Walter N. Sanning
Source: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p-91_Sanning.html
- Paper Presented to the Sixth International Revisionist Conference.
The Soviet scorched-earth
policy has many facets: Military, economic, and so on. In The Dissolution of
Eastern European Jewry I touched only on those which are of importance in
connection with the demographic changes of Eastern European Jewry. Here I want
to emphasize the economic side of a little-known portion of the Second World
War. However, in order to present the whole picture I must refer to portions of
the subject which have already been covered in The Dissolution. Space
allows only the most important references to those findings, and anybody who
wishes to know more about this is advised to check The Dissolution.
The German-Soviet
Non-Aggression Treaty of 23 August 1939 provided for the following territorial
divisions: Estonia and Latvia would fall into the Soviet sphere of interest
while Lithuania would fall into the German. From Lithuania the line of
demarcation would run toward East Prussia, from there along the Narew, Vistula,
and San rivers toward the Carpathian mountains (Map 1). After the Polish
defeat, the Soviet government immediately exerted heavy pressure on Germany for
a revision of the treaty. In order to maintain peace, Hitler agreed in the
second treaty, the so-called Border and Friendship Agreement of 28 September
1939, that Germany would relinquish its interest in most of Lithuania in
exchange for the area between the Vistula and the Bug rivers with a population
of about 3.5 million, including more than 300,000 Jews.2 This area had been
occupied by the Soviets for only a few days, but the Red Army had taken the
area's food supplies and livestock with it as it departed. As a result the
Germans actually had to bring in large quantities of food to forestall
starvation in this agricultural area.3 This episode should have been a lesson
to Germany. It was not.
While Germany was engaged in
the Western Campaign from 10 May until 24 June, 1940 the Soviet Union occupied
the entirety of Lithuania between 16 and 22 June following the ultimatum of 15
June -- that is, including even that portion which was to remain within the
German sphere of interest according to the treaty. This occupation constituted
not only a gross violation of the two Soviet-German treaties but also of the
Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of Mutual Assistance (10 October 1939). The German
government was neither consulted nor informed of this Soviet action as required
under the treaty provisions.4 The northern Bukovina region of Rumania, which
was outside the agreed-upon Soviet sphere of interest, was similarly
appropriated by the Soviets, although in this case the Soviets pressured
Germany into giving its "consent" within an ultimative time period of
24 hours before occupation (Map 2). I mention these developments only because
they demonstrate the determination with which Russia removed German strategic
advantages while improving her own. They also show that Germany had no definite
military objectives against the Soviet Union because otherwise it is
inconceivable that she would have tolerated Soviet usurpation of the
strategically invaluable Lithuanian gateway to Leningrad and Moscow.
Scorched Earth
Faced with a massive build-up
of Soviet military strength across the line of demarcation, concerned by the
Soviet breach of the so-called Hitler-Stalin Pact and forewarned by new and
enormous Soviet demands for geographic concessions in Europe, Germany invaded
the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. The Soviets immediately began to execute
German prisoners-of-war right after capture or a short interrogation. Even
seriously wounded soldiers were not spared. Numerous high level orders to this
effect are on record. The West German Military History Research Institute
(Militaergeschichtliche Forschungsamt), which is not known for its pro-German
bias, puts the percentage of captured German soldiers who died while in Soviet
captivity in the years 1941-1942 at 90-95 percent Within days after hostilities
began, the Kremlin's Central Committee issued orders to the effect that only
scorched earth be left to the enemy. Everything of value was ordered to be
destroyed, regardless of the needs of the civilian population left behind. For
this purpose special demolition battalions were sent into action. The
above-mentioned Military Research Institute commented further: "From the
very beginning of the war Stalin and the leadership of the Soviet Union
indicated through these measures that as far as they were concerned the armed
conflict with Germany was of an entirely different character than the
historical 'European national wars'."5b
The measures taken by the
Soviet Union between 1940 and 1942 aimed not only at furthering the Soviet war
effort, but also at harming the German enemy even at the cost of huge losses of
life among Soviet civilians. The Soviet scorched-earth strategy included the
deportation of millions of men, women and children; the resettlement and
reestablishment of thousands of factories; the withdrawal of almost the entire
railway rolling stock; the-annihilation of raw material depots; the removal of
most of the agricultural machinery, cattle and grain stocks; the systematic
destruction, burning and blowing up of the immovable infrastructure,
inventories of all kinds, factory buildings, mines, residential areas, public
buildings, public records, and even cultural monuments; and the intentional
starvation of the civilian population which remained behind to face German
occupation. It was basically a policy which unscrupulously used the civilian
population as a strategic pawn. The extent and timing of this policy action is
confirmed by so many sources that no real difference of opinion exists in this
regard: What is strange is how scantily it has been covered so far in the
scholarly literature. Until now, this policy has not been analyzed to the
extent it deserves with an eye to identifying the party responsible for the
conflict, nor to appreciating the German difficulties in prosecuting a war
along established civilized lines, nor to assessing the claims of German brutality
in Russia, nor to sizing up the numerical potential of the alleged German
genocide of Soviet Jews, or indeed, of the Soviet Slavs.
Long before the outbreak of
the German-Soviet conflict, Stalin had begun to prepare for a future war in
Europe when he began to develop heavy industry in the Urals and Western Siberia
starting with the first Five-Year Plan which commenced in 1928. His plans were
for the long run. In the early 1930s he had already announced his determination
to overtake the most advanced industrialized countries with respect to
industrial and military capacity not later than 19416-the year when, according
to numerous admissions of Soviet leaders, including Stalin's son, the Red Army
would strike Germany late that summer.7 With the help of thousands of engineers
and experts from Europe and North America, the core of the Soviet armaments
industry was established in the region where Europe meets Asia. Millions of
Soviet citizens were also mercilessly sacrificed in the drive to attain Soviet
military supremacy. The Ural industrial region was covered with a farflung
network of power lines and electric-power generation plants. In 1940, this
rather underpopulated area, with just four percent of the Soviet population,
produced 4 billion kWh of electricity, and the existing capacity allowed for a
great expansions By comparison, the Soviet territory later occupied by
Germany-the so-called Occupied Eastern Territories-produced no more than 10
billion kWh before the war even though it accounted for about 40 percent of the
Soviet population. In other words, on a per capita basis the electric power
output of the Urals region was four times larger. In preparation for the coming
conflict, substitute factory building shells were raised all across the southern
Urals and western Siberia for the purpose of accepting the machinery from the
territory the German enemy might threaten during the anticipated hostilities. A
railroad network far out of proportion to the needs of this thinly populated
area was vigorously expanded right up to the outbreak of war.9
As soon as the Germans crossed
the frontier, the Soviets put their Plan of Economic Mobilization into action.
