germans did not want at all. Instead, they decided to relocate almost all Germans somewhere. It was planned to deport them to the territory South America, namely the territory of modern Brazil.
In addition to the Poles, the future fate of the Ukrainians and Belarusians was considered here. It was also not planned to kill these peoples. Approximately 65% of all Ukrainians were to be deported to Siberia, 75% of Belarusians were to follow the Ukrainians. It also speaks about Czechs: 50% - for deportation and 50% must be Germanized.
The fourth section discusses the fate of the Russian people. The fourth section is one of the most important, since the Germans considered the Russian people one of the most problematic in the East, of course after the Jews.
The Germans understood that the Russian people were extremely dangerous for them, they highlighted this in their biology, but they simply did not have the opportunity to destroy it completely. As a result, they wanted to find a way to somehow control the Russian population in the East. They developed a system that would reduce the birth rate among the Russian people.
In this section, the author also says that Siberians - the inhabitants of Siberia - are a separate people from the Russian people.
Exists interesting fact, many historians believe that it is impossible to interpret the word "eviction" directly, since the Germans considered this word to be the complete elimination of those percent of the population that were designated in the document.
In total, approximately 6.5 million ethnic Germans were to move to the East, who were supposed to look after the remaining Slavic population (14 million). It was a 1941 document, but already in 1942 it was decided to double the number of immigrants - almost 13 million Germans.
Among this a large number Germans, about 20-30% had to be people engaged in agriculture, which would provide the entire German people with the necessary amount of food.
It is interesting that the final version of the Ost plan was never made, there were only a few projects, and even those were constantly rewritten and changed. For the implementation of all these processes, the Germans planned to spend huge sums - more than 100 billion marks.
As a conclusion, it should be said that although the Ost plan was not implemented, which saved the lives of millions of people, many died. Approximately 6 or 7 million people were killed during the German occupation of Eastern Europe. Moreover, of these 6-7 million civilians, most of the killed, which is understandable, are representatives of the Jewish ethnic group.
The very last document of the Ost plan was published in 2009, and anyone who wishes, having found the necessary scientific literature, can familiarize themselves with its full content and, so to speak, plunge into the monstrous plans of the leadership of the Third Reich regarding the population of Eastern Europe.

Let me remind you that 6 pages of the plan appeared in the materials of Nuremberg, and the rest was discovered in 91 and published in full in 2009. And this is not a project, but an approved and endorsed by Hitler. So questions and misconceptions.
1.What is the "General Plan Ost?"
2. What is the history of the occurrence of GPO? What documents relate to it?
3. What is the content of the GPO?
4. In fact, the GPO was developed by a petty official, is it worth taking it seriously?
5. On the plan there is no signature of Hitler or any other high official of the Reich, which means that it is not valid.
6. GPO was a purely theoretical concept.
7. Implementing such a plan is unrealistic.
8. When were the documents for the Ost plan discovered? Is there a possibility that they are falsified?
9.What can you read more about GPO?
Brief answers and details under the cut

1. What is the "General Plan Ost?"

Under the "General Plan Ost" (GPO) modern historians understand a complex of plans, draft plans and memorandums on the settlement of the so-called. "Eastern territories" (Poland and the Soviet Union) in the event of a German victory in the war. The concept of the GPO was developed on the basis of the Nazi racial doctrine under the patronage of the Reichskommissariat for Strengthening German Statehood (RKF), which was headed by SS Reichsfuehrer Himmler, and was supposed to serve as the theoretical foundation for the colonization and Germanization of the occupied territories.

