Can someone explain the meaning of this phrase? It was from the Nuremburg Trials. Q. Herr Speer, will you briefly elucidate these orders? A. I can summarize them very briefly. They gave the order to the Gauleiter to carry out the destruction of all industrial plants, all important electrical facilities, water works, gas works, and so on, and also the destruction of all food and clothing stores. My jurisdiction had specifically been excluded, by means of that order, and all my orders for the maintenance of industry had been cancelled. The military authorities had been given the order to destroy all bridges, all railway installations, postal systems, communication systems in the German railway, also the waterways, all ships, all freight cars and all locomotives. The target was, as is stated in one of the decrees, the creation of a traffic desert.
The idea came from Hitler's draconian late-war order to wreck Germany from end to end, so that it would be unlivable. Among the targets for this act of national suicide were, as Speer said, the communications systems, so that it would be impossible to move vehicles, trains, or barges, thus hopelessly snarling deliveries of food and other vital materials.