This plan incorporated the possibility that the enemy might succeed in
occupying large sections of the country-as had happened during the First World
War. For this reason detailed plans specified the locations to which the
dismantled factories should be transported and the successive steps in which
the removal was to take place. The interrelationships between the individual
enterprises and their dependence on one another were painstakingly taken into
account.l The carefully executed plan included the removal and evacuation of
equipment and people 8-10 days before the retreat of the Red Army, followed by
24 hours of extensive destruction by special demolition squads just prior to
the retreat. If necessary, the Soviet troops would put up last-ditch resistance
to provide sufficient time for their demolition squads to complete their tasks.
Destination addresses found by
the surprised Germans pointed practically always in the direction of the Ural
industrial region, specifically to the area encompassed by Sverdlovsk, Molotov,
Ufa, Chkalov, and Magnitogorsk. This was the region where the factory shells
had been built years before the war and where the equipment dismantled in the
factories of the western Soviet Union was reassembled
In just the first three months
after the outbreak of war more than 1360 large industrial enterprises were
transplanted and the movable equipment of thousands of collective farms was
transported to the interior. It seems that owing to the brutal regimentation of
the miserable deportees the evacuated enterprises rose in an unbelievably short
time at their new locations: it took just three to four weeks to reassemble
large factories and enterprises. The workers had to labor 12 to 14 hours a day,
seven days a week. Within three to four months Soviet production had again
reached prewar levels.l2
The Soviet feat was possible
only because millions of trained workers, managers, engineers and specialists
had been transported to those areas along with their factories. As early as
February 1940, German intelligence had reported the systematic deportation of
the Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish population from the western Ukraine.l3 In June
1940, up to one million Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland along with
many hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported to Siberia. Then, a few weeks
before 22 June 1941, mass deportations of the civilian populations along the
entire frontier with Germany, Hungary, and Rumania took place. The Soviets,
informed by their own spies, Allied intelligence, and German traitors, lost no
time in removing those civilians who were most critically needed in the Ural
armaments centers.l4
Soviet historians admitted
years ago that the Soviet Union had laid plans long before the war to put the
entire Soviet railroad system on a war footing overnight. The purpose was to
prevent the Germans from getting hold of the strategic rolling equipment. The
Soviet success in this endeavor was almost total: Despite the huge number of
rail cars, locomotives, and special transportation equipment in the frontier
areas, and the deployment of troops and war materials for the gigantic Soviet
military build-up in preparation for an attack on central Europe, most of the
rolling stock was removed in time before the Germans struck in a lightning
preventive action on 22 June 1941. During the first five weeks, when German
armies pushed hundreds of miles into the Soviet interior, only 577 locomotives,
270 passenger cars and 21,947 rail freight cars were captured. In relative
terms, this amounted to just 2.3. 0.8 and 2.5 percent respectively.
During the first few months of
the war one million railroad cars loaded with industrial equipment, raw
materials, and people departed from the frontline areas.le I won't delve into
specifics of the scale of the Soviet program of deporting the civilian
population. This I have done in some detail in The Dissolution. Suffice it here
to note that before the war upward of 90 million people were living in the
Soviet areas conquered by Germany during the Second World War. The Soviets
deported anywhere between 25 and 30 million of them. They concentrated their
deportation efforts on specific groups. Thus, they preferred the urban to the
rural population, the skilled to the unskilled, and large educated minorities
(Jews and Russians in the Ukraine, White Russia, and in the Baltic countries)
to the more hostile native population. Because the Soviets had begun their
deportation program long before the outbreak of the war and because the western
frontier areas were generally not densely populated, the Soviet cities which
fell into German hands during the first few days and weeks of the war were
greatly depopulated-up to 90 percent in some cases and over 50 percent on the
average. The cities tended to show greater deportation percentages if they were
located in the Ukraine or White Russia, rather than in the Baltic countries; if
they were located near the western frontier rather than further east; and if
they had large educated minorities than if the native population
predominated.l7
In summary, the scorched-earth
policy was extremely well geared to Soviet objectives. A huge armaments program
had been initiated 13 years before 1941 and long before Adolf Hitler was in
sight as a serious contender for German leadership. Extensive investments had
been made in a rather thinly populated and underdeveloped area in order to
develop its transportation facilities, power stations and network, and heavy
industry. Last but not least, substitute factories had been systematically
erected, ready to accept the industrial equipment from the more developed
Soviet areas to the west should an unfavorable course of the war necessitate
their removal to safer areas. What was lacking, however, was the social
infrastructure, such as housing and hospitals, to accommodate the many millions
of civilians deported there between 1940 and 1941. As a result, 15-20 million
civilians died of epidemics, hunger, overwork, lack of housing, lack of
clothing and the brutal Siberian winter.
The Economic Breakdown in the
Occupied Eastern Territories
The picture presenting itself
to the advancing German troops was one of despair. Of the railroad system only
the tracks remained. The rolling stock was gone. Water works and power stations
were destroyed. In order to organize the production of war-essential raw
materials and mineral oil products, the Germans created the so-called Economic
Staff East. However, the Soviet strategy of scorching the earth very quickly
forced the Economic Staff to reactivate all productive facilities of any kind.
Even the production of consumer goods was included in its program, because
domestic industry was incapable of resuming production on its own following the
almost total destruction and dismantling by the Soviets and the deportation of
most of the managerial personnel and technical specialists.