An overview of the documents is given in the following table:

	Name	date	Volume	Prepared by	Original	Colonization objects
1	Planungsgrundlagen (Planning Basics)	February 1940	21 pages	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 p.	RKF planning department	facsimile in G.Aly, S.Heim "Bevölkerungsstruktur und Massenmord" (p. 29-32)	Poland
3		July 1941	?	RKF planning department	lost, dating by cover letter	?
4	Gesamtplan Ost (cumulative plan Ost)	December 1941	?	planning group III B RSHA	lost; Dr. Wetzel's extensive review (Stellungnahme und Gedanken zum Generalplan Ost des Reichsführers SS, 04/27/1942, NG-2325; abbreviated Russian translation) allows us to reconstruct the content	The Baltic States, Ingermanlandia; Poland, Belarus, Ukraine (strong points); Crimea (?)
5	Generalplan Ost (master plan Ost)	May 1942	Chapter 84	Institute of Agriculture at the University of Berlin	BA, R 49 / 157a, facsimile	The Baltic States, Ingermanlandia, Gotengau; Poland, Belarus, Ukraine (strong points)
6	Generalsiedlungsplan (master settlement plan)	October-December 1942	planned 200 pages, prepared a general outline of the plan and the main digital indicators	RKF planning department	BA, R 49/984	Luxembourg, Alsace, Lorraine, Czech Republic, Styria, Baltic, Poland

Work on plans to settle the eastern territories began almost 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 for 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 above documents were prepared (the Institute of Agriculture, which appears in document 5, was directed by the same Mayer ). It should be noted that the RKF was not the only agency that thought about the future of the eastern territories, similar work was carried out 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 particular, the criticality of the recall of the employee of the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories Wetzel on 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 dominance. Document 5, for example, speaks of "the priority of the Reich Commissioner for strengthening German statehood in matters of settlement (colonized territories) and planning."

To understand the logic of the development of the GPO, two comments of Himmler on the plans presented by Mayer are important. In the first, from 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, Czech Republic, Alsace-Lorraine, etc.). to shorten the time frame and set the goal of complete Germanization of Estonia, Latvia and the entire governorship general.
The consequence of this was the renaming of the GPO into a "general settlement plan" (document 6), while, however, some territories that were present in the document 5 dropped out of the plan, to which Himmler immediately draws attention (letter to Mayer dated 01/12/1943, BA, NS 19 / 1739): "The eastern territories for settlement should include Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ingermanlandia, as well as Crimea and Tavria [...] The named territories should be fully 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 the data systematized by M. Burchard:

	Territory of settlement	Number of immigrants	Population subject to eviction / not subject to Germanization	Cost estimation.
1	87,600 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	364,231 sq. Km	5.65 million	min. 25 million (99% Poles, 50% Estonians, more than 50% Latvians, 85% Lithuanians)	66.6 billion RM
6	330,000 sq. Km	12.21 million	30.8 million (95% Poles, 50% Estonians, 70% Latvians, 85% Lithuanians, 50% French, Czechs and Slovenes)	144 billion RM

Let us dwell in more detail on the fully preserved and most elaborated document 5: it is supposed to be implemented in stages over 25 years, quotas of Germanization for various nationalities are introduced, it is proposed to prohibit the indigenous population from owning property in cities in order to displace it into the countryside and use it in agriculture. To control territories with an initially predominant German population, a form of margrave is introduced, the first three: Ingermanlandia (Leningrad Oblast), Gotengau (Crimea, Kherson), and Memel-Narev (Lithuania - Bialystok). In Ingermanland, the population of cities should be reduced from 3 million to 200 thousand. In Poland, Belarus, the Baltic States, Ukraine, a network of 36 strong points is being formed, providing effective communication between the margraves and the metropolis (see reconstruction). In 25-30 years, the margraves should be Germanized by 50%, and the strong points by 25-30% (In the already known review, Himmler demanded to reduce the implementation period of the plan to 20 years, to think over the complete Germanization of Estonia and Latvia and more active Germanization of Poland).
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 withstands 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 in documents 5 and 6 there are no specific numbers of residents to be evicted, they are, however, derived from the difference between the actual number of residents and the planned one (taking into account the German settlers and the local population suitable for Germanization). In document 4, Western Siberia is called as the territories to which residents who are not suitable for Germanization should be resettled. The leaders of the Reich have repeatedly spoken about the desire to Germanize the European territory of Russia to the Urals.
From a racial point of view, the Russians were considered the least Germanized people, moreover, poisoned by the poison of "Judo-Bolshevism" for 25 years. How the policy of decimation of the Slavic population would have been carried out is difficult to say unequivocally. According to one of the testimonies, Himmler, before the start of Operation Barbarossa, called the goal of the campaign against Russia "a decrease in the Slavic population by 30 million."... Wetzel wrote about measures to reduce the birth rate (encouraging abortion, sterilization, refusal to combat infant mortality, etc.), Hitler himself expressed himself more directly: “The locals? no need to get used to the role of a nanny, we have no obligations to the residents there.Repairing houses, catching lice, German teachers, newspapers? We are on the way! By freedom, these people understand the right to wash only on holidays. If we come with shampoo, it will not arouse sympathy. You need to retrain there. There is only one task: to carry out Germanization by bringing in Germans, and the former inhabitants should be treated as Indians. "

