Germany’s Staatssekretäre,Mass Starvation and the Meeting of 2 May 1941

Abstract

On 2 May 1941, seven weeks before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, a meeting of senior German officials, including many ministers' deputies, or Staatssekretšre, took place, which would establish the nature of the economic policy of ruthless exploitation pursued by the invaders and occupiers in the Soviet Union. In a chillingly matter-of-fact way, those present declared that 'x million people will doubtlessly starve, if that which is necessary for us is extracted from the land'. This article focuses on the meeting, its minutes and the men who attended, whilst placing it firmly in the context of the planning for German economic policy in the occupied Soviet territories. In addition, the article considers the importance of gatherings of the Staatssekretšre, the equivalent of British Permanent Secretaries, in National Socialist Germany, as a forum for inter-ministerial policy co-ordination, and draws comparisons between the meeting in Berlin on 2 May 1941 and the disproportionately better-known Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942, the most infamous of all the Staatssekretšre discussions.