Of the original power
generation capacity of 2.57 million kW in the Occupied Eastern
Territories-which was equivalent to roughly one-fourth of total prewar Soviet
generating capacity-less then one-eighth (300,000 kW) was found to be intact.
Soviet demolition efforts were so thorough that until the end of March 1943,
capacity could be increased to not more than 630,000 kW, which was still only
one-quarter of the prewar level.l8 (See Table 1.) And yet, regional differences
were quite obvious. In the Reichskommissariat (RK) Ostland (Baltic countries
and White Russia) about half of the original capacity of 270,000 kW was found
to be intact and until the end of March 1943 almost 90 percent of the former
capacity was returned to operation. But in the Ukraine only 7 percent (145,000
kW) of the original power-generation capacity of 2.2 million kW was still
operational. The thoroughness of the Bolsheviks is shown by the fact that until
the end of March 1943, not more than 350,000 kW were usable again. This was
just 16 percent of prewar capacity. These figures refer only to available
capacities. In practice, these were rarely operated fully because of the
growing partisan menace and an almost total lack of coal supplies. Obviously,
industrial production had been dealt a fatal blow. As mentioned already,
electric power generation before the war amounted to 10 billion kWh annually in
the Occupied Eastern Territories. The German administration succeeded in
producing only 750 million kWh from the time of occupation until the end of
1942. For the year 1943 the planned increase to 1.4 billion kWh-which would
still have been 86 percent below pre-war levels-was never attained as only 1
billion kWh were actually produced.l9 It is significant that the planned
increases in manufacturing and mining production for the year 1943 were
realized in only a few cases. Actual production of essential raw materials or
energy supplies fell far short of stated goals despite the high priority
attached to redeveloping the Ukrainian economy.
The effects of the systematic
destruction by the Soviets on industrial production are shown in Table 2. The
basic industrial structure-coal, iron ore, crude steel, electricity, and
cement-was for all practical purposes totally destroyed. Compared with pre-war
levels, coal mining averaged 2.4 percent, iron ore production 1.2 percent,
crude steel production nothing, electricity 8.8 percent, and cement production
11.6 percent!
Another indication of the
sorry state of the economy in Germanoccupied Russia was the size of industrial
manpower. In 1940, Soviet blueand white-collar workers numbered 31.2 million.20
Even if their proportionate share in the regions later occupied by Germany was
less than the Soviet average, it is reasonable to assume that there was a total
of at least 10 million blueand whitecollar workers in these areas before the
war. At the end of 1942, employment in industry (excluding the food industry)
totalled only 750,000. In the purely industrial enterprises, that is, excluding
the handicrafts, the number of employees was iust Soviet Scorched-Earth Warfare99,0
11.
Six hundred thousand in an
area which prior to the war had a population of perhaps 75 million! Even if we
add the unknown number of people employed in the food industry, it is obvious
that industrial employment under German administration was equivalent to
one-tenth of prewar levels at most. To make matters worse, the productivity of
this remnant manpower was far below prewar standards. It is noteworthy that
although the Baltic countries (the largest of which, Lithuania, had very little
industry) accounted for only 8 percent of the prewar population of the Occupied
Eastern Territories, they nevertheless furnished onequarter of the industrial
manpower under German administration (Table 3).
Soviet deportations reduced
skilled personnel to such an extent that not enough local managerial or
technical experts could be found in the Occupied Eastern Territories for even
the tiny number of remaining industrial employees. The Germans were forced to
bring in about 10,000 civilian specialists from the Reich in order to overcome
the most severe personnel shortages.2o On the basis of available statistics I
estimate that the Soviets deported at least 70 percent of the workers prior to
German occupation. This means that the number of workers available to the German
administration (generally lesser-skilled) was about 2 to 3 million. Inasmuch as
not more than a million could be put back to work despite the enormous need for
every kind of production, unemployment assumed huge proportions (50-70 percent)
in the midst of a vociferous demand for goods of any kind.
According to Soviet Prof.
Telpuchowski, the areas occupied by the Germans until November 1941 accounted
for 63 percent of the coal, 68 percent of pig iron, 58 percent of the steel, 60
percent of the aluminum, 38 percent of grains and 84 percent of the sugar
produced in the entire Soviet Union before the war.22 The documents of the
German Economic Staff East show essentially very similar magnitudes. The
Soviets managed to make all this unavailable to the German enemy. The means
employed were ruthless dismantling, demolition, fire, sabotage and deportation.
Instead of adding to Germany's military strength, these areas became a
tremendous drain on her already strained industrial capacity.