Petty 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 the Standartenführer, and later 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 allegedly a figment of the inflamed imagination of one insane SS man. This is also not true: agrarians, economists, managers and other specialists from academia worked on the GPO. For example, in the cover letter for Document 5, Mayer writes about facilitating "my closest associates in the planning department and the general land office, as well as financial expert Dr. Besler (Jena)." Additional funding went through the German Research Society (DFG): for "scientific and planning work to strengthen German statehood" from 1941 to 1945. 510 thousand RM were allocated, of which 60-70 thousand per year Mayer spent on his working group, the rest went as grants to scientists who conducted research relevant to RKF. For comparison, the maintenance of a scientist with a scientific degree cost about 6 thousand RM per year (data from the report of I. Heinemann.)

The GPO actually did not advance beyond the design stage, which was in no small measure facilitated by the course of hostilities - from 1943 the plan began to quickly lose relevance. Of course, the GPO was not signed by Hitler or anyone else, since it was a plan post-war settlement of the occupied regions. In the very first sentence of document 5, this is stated directly: Thanks to German weapons, the eastern territories, which had been the object of disputes that had lasted for many centuries, were finally annexed to the Reich.

Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to deduce from this the disinterest of Hitler and the Reich leadership in the GPO. As shown above, the work on the plan took place on the instructions and under the constant patronage of Himmler, who, in turn, I would like to convey this plan to the Fuehrer at a convenient time.(letter dated 06/12/1942)
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, 02/03/1933, he, speaking to the generals of the Reichswehr, spoke of "the need to conquer living space in the east and its decisive Germanization" ), after the outbreak of the war, it acquired a clear outline. Here is a recording of one of Hitler's monologues from 10/17/1941:
... the Fuhrer once again 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 greatly expanded. In the next twenty years, he will have three million prisoners at his disposal to solve this problem ... At large river crossings, German cities should arise in which the Wehrmacht, police, administrative apparatus and the party will be based.
German peasant farms will be established along the roads, and the monochromatic Asian-looking steppe will soon take on a completely different look. In 10 years 4 million Germans 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 the annexation of the Russian expanses. In Russian cities, those that will survive the war - Moscow and Leningrad should not survive it at any time - the foot of a German should not step. They have to vegetate in their own shit off the German roads. The Fuehrer 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 engaged ...
He, the Fuhrer, will introduce new management with an iron fist, what the Slavs will think of this does not touch him at all. Anyone who eats German bread today does not think too much about the fact that the fields east of the Elbe were conquered by sword in the 12th century.

