Generalplan Ost



''Europe, with pre-WW2 borders, showing the extension of the Generalplan Ost master plan. Germany (Deutsches Reich). Dotted black line – the extension of a detailed plan of the "second phase of settlement" (zweiten Siedlungsphase). Light grey – planned territorial scope of the Reichskommissariat administrative units; their names in blue are Ostland (1941-1945), Ukraine (1941-1944), Moskowien, and Kaukasien.

Generalplan Ost (or "Master Plan for the East") was a massive demographic alteration initiative first drafted by the start of the Second World War in 1939, and was finalized by 1942. It was organized in secrecy among only the highest-ranking leaders within the Reich's government, especially those of the SS, with many instances of even the Führer himself kept out of the loop. Conducted by the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, the operation's intention was to resettle vast swaths of fertile lands of the Soviet East with German colonists numbering between 8 to 12 million in total. The first stage in Generalplan Ost however involved rounding up the racialy undesirable inhabitants of the Soviet east and subjecting them to either immediate extermination or forced deportations far eastward, preferably beyond the Ural Mountains. The primary demographics the plan especially targeted were the Jews, Communists, the mentally deficient, racially mixed mongoloids, the physically inferior, and the Gypsys. Those deemed racially acceptable were spared from Generalplan Ost as German racial theorists suggested that they are fit for proper Germanization and viewed as useful subjects for the Greater German Reich.

Generalplan Ost truly began to pick up its pace by the beginning of 1943, witnessing an astounding 2.5 million Soviet PoW's and citizens who were captured by German forces being efficiently utilized for slave labor, constructing infrustructure for supply lines, producing ammunition and explosives (often in hazardous conditions) and harvesting crops along with livestock to feed the Germans stationed on the Eastern Front. The success of the German military in their campaign against the Soviets is often attributed to the efforts of Generalplan Ost, with many suggesting victory lied on the balance of its success.

By mid 1944, with German forces now presiding over many hundreds of square miles of Soviet land, along with the millions of Slavs who inhabit it, Hitler devised a plan with the aid of SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and Reichsminister Martin Bormann which devised an intricate operation to vastly increase the percentages of population transfers of the Üntermenschen from the regions of the east considered fit for Lebensraum. Moreover, such large populations of Soviet citizens, many whom likely still possessed Marxist sympathies posed a significant security threat to the occupational forces. By August of that year, over 2.3 million Slavs had been successfully relocated beyond the Ural Mountains - the ideal transfer point for those deemed unworthy of sharing the lands with the German people. Many German troops and other Axis soldiers in the east took notice to these large disappearances, with some even inquiring about it to regional Kommissars. However, few outside Himmler's closest inner circle had any sort of indication of the existence of such forced deportations being an official policy, with only a secretive special SS task force being responsible for carrying out Generalplan Ost, More often than not, Himmler would carry out increasingly brutal measures in an effort to expedite this agenda,, often doing so without even Hitler's knowledge, let alone his permission. In 1945, Himmler began preparing to target the Baltic peoples, despite their fierce display of loyalty towards the German Reich and its efforts fighting the Bolshevik menace, with large numbers of them enlisting into Waffen-SS legions. This display of loyalty to the National Socialist cause unfortunately didnt seem to sway Himmler's increasingly radical tendencies... He ordered the SS to begin rounding up Baltic citizens, particularly those living in Lithuania and Latvia, and subjected to mass deportation or in certain case; eradication. Fortunately a war hero of the Latvian SS foreign legion and a man who even the Führer himself personally admired was a high-ranking officer by the name of Kārlis Lobe. Lobe had caught wind of what was taking place in his homeland after his own sister was arrested by one of Himmler’s special task forces and later shot for attempting to flee, however she managed to survive the encounter, with Kārlis later finding her bleeding out in her home in Riga when he came to visit. Furious, Lobe had managed to contact Hitler, pleading with him to put an end to the unwarranted bloodshed of his people. Having not been informed by Himmler of this extension of the ressettlement to include the Baltic, the Führer was enraged. Himmler was immediately ordered back to Berlin at Hitler’s insistence. Furious at Himmler for issuing orders behind his back, Hitler demanded the Baltic initiative be rescinded and that Himmler was to be imprisoned if he acts outside the authority of the Führer again. Reichsführer Himmler was then sent back to the occupied East immediately thereafter...

With the fall of Moscow and German dominance over the east by the end of 1945, a massive administrative government, the Reichskommissariat Moskowien was established under the jurisdiction of Himmler. Generalplan Ost is still ongoing, with many thousands deported to the east on a daily basis. 350,000 Germans have already settled occupied Eastern Europe, many of them soldiers as well as ethnic Germans whom had originally hailed from various regions around Europe where they comprised as significant ethnic populations and resettled into the German Reich and granted citizenship as part of the Heim ins Reich initiative. These settlers were granted subsidized lands and properties for miniscule prices as a way to encourage colonization. Of course, the German-ruled lands under the Reichskommissariats proved still highly volitile, with many towns and cities having recently been reduced to rubble from battle, and numbers of Soviet Bolshevik partaisans rome the countrysides, ambushing soldier and settler alike whenever given the chance. It is projected that the plan will likely require at least 50 years to complete, with decades of infrastructural modernization and settlement required for this to be achieved. Many fear however that if a continued implmentation of what appears to be increasingly harsh policies are carried out by the likes of Himmler, it is indeed a possibility that entire regions of the Kommissariats could face total uprisings by the millions of Slavic people’s who still inhabit them. Such an instance may very well likely place the lives of the countless German settler's migrating eastward everyday in serious peril...