Hunger
As for the conquered raw
material supplies, the following secret report of the German Economic Staff for
the period 1-10 October 1941, provides a vivid description of the situation:
Few supplies of any size have
been found so that care will have to be taken during the hostilities ... It
appears that all raw material stocks were either systematically removed from
the areas conquered so Or or made unusable. Thus, the small quantities found
until now are not a significant help in relieving the raw material needs of the
Reich.... The factories have not been supplied with raw materials for some
time.23
The same situation applied in
the case of food, especially grains. An interdepartmental proposal of the
Economic Staff dated 3 October 1941 on the supplies needed for Russian cities
even went so far as to suggest that the remaining larger cities not yet in
German hands should be cut off and encircled, and that their capitulation
should not be accepted. This, of course, was militarily quite out of the
question, but it shows the desperation with which the German authorities of the
conquered areas viewed the effects of the Soviet strategy of leaving it up to
the occupying armies to feed millions of starving Soviet citizens! The report
continued:
It has been our experience
that the Russians remove or destroy systematically all of the food supplies
before retreating. The urban population of the conquered cities thus will
either have to be fed by the Wehrmacht or it will have to starve. Obviously, by
forcing us to provide additional food to the Russian population, the Russian
leadership intends to worsen the already difficult food situation of the German
Reich through a reduction of the domestic German food supply. As a matter of
fact, the present food situation permits us to feed the Russian urban
population from our own stocks only if we reduce the supplies to the Army or if
we lower the rations at home.24
During the very early period
of the war, Soviet destruction in the agricultural sector was confined to the
machine and tractor stations. As a rule, these stations were found empty and
the machines and vehicles left behind had been made unusable. At first, cattle
stocks were relatively intact. But this changed rapidly during the following
weeks. As the war progressed from west to east, almost no cattle, grain and
gasoline supplies were found. The Luftwaffe and prisoners of war reported that
the Soviets busily harvested the fields as they retreated. After the Ukraine
was liberated, it became obvious that the food situation would slowly but surely
become catastrophic. In many cases even seed grains had to be distributed to
help the starving Ukrainians. This, in turn, reduced the acreage that could be
planted at a time when the lack of tractors, gasoline, and draft horses had
already made its negative effects felt. It is estimated that the so-called
Occupied Eastern Territories produced 43 million tons of grain under Soviet
rule in 1940. Under German administration the recorded harvest in 1941 was not
more than 13 million tons. One reason for this small harvest was the fact that
the German drive into Russia was swiftest in the northern and center sections
of the theater of war, thus enabling the Soviets to take with them or destroy
considerable parts of the harvest in the Ukraine. In 1942 even less was
harvested, only 11.7 million tons. According to Dallin, the German
administration succeeded in seeding not more than three quarters of the prewar
acreage. Fertilizer was practically unavailable and the yield per acre was
correspondingly lower in 1942. Compared to the average yields per hectare of
approximately 2200 pounds (14 bushels/acre) in the Ukraine in the late 1930s,
the Germans managed to obtain just 1500 pounds (10 bushels/acre).25
Furthermore, the Soviet scorched earth policy now began to show its full
effects: The use of seed grains to relieve the worst hunger in the cities, the
increasing partisan menace and the dearth of personnel and machinery reduced
the harvest potential drastically.
German supervisory personnel
in the countryside were much too thinly spread to enforce effectively a strict
delivery of agricultural products. To be sure, at the expense of the goodwill
and the pro-German attitude of the peasant population, it was possible to
locate and requisition some additional agricultural produce for the cities,
but, judging by the misery in the cities, this was by far not rigorous enough.
Of course, the Germans periodically tried to "comb through" the
countryside to find these hoarded stocks but their efforts were marked with
little success. Theretreating Red Army had removed the entire organization
necessary to collect and distribute the harvest of the collectivized
agriculture system, and the German administration was forced to set up its own
collection and distribution system for agricultural products-not an easy task
considering the harrowing wartime conditions. Not only was time much too short
and wartime conditions simply too severe to organize such an administration
successfully, but the brutality with which the Bolsheviks had enforced their
claims on agricultural production was simply not in keeping with the German
mentality or German policy which-contrary to Allied and Soviet propaganda-aimed
at finding a basis of mutual understanding with the liberated Slavic and Baltic
populations.
Far from the ruthlessness
which supposedly characterized German occupation rule in Russia, the plain fact
is that, as a central European nation, the Germans never came to grips with the
inhumane concept of total warfare as applied by their Soviet foe. As even
Jewish historian Alexander Dallin admits: "Soviet collection (of the
harvest) had, in practice, been far more efficient (italics added) than the
German. As a result, peasants in German-held areas were often able to hide
larger stocks than before the war. In all probability concealed reserves
remained substantial,..."2s From 1941 until 1943, 15,000 rail cars loaded
with agricultural equipment and machines left Germany for the Occupied Eastern
Territories under the so-called Ostackerprogramm ("Eastern soil
program"). This included 7,000 tractors, 20,000 generators, 250,000 steel
plows, and 3,000,000 scythes. Furthermore, thousands of bulls, cows, swine, and
stallions were sent to those areas for breeding purposes to raise the quality
of the livestock. Available statistics indicate that German agricultural
assistance between July 1941 and tune 1943 amounted to 445 million RM
(Reichsmarks).27
The net prewar Soviet harvest
of 1940 yielded 82 million tons of grain, of which about 30 percent was set
aside for seed and feed purposes. Theoretically, the Soviet population thus had
available 57 million tons, or a little less than 800 grams daily per person. In
practice, of course, it was less, because part of this volume was set aside in
reserve in anticipation of the coming war with Germany.28 Assuming that 30
percent of the recorded harvest of only 13 millions tons under German
occupation in 1941 was set aside for seed and feed purposes, only 9 million
tons were left for the native population. Of that amount 2 million tons were
taken by the German army. The amount requisitioned by the German army was
rather moderate indeed. This is shown by the fact that the Red Army used 31/4
million tons of grain in 1940, the last year of peace! While another 350,000
tons were shipped off to Germany, this was offset by the significant but
unknown portion of the grain volume sequestered by the German army but used to
feed the native urban civilian population.29 In any case, the civilian
population of about Soviet Scorched-Earth Warfare 103
50 million was thus left with
only about 7 million tons. On a per capita basis this amounted to less than 400
grams daily (less than one pound)-only half as much as in 1940. Meat and fats
were not available as a general rule. But this average does not mean very much.
On the one hand, we noted that the harvests probably were considerably larger
than German statistics indicate. This means that at least the rural population
which was the majority, was able to enjoy a considerably better and more plentiful
diet. Also, many urban dwellers were able to obtain food from the peasants on
the illegal, but difficult to control black market. In this way the cities
obtained from the peasants some of the food which German authorities were
unable to trace On the other hand, transportation was often an insurmountable
problem so that even the minimal supply of food arrived in the cities either
late or not at all. Moreover, partisans either destroyed or confiscated large
parts of the harvested grain. Finally, German authorities often tried to obtain
extra rations for workers in war-essential factories. Of course, this was only
possible at the expense of the rest of the population. The fact that German
authorities did not even succeed in getting the special rations for the workers
in war-essential industries or for those doing heavy manual labor, as they were
entitled, shows how serious the situation was.30 Those urban residents who were
either unemployed or did not have anything to trade with the peasants were
really in trouble: Starvation was their fate.