Of course, his subordinates also echoed him. For example, on October 2, 1941, Heydrich described the future colonization as follows:
Other lands are eastern lands, partly inhabited by Slavs, these are lands on which it is necessary to clearly understand that kindness will be perceived as a manifestation 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 the service. These are lands in the east that we will have to manage and hold. These are the lands where, after the solution of the military question to the Urals itself, German control should be introduced, 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: a protective wall is being built far to the east, enclosing them from Asian storms, and from the west, the gradual annexation of these lands to the Reich begins. From this point of view, it is necessary to consider what is happening in the east. The first step will be the creation of a protectorate from 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 in due time will become completely German. And then further east, to the Baltic States, which will also in due time become completely German, although here you need to consider what part of the blood of Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians is suitable for Germanization. The best in the racial sense are Estonians, they have strong Swedish influences, then Latvians, and the worst are Lithuanians.
Then it will be the turn of the rest of Poland, this is the next territory, which should be gradually populated by the Germans, and the Poles should be squeezed further east. Then Ukraine, which at first as an intermediate solution should be using, of course, still dormant in the subconscious of the national idea, separated from the rest of Russia and used as a source of minerals and food under German control. Of course, not allowing the people there to gain a foothold or strengthen, increasing their educational level, since this may later grow into opposition, which, with the weakening of the central government, will strive for independence ...

A year later, on 11/23/1942, Himmler said the same thing:
The main colony of our Reich lies in the east. Today - the colony, tomorrow - the settlement area, the day after tomorrow - the Reich! [...] If Russia is likely to be defeated in a bitter struggle next year or a year from now, we still have a great task ahead of us. After the victory of the Germanic peoples, the settlement space in the east must be reclaimed, populated and incorporated into European culture. Over the next 20 years - counting from the end of the war - I 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 farm families there, the resettlement of the best bearers of German blood will begin and the ordering of the million 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 our families will settle there as legal owners.

As you can easily 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 the plan for the post-war settlement of the occupied territories until the war is over. This does not mean, however, that measures for the Germanization of individual regions were not carried out at all. First of all, it should be noted here the western regions of Poland (West Prussia and Warthegau) annexed to the Reich, the settlement of which was mentioned in document 1. During the multi-stage measures for the deportation of the Jewish and Polish in ghettos and extermination camps on their own territory: of the 435,000 Jews in Warthegau, 12,000 survived) by March 1941. more than 280 thousand people were taken out from Warthegau alone. The total number of Poles deported from West Prussia and Warthegau to the General Government is estimated at 365 thousand people. Their yards and apartments were occupied by German settlers, of whom, as of March 1942, there were already 287 thousand in these two regions.

At the end of November 1942, on the initiative of Himmler, the so-called. "Action Zamosc", the aim of which was the Germanization of the Zamosc 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 went to the partisans. To protect future settlers, it was decided to use the enmity between Poles and Ukrainians and create a defensive ring of Ukrainian villages around the settlement area. Due to a lack of forces to maintain order, the action was stopped in August 1943. By that time, only about 9,000 of the 60,000 planned displaced persons had moved to the Zamosc district.

Finally, in 1943, the German town of Hegewald was created near Himmler's headquarters in Zhitomir: 10,000 Germans took the place of 15,000 Ukrainians expelled from their homes. At the same time, the first settlers went to Crimea.
All these activities are also quite correlated with GPO. It is interesting to note that prof. Mayer visited during his business trips and Western Poland, and Zamosc, and Zhitomir, and the Crimea, i.e. evaluated the feasibility of his concept on the ground.

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 impracticable obligations were set, the task of Germanizing the Baltic, Ingermanland, Crimea, Poland, parts of Ukraine and Belarus had to be solved in small steps for 20 years, along the way, the details (for example, the percentage of suitability for Germanization) would be adjusted and clarified. As for the "unreality 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 by an eight-digit number. And it took not 20 years, but five times less.

