When the Second World War began, Morgenthau became more heavily involved in areas of the administration that weren’t explicitly financial. Of Jewish descent, he consistently tried to push Roosevelt to aid in rescuing his people from German persecution. He was also heavily involved in the Lend-Lease agreements between the United States and other countries.

At the root of Morgenthau’s plan was his desire to see Germany turned into a country of farmers who, without advanced technology and materials, could never again threaten Europe or the rest of the world with another war.

It was largely due to Roosevelt’s support that the Morgenthau Plan was first presented to international politicians at the Second Quebec Conference in 1944. Although Winston Churchill was initially opposed to the idea, he eventually came around, thanks to the US offering the United Kingdom a sizeable Lend-Lease agreement.

When Roosevelt died in April 1945, so, too, did the Morgenthau Plan. For a brief period, it looked like President Harry Truman was going to consider the idea, as he signed Directive 1067 on May 10, 1945, which said America would “take no steps looking towards the economic rehabilitation of Germany [or] designed to maintain or strengthen the German economy.”

This was short-lived, as Turman then signed Directive 1779 that July, designed to provide aid to Germany, instead. That same month, Morgenthau was forced to resign from his position in the Treasury, as he and Truman had too many differences in their political approach. Perhaps this is just as well – calculations show that, if the plan had been implemented, nearly 25 million Germans could have starved.

Rosemary Giles, War History Online, 2023