To show the desperate food
situation in the cities of Germanoccupied Russia, I will quote from the regular
secret reports of the Economic Staff East sent to Berlin:
I1 November 1941: The scarcity
of food and the lack of even the most essential consumer goods are the main
reason why the morale of the Russian and Ukrainian population is becoming more
and more depressed ... Kiev received no grain whatever since its occupation on
19 September 1941 ... The partisans take food from the civilian population at
night and force physically able men to join them. In part, food supplies are
being burned down by the partisans. Especially great difficulties exist in the
southern area where it is impossible to feed all of the prisoners of war
because of their huge numbers.... The authorities are constantly at pains to
find enough to eat for the prisoners, although gruel and buckwheat are
available only in limited quantities.... We are very concerned about our
ability to feed the urban population in the southern areas.3l
8 December 1941: The food
situation in the city of Kharkov is extremely critical. There is almost nothing
for the population to eat. Bread is not available.32 22 January 1942: The
regular distribution of food to the urban civilian population in the southern
area must be restricted more and more, and this is not likelv to change in the
foreseeable future.33
23 February 1942: The supply
of food to the civilian population of the larger cities is so critical that it
is cause for the most serious warnings.33 1 March 1942: The morale is low
because of food problems.... In the densely populated Donets area especially no
food has been distributed at all to the population. As a result, several
thousand people have died of hunger so far. In some cases even highly qualified
specialists and professors were among the victims.33 5 March 1942: The food
situation continues to be very serious and in some cities there is actual
starvation. In Pushkin it was discovered that there was a trade in human flesh
which was offered to the population as pork.33 16 March 1942 (Report by the
commander of the military rear central areas): In the large cities (the food
situation) continues to be unsatisfactory and in Kharkov it is catastrophic. As
time goes on it becomes ever more difficult to feed the urban population ...33
3 June 1942: The food situation in the cities grows worse and worse because
part of the food supplies collected for the population had to be used for
seeding and part of the supplies were destroyed bv the Dartisans.33
The unceasing efforts by the
German civil and military authorities to provide a sufficient supply of food to
the civilian population within their narrow means were brought to naught by the
terribly poor harvests, the catastrophic transport situation, the partisan
menace, the removal of the food depots by the Soviets and the impossibility of
organizing a satisfactory regular exchange of goods between the large cities
and the countryside. While the food supply of the rural population and the
small towns was relatively secure, the civilian population of the large cities
and the millions of prisoners faced naked starvation. Soviet savagery thus
became a legacy of German guilt.
German Counter-Measures
If for no other reason than
self-interest, the Germans tried to relieve the catastrophic economic situation
and stabilize the economy by importing huge amounts of capital from Germany.
Equipment worth one billion RM was imported from the Reich for the mining,
energy and manufacturing sectors alone. To this must be added the considerable
costs incurred for the transportation sector as well as for road-building
equipment, the value of which has been estimated at more than one billion RM.
After adding the considerable quantities of coal used as fuel for civilian
railroad freight transport, German reconstruction aid for industry and the
infrastructure may have totalled more than 2.5 billion RM.34 This amount does
not include agricultural assistance worth about a half-billion RM. The extent of
German aid to the civilian sector may be better appreciated if one realizes
that the gross value of industrial production in those areas (valued on the
basis of domestic German prices) from the beginning of the occupation until the
end of 1943 amounted to approximately 5 billion RM. (This figure includes the
industrial raw materials, finished goods, and repairs furnished by that economy
to the German army.)35 Although it is not known precisely what portion of this
gross value was actual value-added, comparisons with other countries would
suggest that it must have been a little more than 2 billion RM.36 In other
words, German non-agricultural economic aid was larger than the entire
industrial output of these territories during the time of occupation! The annual
net output per worker amounted to 1,000 RM per year. By comparison: The German
worker attained a net production of 4,000 RM in the year 1936.37 Naturally, a
large part of the much-reduced volume of industrial production was absorbed by
the German occupation army. Thus, German army requirements and, to an even
greater extent, the Soviet scorched-earth strategy, reduced the supply of
consumer goods for a native population of about 50 million to almost nothing.
The reason for the failure of the German administration to provide sufficient
food for the native urban population is best demonstrated by this dilemma.
Consumer goods production was practically non-existent because of Soviet
destruction and evacuation of all industrial plants and raw materials, the deportation
of the trained industrial manpower, and the impossibility of quickly repairing
damages. Thus, there was nothing the urban populations could offer to the
peasants in exchange for their food. And since the peasant was unable to buy
anything for the money he received, he was unwilling to part with his produce.
German economic aid to the
occupied Soviet territories amounted to roughly one percent of German gross
national product of those years.38 Even today, this figure is not matched by
the level of foreign aid of the industrial nations to developing countries.
West Germany, for example, extended foreign aid amounting to about one-half of
one percent of GNP since 1960, that is, at a time of relative prosperity and
low defense outlays. Indeed, the economic assistance of about 3 billion RM
(including both industrial and agricultural aid) furnished to the economy of
the occupied Soviet area is even more remarkable when one realizes this this
amount was equivalent to one-6ourth of aggregate gross fixed investment in
Greater Germany in the years 1942 and 1943 (12 billion RM).39
A comparison of the straight
economic tonnage exchanged between the Reich and the Occupied Eastern
Territories provides additional information on non-military exchange between
those two years. Unfortunately, only data for the year 1943 could be found.
In terms of tonnage, about 20
percent more freight entered Germany than was delivered by the Reich.
