The "Famine Plan" was part of the economic strategy of the Third Reich, according to which no more than 30 million people were to remain in the occupied territories of the USSR. The food reserves thus freed were to be used to meet the needs of the German army and citizens of the Third Reich.
In one of the notes of a high-ranking German official, the following was reported: "The war will continue if the Wehrmacht in the third year of the war is fully supplied with food from Russia." As an inevitable fact, it was noted that "tens of millions of people will die of hunger if we take everything we need from the country."
Joseph Goebbels clearly explained the essence of the plan: "Before famine occurs in Germany, a number of other nations will starve."
The "famine plan" primarily affected the Soviet prisoners of war, who practically did not receive food. During the entire period of the war, among Soviet prisoners of war, according to historians, almost 2 million people died of hunger.
No less painful hunger struck those whom the Germans expected to destroy in the first place - Jews and Roma. For example, Jews were prohibited from purchasing milk, butter, eggs, meat and vegetables.
The food ration for the Minsk Jews, who were under the jurisdiction of Army Group Center, did not exceed 420 kilocalories per day - this led to the death of tens of thousands of people in the winter period of 1941-1942.
The most severe conditions were in the “evacuated zone” 30-50 km deep, which was directly adjacent to the front line. The entire civilian population of this line was forcibly sent to the rear: the settlers were placed in the houses of local residents or in camps, but in the absence of places they could also be placed in non-residential premises - sheds, pigsties. For the most part, the settlers living in the camps did not receive any food - at best, once a day, "liquid gruel".
The height of cynicism is the so-called “12 commandments” of Bakke, one of which says that “the Russian people have got used for hundreds of years to poverty, hunger and unpretentiousness. His stomach is distensible, so [not allow] any fake pity."
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The Germans did not succeed in implementing the "Famine Plan" - they did not have enough human resources to fully support the "food blockade" of Soviet cities, and they could not confiscate all food for their own purposes.
True, the Nazis were able to replenish their grain supplies from Ukrainian granaries and cut the USSR off from Ukraine's food sources. This led to a widespread famine in Soviet territories.
At the end of 1943, the plan led to the stabilization of the food supply system for the German population. In the fall of 1943, for the first time since the beginning of the war, food rations for German citizens, which had previously been reduced several times, were increased again.
In 1942-43, occupied Europe supplied Germany with more than one-fifth of its grain, a quarter of its fats and 30 percent of its meat.