Let me start with a bold question: was it worth killing 50,000 Germans at the cost of 7 million Soviet civilians.
I will summarize the population losses in the occupied territories (approximately).
7.4 million shot
4.4 million starving
2.2 million in camps.
A total of 14 million.
Evidence: The Germans killed 100 civilians for the death of a soldier at the hands of partisans, and 50 for the wounded. According to German sources, the partisans killed only 50,000 Germans. This is a figure close to the 7 million mentioned above. 1,710 cities and 70,000 villages were destroyed, which also confirms the 7 million exterminated. Finally, everything is confirmed by demographics. However, the materials preserved by the Germans testify to the death of only 500,000 Slavs. It is obvious that the Germans destroyed the evidence and / or did not register at all, just as they did not register people directly gassed in the chambers.
The fascist starvation plan was to lead to the deaths of 20-30 million Soviets. This was likely to lead to a rebellion that would be a pretext for further extermination. However, the Soviet partisans turned out to be efficient defenders of civilian life by making it impossible to execute the Hunger Plan fully.
Proof
As a result of the heroic Partisans' actions, 14 million people were allowed to die. The Germans planned 20-30 million. Thus the guerrillas were productive by a factor between 1.42 and 2.14; average: 1.78
The Soviet partisans were efficient life savers
Re: The Soviet partisans were efficient life savers
Although the Hunger Plan was aborted because Operation Barbarossa failed and it basically wasn't needed anymore (because the food situation stabilized). It had nothing to do with the partisans.
The Germans actually delivered higher quality seeds, fertilizers, machinery, and expertise to the (then theirs) kolhozes/sovkhozes to make them more productive. Later they even started to hand over the land to the Soviet peasants.
The Germans actually delivered higher quality seeds, fertilizers, machinery, and expertise to the (then theirs) kolhozes/sovkhozes to make them more productive. Later they even started to hand over the land to the Soviet peasants.
Re: The Soviet partisans were efficient life savers
Wikipedia makes it clear that the Germans weren't able to collect the grain even when the Plan lasted. I think one of the main reasons was partisans activity. Are you sure the policies of the Hunger Plan stopped after 1941?
Re: The Soviet partisans were efficient life savers
If these figures which are presumably only for partisan and civilian dead come from the Soviet era and especially the Stalinist part they should be treated with caution.
At the end of 1942 which was the German high water mark Himmler presented a report to Hitler that covered the Ukraine and southern Russia for the months of September, October and November 1942. It gave statistics for Jews and others “executed” because of their connection with “bandit” activity. It listed “Jews executed” as 363,211 with others in the same category as “only” 14,257 a total of 377,468.
From Hitler 1936 – 1945 by Ian Kershaw page 521 paperback edition.
In the territories occupied prior to the German 1942 summer offensive the Jewish population had been decimated. You would expect that without more territory to occupy the rate of Jewish “executions” and therefore overall killing would fall after 1942. The Jewish population living on territory the USSR controlled in June 1941 was probably about 5.2 million and about 1.8 million were killed.
If we accept the figure of about 14 million civilian deaths being due to German actions and about 1.8 million of these being Jewish it leaves about 12.2 million Soviet non Jewish civilians dead. To account for 12.2 million we need an average monthly total for the approximate 36 months of German occupation of nearly 339,000. As we see from Himmler’s report on the Ukraine and southern Russia in the last three months of 1942 on average 4,752 non Jews a month were killed for bandit activity. Of course there were also very large numbers of Soviet civilians dying from malnutrition and disease and it has been estimated that at the height of the Leningrad siege 100,000 were dying a month. Is an average monthly death rate of nearly 339,000 non Jewish civilians for three years likely?
Soviet partisan activity was not just about fighting the Germans. One of its aims perhaps its main aim was to maintain a Soviet presence in the German occupied territory.
At the end of 1942 which was the German high water mark Himmler presented a report to Hitler that covered the Ukraine and southern Russia for the months of September, October and November 1942. It gave statistics for Jews and others “executed” because of their connection with “bandit” activity. It listed “Jews executed” as 363,211 with others in the same category as “only” 14,257 a total of 377,468.
From Hitler 1936 – 1945 by Ian Kershaw page 521 paperback edition.
In the territories occupied prior to the German 1942 summer offensive the Jewish population had been decimated. You would expect that without more territory to occupy the rate of Jewish “executions” and therefore overall killing would fall after 1942. The Jewish population living on territory the USSR controlled in June 1941 was probably about 5.2 million and about 1.8 million were killed.
If we accept the figure of about 14 million civilian deaths being due to German actions and about 1.8 million of these being Jewish it leaves about 12.2 million Soviet non Jewish civilians dead. To account for 12.2 million we need an average monthly total for the approximate 36 months of German occupation of nearly 339,000. As we see from Himmler’s report on the Ukraine and southern Russia in the last three months of 1942 on average 4,752 non Jews a month were killed for bandit activity. Of course there were also very large numbers of Soviet civilians dying from malnutrition and disease and it has been estimated that at the height of the Leningrad siege 100,000 were dying a month. Is an average monthly death rate of nearly 339,000 non Jewish civilians for three years likely?
Soviet partisan activity was not just about fighting the Germans. One of its aims perhaps its main aim was to maintain a Soviet presence in the German occupied territory.
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Jan-Hendrik
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Re: The Soviet partisans were efficient life savers
Not to forget that many of those partisans were just marauding bandits, robbing the local population, murdering them!