Considering that about 2 million tons of grain were furnished by the Occupied
Eastern Territories to the German armies in 1943,4 the tonnage ration of
exchange of 7 to 4 was indeed favorable to Germany. However, the goods made
available by those territories were mainly staples (raw materials, ores, etc.)
with relatively low weight-specific values, while the products from Germany had
very high weight-specific values (with the exception of coal to run the
railroads, of course). Inasmuch as finished goods tend to be many times more
valuable, pound for pound, than staple products, it would seem that the
exchange was much more favorable for the Occupied Eastern Territories, even
though this rough approximation certainly does not permit us to calculate the
actual value of the trade even within a wide margin of error. On balance, the
Occupied Eastern Territories delivered agricultural products worth 1.6 billion
RM to the Reich and the German armies.4l The deliveries of German machines,
tractors, generators, equipment of all kinds for industry and agriculture,
vehicles, railroad coal, etc., amounted to roughly 3.0 billion RM, leaving a
difference of about 1.4 billion RM in favor of the Occupied Eastern
Territories. From this we would have to deduct the value of captured raw
material supplies, the ores and other raw materials produced during the period
of occupation, as well as repair services for the German army. It is unknown
what value should be applied to these items. However, in view of the very small
raw material depots found and the extremely low production of the largely
defunct industry (a large part of the industrial output was actually used to
rebuild the factories) it must be doubted whether more than 25 percent of
industry's meager output of 2 billion RM was absorbed by the occupation forces.
In short, the Occupied Eastern territories as such added little in economic
terms to the fight against the common Bolshevik enemy. In fact, they were the
beneficiaries of an almost unbelievably generous reconstruction assistance.
This aid, like all so-called foreign aid, was hardly made for purely altruistic
reasons. Nevertheless, it was unique in the history of relations between an
occupying power and the conquered territory of a country with which it was
still locked in mortal combat.
It would be too simplistic to
attribute the German economic failure in Russia simply to the Soviet success in
dismantling, removing and destroying the industrial base, infrastructure and
raw material supplies, to the deportation of millions of workers or to the
increasing partisan threat. All of these factors were no doubt very important.
Another aspect, however, was at least as significant. When Germany invaded the
USSR she did so despite an almost total lack of knowledge of real Soviet
military strength, of the size of Soviet arms production, of the capacity of
the main centers of military industrial output, or of Soviet preparations for
total war. Even worse, Germany was totally unprepared to overcome the serious
transportation bottlenecks which developed almost immediately and had no plans
whatever for running an economy which had depended on centralized planning
directives from Moscow, where every kind of private initiative had been
stifled, where the entire administrative, managerial and technical class had
been deported and where public records had been largely removed. Not only did
Soviet brutality and lack of any restraint differ from the practice during the
historic national wars in Europe, but it soon also became apparent that the
challenge of a smoking remains of an economy, run on an organizational pattern
vastly different from that familiar to Europeans, posed insurmountable
problems. The added liability of the disappearance of the entire
organizational, administrative and technical apparatus turned a task which was
almost impossible to begin with into chaos. Chaos brought starvation, and
starvation brought support for the partisans. The book has not yet been written
which analyses the German military defeat in Russia in terms of her failure to
get the economy of the occupied territories organized effectively and producing
again.
The lack of success in finding
a solution to the food problem was partly due to Germany's inability to
effectively revamp Soviet agriculture during the limited time available and to
her scruples in burdening an already downtrodden population even further. Thus,
assistance measures like the so-called Ostackerprogramm, while gigantic in
terms of absolute aid to the agriculture of the Occupied Eastern Territories,
were really doomed to failure from the start because they did not remove the
cause of the problem. In effect, Germany tried to keep alive by artificial
means the amputated trunk of a society devoid of its brains and muscles.
Implications
It is an indisputable fact
that the systematic Soviet dismantling of factories and their shipment to the
Urals, the carefully planned removal and destruction of raw materials stocks
and food supplies, and the large-scale deportation of civilians were started
long before 22 June 1941. Indeed, evidence indicated that these efforts were
greatly intensified ten to fourteen days prior to that date. Now, we do not
know whether Stalin believed that a German attack would come on the precise
date of 22 June 1941, although Sorge and others had provided such information
to him. Possibly, Stalin thought that Germany's military build-up was
insufficient to allow her to strike on the day reported to him. But this is
really beside the point. Both sides knew that the other would attack as soon as
it was ready. This fact demolishes forever the charge of a German sneak attack
on an unprepared, peace-loving Soviet Union. The initial German military
successes were achieved not because of the element of surprise but despite
Stalin's knowledge of German preventive action and despite a huge Soviet
military build-up for an attack on central Europe, which was the reason for
Germany's preventive war in the first place. Furthermore, the allegation of
systematic German brutality in Russia is exposed as plain Soviet propaganda. It
is true that starvation was widespread in the large cities of the
German-occupied Soviet Union, that large numbers of Soviet prisoners-of-war
died of hunger, that the Soviet cities were in ruins after' the German armies
retreated, and that the Soviet population suffered tens of millions of dead
during the Second World War. However, we also know that the inhumane Soviet
scorched-earth strategy was the cause of hunger in the German-occupied Soviet
territories, of an orgy of destruction previously unknown in warfare, and of
the death of up to 20 million Soviet civilians, many of whom had been deported
to the frozen wastes of Siberia and the Urals where epidemics, lack of housing
and medical care, unimaginably hard work loads, and an extreme climate allowed
only the toughest to survive. Add the costly human-wave tactics of Soviet
military strategy and it is evident that Soviet brutality alone was responsible
for the unbelievably huge losses of life suffered by the peoples of the Soviet
Union-more than 30 million dead!
The real number of Soviet war
losses is not the main focus of this paper, and space does not permit a
detailed examination of this subject here. However, an appendix has been added
which attempts to arrive at a more realistic estimate of Soviet war casualties
based on an analysis of postwar USSR census figures from 1959, 1970 and 1979
and a comparison with the Soviet census of 1939 adjusted to the extent possible
for border and population changes between 1939 and 1945. Suffice it here to say
that the Soviets lost more than 25 percent of their male and almost 9 percent
of their female population. For the population left under Stalin's control at
the height of German expansion in Russia, the equivalent losses are 33 percent
and 13 percent. It is curious that contemporary standard treatments of Soviet
wartime losses generally admit to just 20 million dead. Why this unusual
understatement for a wartime ally? Well, to admit that the Soviets lost almost
20 million civilians rather than 6-7 million during the Second World War would
place the responsibility for most of the non-military losses on the Soviets
themselves.
