 Beginning in March 1941 , Göring 's Green Folder laid out details for the disposal of the Soviet economy after conquest . The Hunger Plan outlined how the entire urban population of conquered territories was to be starved to death , thus creating an agricultural surplus to feed Germany and urban space for the German upper class . Nazi policy aimed to destroy the Soviet Union as a political entity in accordance with the geopolitical Lebensraum ideals for the benefit of future generations of the " Nordic master race " . In 1941 , Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg , later appointed Reich Minister of the Occupied Eastern Territories , suggested that conquered Soviet territory should be administered in the following Reichskommissariate ( " Reich Commissionerships " ) : 
