I know this is counterfactual, but to understand the scope of how awful the virtual starving to death of the captured Soviet troops in 1941 especially, has anyone looked at German “homefront” logistics to determine what the opportunity costs would have been to the Reich to feed and house USSR POWs in accordance with Geneva Convention Protocols? Here I’m more than happy to discount knockback effects like more Red Army personnel surrendering because they could be assured of good treatment though my personal belief is this probably would have caused Barbarossa to succeed as a lone change given the barbarity of Stalin’s regime and no retreat doctrines.
As someone who wants to write fiction of the period even knowing the historical arguments of like what kinds of labor these well-fed prisoners could be put to in compensation to appease the more brutal/corrupt members of the Nazi hierarchy to accept not murdering them would also be helpful of giving a picture of what goodish or pragmatic people behind the scenes did to try and stop the worst derailments of the crazy train. Talking human rights and the sanctity of life to men like Heiderich is just gonna get your house bugged at best.
Any insight here I’d appreciate.