Naturally, the alleged German
rampage in Russia fits neatly into the "Holocaust" tale. After all,
the area of the Soviet Union occupied by Germany had been populated by more
than 3.5 million Jews before 22 June 1941.42 If one adds the nearly one million
Jewish refugees in eastern Poland in early 1940, it is obvious that to maintain
the genocide charge it has been necessary to draw a curtain of silence around
the Soviet long-term preparation, anticipation, thoroughness, brutality, and
scale of scorching the earth during the Second World War. Since the historical
framework within which the alleged German mass murder is supposed to have been
perpetrated simply did not exist, it became necessary to create the myths which
superficially appeared to be substantiated by what was obvious to everyone: The
initial swift German advances and the horrible destruction of Soviet cities and
countryside after the Germans were forced out again.
It is up to us to lift this
curtain of silence and concealment and to replace the myth of Soviet
unpreparedness with the horrible truth of Soviet scorched earth.
Appendix
Soviet Casualties During the
Second World War
The USSR has never published
any data on Soviet war casualties. But the censuses taken in the post-war
period can help give a good idea of the probable size of the Soviet losses. A
distinction between military and non-military losses, however, still is not
possible with any great degree of accuracy. The census of 17 January 1939 found
a population of 170.56 million, of which 81.70 million (47.9%) were male. The
first post-war census conducted in December 1959 counted 208.83 million
inhabitants; males accounted for 94.05 million (45%) of them. A direct
comparison between these two counts is not possible, though, because the Soviet
Union annexed huge territories in eastern Europe in the period from September
1939 to the summer of 1940 and then again in 1945: the Baltic countries,
eastern Poland, northern Bukovina, Bessarabia, and the Carpathian Ukraine. In
the course of its territorial expansion in the years 1939 and 1940 the Soviet
Union absorbed at least 24 million Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Jews, White
Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and Rumanians, to name just the most important
nationalities. Also, between January 1939 and June 1941 the natural excess of
births over deaths added another 7-8 million people. Thus, at the beginning of
the war with Germany in June 1941 there were about 202 million people under
Soviet rule.
The sex structure of the
Soviet population of 202 million (June 1941) was not affected byxthe
incorporation of 24 million people between 1939 and 1940, because most of the
absorbed territories had belonged to the Tsarist empire until 1917 and thus the
enormous male casualties suffered during the First World War were reflected in
the demographic structure of those areas as well. But the excess births over
deaths between 1939 and 1941 did result in a very slight improvement of the
male share to 48 percent. To summarize: Of the 202 million people in the Soviet
Union at the beginning of the war in June 1941, 97 million were male (48%) and
105 million female (52%). A comparison of these figures with the census of 1959
is encumbered by the fact that after the war further territorial changes and
forcible population exchanges with neighboring satellite countries took place.
For example, the area around Bialystok, which was occupied by the Soviet Union
in 1939, was returned to Communist post-war Poland. At the same time, the
Soviets annexed the Carpathian Ukraine. Then, too, many Poles residing in
eastern Poland were removed after the war to areas previously populated by
Germans, while many Ukrainians living west of the line of the Bug and San
rivers were transferred to Ukraine. Whether all of these changes provided the
Soviet Union with a net population gain or loss cannot be determined today with
certainty. In addition, there is the well-known fact that.many former Soviet
citizens fled to the West when the German armies withdrew from Russia. Many of
them were able to find their way to western countries despite Allied efforts to
force them to return to the Soviet Union after 1945. But these lucky ones are
more than matched by the millions deported by the Soviets from central and
eastern Europe after the war. It is just about impossible to obtain even
approximate figures for these population changes, but it can be argued (and
this analysis starts from the basis) that these changes did not produce major
additions or subtractions.
The total number and the sex
composition of the Soviet population at the end of the war in 1945 can be
estimated if we draw on the post-war censuses of December 1959, January 1970 and
January 1979. The age groups of 0 to 15 years (1945-1959) accounted for 60.2
million people according to the census of December 1959. Available statistics
indicate that the mortality rate averaged 0.72% between 1945 and 1959; on the
basis of an average population of 190 million the total number of deaths during
this period may be estimated at 20.5 million. Thus, the net population growth
until 1959 was almost 40 million. Subtracting this figure from the 1959
population of about 209 million we arrive at a 1945-population of only 169
million! Finally, if we compare the 1941 figure (202 million) with the one for
1945, it is obvious that the Soviet Union's total war casualties amounted to 33
million! The distribution of this immense loss of life among both sexes can
also be estimated by using the post-war censuses. Between 1959 and 1970 the net
population gain was 32.89 million, and between 1970 and 1979 it was 20.68
million. Males accounted for 52.74 percent of this total increase of 53.57
million. Applying this percentage to the increase of barely 40 million between
1945 and 1959, it is obvious that males increased by almost 21 million. The
Soviet censuses of 1939, 1959, 1970 and 1979, as well as the estimates for the
years 1941 and 1945, are listed above Despite the above-mentioned uncertainties
pertaining to the various population movements, it is nevertheless possible to
state with a great degree of probability that Soviet war losses during the
Second World War exceeded 30 million and that only 73 million of the previous
97 million men survived the war. In short, more than 25 percent of the males
had to sacrifice their lives for the Soviet cause! The female Soviet population
suffered 6 million dead, or almost 9 percent. Citing official sources, the
Swiss newspaper Die Tat (January 1955) reported 13.6 million Red Army deaths
during the Second World War. The same figure was published by the Ploetz
Publishing House in Wuerzburg/Germany, and other sources-for example, the West
German Historical Military Research Institute-mentioned similar figures. If
this huge military loss is accurate, Soviet civilian losses must have been 19.3
million, of which, in turn, 9 million were female and 10.3 million male. The
terrible conditions behind Soviet lines, which included hunger, exhaustion,
deaths from exposure to cold, epidemics, lack of medications and medical care,
catastrophic living conditions (tents, earth huts), and the terror of an
inhumane regime fighting for its survival, caused most of these deaths, as the
9 million female casualties indicate.