The hopes (expressed today, mainly by the followers 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 notes, 07.16.41: ... we will again emphasize that we were forced to occupy this or that area, put it in order and secure it. In the interests of the population, we are forced to take care of peace, food, communication routes, etc., so we are introducing our own rules here. No one should recognize that in this way we are introducing our own rules forever! All the necessary measures - executions, evictions, etc., we, in spite of this, carry out and can carry out.
However, we do not want to prematurely turn anyone into our enemies. Therefore, for now, we will act as if this area is a mandated territory. But we ourselves should be perfectly clear that we will never leave it. [...]
The most basic:
Formations to the west of the Urals of a power capable of waging war should never be allowed, even if we will have to fight for another hundred years. All successors to the Fuhrer must know: the Reich will only be safe if there is no foreign army to the west of the Urals, Germany takes upon itself the protection of this space from all possible threats.
The iron law should read: "Nobody except Germans should ever be allowed to carry weapons!")
At the same time, it makes no sense to compare the situation of 1941-42. with the situation of 1944, when the Nazis gave out promises much easier, since they were happy with almost any help: an active conscription began in the ROA, Bandera was released, etc. How did the Nazis treat the allies who pursued goals not approved in Berlin, incl. who fought for (albeit puppet) independence in 1941-42, clearly shows the example of the same Bandera.

The recall of Dr. Wetzel and a number of accompanying documents appeared already at the Nuremberg trials, documents 5 and 6 were found in American archives and published by Czeslaw Madayczyk (Przeglad Zachodni Nr. 3 1961).
Theoretically, the possibility that this or that document is falsified always exists. 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, minutes - in the classic Ch. Madaychik's collection contains more than one hundred relevant documents. Therefore, it is absolutely not enough to call one document a falsification, taking it out of the context of the rest. If, for example, document 6 is 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 document 6 embodies the instructions contained in this review? And most importantly, why do the documents of the Civil Defense Law, 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 by whose malicious intent the documents and speeches of Nazi bosses found at different times in different archives are built into a whole picture. And to question the reliability of individual documents (as some authors do, counting on the ignorance of the reading public) is quite pointless.

First of all, books in German:
- a collection of documents compiled by C. Madaychik 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.

Plan details

Implementation time:

1939 - 1944

Victims: Population of Eastern Europe and the USSR (mostly Slavic)

Location: 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 massive ethnic cleansing of the population of Eastern Europe and the USSR as part of the 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 the "inferior races" such as the Slavs.

The purpose of the plan: the Germanization of lands "in Central and Eastern Europe, provided for the movement of the population 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" Revised June 1942 Part C. Delimitation of the territories of settlements in the occupied eastern regions and the principles of restoration: The penetration of German life into large territories of the East puts the Reich with an urgent need to find new forms of settlement in order to bring the size of the territory into conformity and the number of available German persons. In the General Plan Ost of July 15, 1941, the demarcation of new territories was provided as a basis for development for 30 years.

Description of the plan

Plan "Ost" - the plan of the German government of the Third Reich to "free up living space" for the Germans and other "Germanic peoples", which provided for massive ethnic cleansing of the population of Eastern Europe. The plan was developed in 1941 by the General Directorate of Imperial Security and presented on May 28, 1942 by an employee of the Office of the Staff of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of the German People, SS Oberfuehrer Meyer-Hetling under the name "General Plan Ost - the foundations of the legal, economic and territorial structure of the East" ...

In the form of a completed plan, the "plan Ost" was not preserved. It was extremely secret, apparently existed in few copies, at the Nuremberg trials the only evidence of the existence of the plan was "Comments and suggestions. Of the Eastern Ministry" on the master plan "Ost" " 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 destroyed deliberately.

