Relationship between the Holocaust and the food issue

[PODS96]

A part of the historiography of the Holocaust believes that the extermination of Jews in Europe was linked to the food issue and the need to destroy the "superfluous eaters" in a situation of food deficit.

How important is this hypothesis today in the debate about the Holocaust? what is the dominant position?

[Paul H]

One must remember that the general civilian population had little food at the time so I am not sure if that played as bigger part like gas chambers and shootings.

[wm]

We don't know why Hitler did it (because he never told that anybody) so speculation is useless. According to Himmler, it was "if we cannot now obliterate the biological basis of Jewry, the Jews will one day destroy the German people" so it wasn't about food.

But disregarding any moral considerations, it would beneficial to sacrifice the least valuable part of the population to ensure the survival of the rest and to ensure the final victory.
To avoid a ww1-like famine (the turnip winter) among the Germans and the resulting, estimated 750,000 civilian deaths.

It should be remembered too that to save food millions of Soviet POWs and civilians were sacrificed first and the Jews were next.

[michael mills]

There are a number of indications that the food supply crisis played a role in the decision to kill all Jews who were unable to be used for forced labour.

At some point in 1942, a report reached Jewish representatives in Switzerland claiming that at the beginning of the year, the German Minister for Food Supply, Herbert Backe, had reported to Hitler that because of the looming food supply crisis in German-controlled Europe, either the rations of the German population would have to be reduced, or else a large number of non-German consumers would have to be eliminated, and that Hitler had then ordered that four million Jews should be killed.

Another indication is that in August 1942, the Governor-General of Poland, Hans Frank, had ordered that from then on food should continue to be supplied only to the 300,000 Jews of the General-Government who were working for the German war effort, and the supply of food to the rest of the Jewish population should be discontinued. He commented that thereby he was condemning 1.2 million Polish Jews to death.

[wm]

Food for the Poles and Jews in occupied Poland was allocated at genocide levels from day one of the occupation (except for industrial workers). It was physically impossible to survive on the allocated rations alone.
It wasn't strictly enforced for unknown reasons - presumably for lack of manpower to do it properly.

That Frank's order changed nothing. The Jews survived thanks to the Polish black market alone; the "German" food was of no significance.
And the fact that the food consumed by the Jews couldn't be regulated and controlled could have contributed to the idea that only the Holocaust could have solved the problem.

[Boby]

In fact, german rations were massively cut from April 1942 onwards (35. Zuteilungsperiode ff.).

[wm]

The Holocaust probably gave the Germans less than 200 calories (less than 10 percent more) of additional food. An insignificant number, but the Nazi famine scare of 1941 was real, and only subsequent bumper crops in Eastern Europe saved the Germans.
In fact, German rations were unhealthy already and the situation never improved.

[historygeek2021]

The food hypothesis is bunk. Hitler murdered Jews because he hated Jews. He didn't need to build gas camps and ship Jews there if he wanted to just let them starve to death. The Nazis let the Russian people starve to death to solve their food issues. They murdered Jews because they hated Jews.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Boby,

Did any Germans in the Reich die of starvation in WWII?

We know that millions of others under German control (i.e. Soviet POWs, Jews, Greeks, Dutch, etc.) did. I would suggest that it was they whose "rations were drastically cut", not the Germans. The Germans' rations were certainly "cut", but not, it seems, "drastically".

Cheers,

Sid.

[wm]

The food hypothesis is bunk. Hitler murdered Jews because he hated Jews. He didn't need to build gas camps and ship Jews there if he wanted to just let them starve to death. The Nazis let the Russian people starve to death to solve their food issues. They murdered Jews because they hated Jews.

"let them starve to death" wouldn't work for the simple reason the Germans weren't able to isolate the ghettos. Food prices in the largest ghettos (except Litzmannstadt) were only slightly higher than outside.
All that thanks to corruption among Germans, unstoppable smuggling, and the effective Polish black market.
The Jews would eventually run out of money, but it would take years.

Btw "hated Jews" explains nothing. It suggests it was some kind of irrational mental illness and that there were no reasons (real or imagined) for Hitler's hate or rather fear of Jews.

[Boby]

Hi Boby,

Did any Germans in the Reich die of starvation in WWII?

We know that millions of others under German control (i.e. Soviet POWs, Jews, Greeks, Dutch, etc.) did. I would suggest that it was they whose "rations were drastically cut", not the Germans. The Germans' rations were certainly "cut", but not, it seems, "drastically".

Cheers,

Sid.

Sure not to the verge of "starvation", but...

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/ ... .0016/html

Note that Buchheim used the word "drastically" (drastisch) on p. 308 and 322

[hambubger]

Germany's harvests during the mid-30's were considered poor levels, so the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, also SS Race and Settlement Office, (Richard Walther Darre) had fallen out of favor with other major NSDAP leaders, even before the start of the war. Darre was officially fired in mid-1942. He had been a major influence on the "Blut und Boden" (aka Blood and Soil) ideology, but was considered a better theoretician than practitioner. Even by 1942, some of the rationing policies within the Reich had gotten to extreme levels.

Long story short, everybody's food was cut. Hitler, Himmler, and Schacht were all on the same page as far as dumping Darre, but the replacements didn't do any better.

"The Hunger Plan" was specifically to divert food sources from the Soviets to the Germans, but wasn't an exclusive anti-semitic focus.

Hypothetically, if harvests and food production had been higher, Speer may have diverted extra amounts to the labor camps in order to increase production.