Notes:
- Helmdach, Erich. Taueschungen und Versaeumnisse, Berg am See: 1979, p. 155.
- Brennecke, Gerhard. Die Nuernberger Geschichtsentstellung, Tueb ingen: 1970, p. 303.
- Fischer, Ludwig, and Friedrich Gollert. Warschau unter deutscher Herrschaft, Cracow: 1942, p. 186.
- Brennecke, Die Nuernberger Geschichtsentstellung, pp. 303 and 322. 5a. Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg (Militaergeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Ed.), Stuttgart: 1983, Volume 4, p. 785.
- ibid., p. 782.
- Scott, John. Jenseits des Ural, Stockholm: 1944, p. 304. [English edi tion: Behind the Urals, Boston: 1942.)
- Helmdach, Erich. Ueberfall? Der sowjetisch-deutsche Aufmarsch 1941, Neckargemuend/Germany: 1978, 4th Chapter.
- Scott, Jenseits des Ural, p. 310.
- ibid., pp. 303 and 310.
- Telpuchowski, Boris Semionowitsch. Die Geschichte des Grossen Vaterlaendischen Krieges 1941-1945, (Andreas Hillgruber and HansAdolf Jacobsen, eds.), Frankfurt/Main: 1961, pp. 81-83, 86.
- Wirtschaftsstab 0st. Vierzehntagesbericht Wi Stab 0st (3.8.-16.8. 1941), 30 August 1941, Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bes tand RW 31/11.
- Telpuchowski, Die Geschichte des Grossen Vaterlaendischen Krieges, p. 81 and 82.
- Aschenauer, Rudolf. Krieg ohne Grenzen, Leoni, 1982, p. 115.
- Sanning, Walter N. The Dissolution of Eastern European Jewry, Torrance, Calif.: 1983, 3rd Chapter.
- Reichswirtschaftsministerium. Die UdSSR Anfang 1941, (Date unknown), Federal Archives Koblenz/Germany, Bestand R 24/817.
- Telpuchowski, Die Geschichte des Grossen Vaterlaendischen Krieges, p. 84.
- Sanning, The Dissolution, pp. 86-101.
- Wirtschaftsstab 0st, Chefgruppe W. Wirtschaftsgroessenordnungen fuer die besetzten Ostgebiete, 3 March 1943, Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bestand RW 31/260.
- Reichsministerium fuer die besetzten Ostgebiete. Bericht ueber die Taetigkeit der Chefgruppe Wirtschaft im Reichsministerium fuer die besetzten Ostgebiete, 20 November 1944. Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bestand RW 31/260.
- Telpuchowski, Die Geschichte des Grossen Vaterlaendischen Krieges, p. 85.
- Bericht ueber die Taetigkeil der Chefgruppe Wirtschaft im Reichsministerium fuer die besetzten Ostgebiete, 20 November 1944, p. 4.
- Telpuchowski, Die Ceschichte des Grossen Vaterlaen(lischf n Krieges, p. 78.
- Wirtschaftsstab 0st. Halbmonatsbericht Wi Stab 0st (1.-15.10.41), 2 November 1941, Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bestand RW 31/310.
- Memorandum dated 3 October 1941, titled Die Versorgung der Staedte Russlands im noch unbesetzten Gebiet, Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bestand RW 31/11.
- Dallin, Alexander. German Rule in Russia 1941-1945, London: 1957, p. 367.
- ibid.
- ibid., p. 368.
- Perspektiven zur Verpflegungsversorgung der U.d.S.S.R. im Winterfeldzug 1942/43, (Date unknown), Chef d.Vers.d.200.Schtz. Div. der 5. Armee, Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bestand RW 31/23Z.
- Dallin, German Rule in Russia, p. 375.
- Letter from the Reichsminister fuer die besetzten Ostgebiete dated 5 August 1942 to Ministerialdirektor Riecke concerning the food sup ply of the civilian population in the Occupied Eastern Territories (Versorgung der Zivilbevoelkerung in den besetzten Ostgebieten), Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bestand RW 31/310: Contains excerpts from the secret monthly and special reports made by the Economic Staff East, the German military and the German civilian administration of the RK Ostland and the RK Ukraine.
- Wirtschaftsstab 0st, Halbmonatsbericht Wi Stab 0st (16.-31.10.41), 27 November 1941, Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bestand RW 31/68.
- Wirtschaftsstab 0st, Halbmonatsbericht Wi Stab 0st (1.-15.11.41), 8 December 1941, Military Archives Freiburg/Germany, Bestand RW 31/68. , k
- Letter from the Reichsminister fuer die besetzten Ostgebiete dated 5 August 1942 to Ministerialdirektor Riecke.
- Bericht ueber die Taetigkeit der Chefgruppe Wirtschaft im Reichs ministerium fuer die besetzten Ostgebiete, p. 5.
- ibid.
- Statistisches Jahrbuch fuer die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1952 (Statistical Yearbook of the Federal Republic of Germany), Statistical Office, Wiesbaden, lists the value of production of industrial coun tries before the Second World War. Net production reached the following shares of gross production in the years indicated: U.S.A. (1939) 43%; United Kingdonl (1935) 42%; Canada (1937) 42%; Nor way (1937) 36%; Denmark (1939) 47%; Finland (1937) 42%; South Africa (1937) 45%.
- ibid.
- Klein, Burton H. Germany's Economic Preparations for War, Cam bridge/Mass.: 1959, p. 256. The gross national product of the Ger man Reich for 1942 and 1943 was given as RM 143 and RM 160 billion, respectively. Relative to the entire reconstruction assistance of about RM 3 billion (incl. agricultural aid of RM 445 million) pro vided to the Occupied Eastern Territories this amounts to 1%. Soviet Scorched-Earth Warfare
- ibid.
- Dallin, German Rule in Russia 1941-1945, p. 375.
- ibid.
- Sanning, The Dissolution, p. 52.
- German-Soviet demarcation, as set by the Hitler-Stalin Pact f 23 August 1939.
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