How did the Nazis feel about Balts?

by NothingWillImprove

I know they viewed Slavs as subhuman, albeit not as much as Romani and Jews. How did they feel about Balts, that group being closely related to the Slavs?

Sn_rk

To quote Romuald Misunias and Rein Taagepera:

"It is quite clear from the documents in German archives that the long-range goal of the Nazi leadership was to annex the Baltic region to the Reich, to expel two thirds of the population, and to fuse the remainder gradually with German immigrants"

("The Baltic States, Years of Dependence, 1940-1990", P.49)

However one has to note that the so-called "Generalplan Ost" was never a unified set of directives, meaning that while the goal was largely the same, the methods varied vastly. Alfred Rosenberg, the minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (yes, the Myth of the 20th Century guy) and himself a baltic German intended to deport the Baltic population into the Russian and Belarussian interior. However, the problem was that at the same time, Göring was responsible for the economy and prioritised the war effort, meaning that no real progress was to be made (roughly 30k Germans were resettled in the Baltics). Additionally, Himmler was in charge of most party structures and the police, which meant that Rosenbergs authority kept eroding even more. Himmler himself wanted to expel almost all Lithuanians, but only half of the Latvian and Estonian population as those were deemed more "racially pure" in the sense of being "Nordic". Do also note that these plans were kept secret as to not hinder the war effort, with the Baltics firmly being on the side of Germany after the Soviet occupation, even having their own SS divisions.