According to the instructions of Hitler himself, officials ordered that only a few copies be made of the "Ost Plan" for a part of the Gauleiters, two ministers, the "Governor-General" of Poland and two or three senior SS officials. The rest of the SS Fuhrer of the RSHA were supposed 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 all traces of crimes of such a scale that the Nazis committed were never able to be destroyed. Both in the letters and in the speeches of Hitler and other SS officers, references to the plan are found more than once. Two memoranda have also survived, 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 "" Large plan. " Slavic and other peoples. "Non-Germanized" were to be evicted to Western Siberia... The execution 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 undergo partly Germanization, and partly be deported to the Urals or destroyed. It was supposed to leave a small percentage of the local population in order to use it 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 territories subject to colonization: it also spoke about the peoples of the Baltic states, which were also supposed to be partially assimilated , and partially deport (for example, Latvians were considered more suitable for assimilation, in contrast to Lithuanians, among whom, according to the Nazis, there were too many “Slavic admixtures”). As can be assumed from the comments to the plan preserved in some documents, the fate of the Jews living in the territories subject to colonization was hardly mentioned in the plan, mainly because at that time the project of “the final solution of the Jewish question” was already involved, 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 on the colonized lands of 4 million Germans for 10 years and at least 10 million Germans and representatives of other "Germanic" peoples for 20 years. Colonization was to be preceded by the construction - by the forces of prisoners of war - of large transport routes. German cities were to appear at river ports, and peasant settlements along rivers. In the conquered Slavic territories, a policy of genocide was envisaged in its most extreme forms.

Methods for implementing the GPO plan:

1) physical extermination of large masses of the people;

2) reduction of the population through the deliberate organization of hunger;

3) a decrease in the population as a result of an organized decrease in the birth rate and the elimination of medical and sanitary services;

4) the extermination of the intelligentsia - the bearer and continuer of scientific and technical knowledge and skills of the cultural traditions of each nation and the reduction of education to a lower level;

5) disunity, fragmentation of individual peoples into small ethnic groups;

6) resettlement of the masses of the population to Siberia, Africa, South America and other regions of the Earth;

7) the agrarianization of the occupied Slavic territories and the deprivation of the Slavic peoples of their own industry. "

The fate of the Slavs and Jews according to the comments and suggestions of Wetzel

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 large and therefore the most dangerous people."

German historians believe the plan included:

· Destruction or expulsion of 80-85% of Poles. Only about 3-4 million people were supposed to remain on the territory of Poland.

· 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 across the Urals.

Destruction of 25% of Ukrainians and Belarusians, another 30-50% of Ukrainians and Belarusians were to be used as a labor force

According to Wetzel's proposals, the Russian people had to be subjected to such measures as assimilation ("Germanization") and population reduction through a reduction in the birth rate - such actions are defined as genocide.

From the directive of A. Hitler to the Minister for Eastern Territories A. Rosenberg on the implementation of the General Plan "Ost" (23 July 1942)

The Slavs must work for us, and if we no longer need them, let them die. Vaccinations and health care are superfluous for them. Slavic fertility is undesirable ... education is dangerous. It is enough if they can count to a hundred ... Each educated person is our future enemy. All sentimental objections should be discarded. We need to rule these people with iron determination ... In military terms, we must kill from three to four million Russians a year.

After the end of the war, of the approximately 40 million killed 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 it 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, because 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 destroyed and sent to forced labor. In particular, on the territory of Belarus alone, the Nazis organized 260 death camps and 170 ghettos. According to modern data, during the years of the German occupation, the loss 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 to be relocated 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 already.

Rosenberg's predecessor project

The master plan was preceded by a project developed by the Reich Ministry of the Occupied Territories, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. On May 9, 1941, Rosenberg presented the Fuehrer with draft directives on policy issues in the territories to be occupied as a result of aggression against the USSR.

Rosenberg proposed the creation of five governorates on the territory of the USSR. Hitler opposed the autonomy of Ukraine and replaced the term "governorship" for it with "Reichskommissariat". As a result, Rosenberg's ideas took the following forms of embodiment.

· 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 governorship - the Reichskommissariat Ukraine - included Eastern Galicia (known in fascist terminology as the District of Galicia), Crimea, a number of territories along the Don and Volga, as well as the lands of the abolished Soviet Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans. According to Rosenberg's idea, the governorship was to receive autonomy and become the mainstay 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.

· Turkestan was to become the fifth governorate.

The success of the German campaign in the summer and autumn of 1941 led to a revision and toughening of the plans of the Germans in relation to the eastern lands, and as a result, the "Ost" plan was born.