What if Hitler Had Won WW2?
World war two, was the most deadly war ever in human history, and is still in living memory of some people around the world. The Fallout of this massive conflict is still felt widely 70 years after the end of the war: in modern politics, stereotypical views of France and Germany, and the constant militarization that many modern states practice today. The aftermath of the war saw a massive migration and displacement of European citizens and people. In a society where it’s difficult to know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, WW2 leaves little up for debate, a mad dictator rises out of the ashes and has to be stopped by morally correct and just states.
Gladly Hitler was stopped and justly dethroned but if Germany hadn’t made the mistake of fighting the Soviet Union and the USA then we might be speaking German and eating Fefferpotast every day for breakfast. It was the USA who provided most of the mechanical machinery in the war, and it was the Soviets who paid the most in blood to win the war. If these two great superpowers had stayed neutral in the conflict then we would be living in a very difficult and different world indeed.
However if this was to happen then Hitler and Germany must have had a fighting chance to begin with. For this to happen Hitler would have had to gain much more territory than he already had. Although it is unlikely that the UK and the USA would have given up their territory, it is possible that some kind of cease fire would have happened where Germany would momentarily have gain control of the Allies land. For Germany to have captured the US across the sea would prove very hard. So there would have to have been some sort of treaty signed letting the Nazis have a free hand in Europe and several trade deals between Germany and the Soviet Union would have to exist. For the US to have agreed to this it would have had to have been financially sound to continue trade with a Nazi Europe. The UK would be overrun and would become a German puppet state. Hitler’s original strategy for Europe called for completing the conquest of western Europe before turning on the Soviet Union—which had maintained and revered its non-aggression pact with Germany right up to the moment of the Nazi invasion in 1941. Had all gone according to Hitler’s plan, the undivided might of the German army would have fallen on Russia completely obliterating the red army, and Hitler’s vision of a Europe under German domination from Ireland to the Urals might well have been realized.
Germany would harshly rule the countries it conquered including Poland, France and the UK. Spain and Portugal would find themselves as Nazi allies, as well as the already axis Italy, and Switzerland would of course remain neutral. The Nazis secret plans to eradicate so called “undesirables” would never have been uncovered and thanks to lack of interference from other countries, Hitler’s Final Solution would have been completed and we would be living in a society where Jews, disabled people and Homosexualtiy wouldn’t exist and would be killed in cold blood at birth.
At first violent Paramilitary Groups, not unlike the one that came to power during the 70s in Northern Ireland, would fight against the Germans in Nazi puppet states like Poland, Vichy France and the UK but after decades of strengthening and militarizing these resistance groups would be starved out. The Nazis were known to take harsh repercussions against civilian populations and terrible mass killings of civilians in the areas where the resistance groups were active would occur until either the collaborators turned themselves in or the Nazis ran out of civilians to kill. Using these methods resistance would die out pretty quickly.
Hitler’s new order was to be a civilization that threw away centuries of western teachings, including the ideas of the French revolution, Enlightenment and Christianity. Basing everything on the spread of a certain race, the Arian race. To understand what would happen next, we would first have to understand the concepts of Nazism, and the horrific ideals of racial superiority and segregation. The Nazis would reorganize society based on genetics as that was theme at the time. At the top was the Arian race (people of Germanic decent), this meant pure ethnic Germans held the highest status among the German conquered countries. Just below the Arians were the Western Europeans like: the British, Northern French and the Dutch. The Chinese and Japanese were also at this level as Hitler declared then horary Arians. Below them were Southern Europeans and Mediterranean races this included: Spanish, Southern French, Grease and Italian people. The Germans believed that the Southern Europeans were naturally lazier than the northerners. Skipping past a few levels right at the bottom are the Untermensch (undesirables) these were racial groups that the Nazis regarded as either to inferior or dangerous to live such as Jews.
In our timeline the German plan was for more than 50 million people to be exterminated before Arian (German) colonization could begin. Hitler would place many German people into the eastern European countries and in only a few decades all people in Europe would be of German decent. The Holocaust was only the first part of the Nazi plan. After the Jewish question was answered (with the total annulation of Jews) the Nazis would turn their attention to Slavs, they would sweep village to village killing anyone who they deemed Untermensch.
Hitler assumed that the Japanese would have to remain at war with China and the United States until he could gobble up his easterly allies. Yet The Imperial Empire of Japan clearly understood that its partnership with Nazi Germany was temporary, especially given the virulent racism on which Nazism based its ideological foundation on. (Hitler might call the Japanese “honorary Arians,” but the phrase itself reveals the ideological awkwardness of the alliance.) So eventually the Germans would turn on their Japanese allies annexing them at the expense of an extremely costly invasion of the Japanese homeland, this would be necessary because unlike the USA in our timeline the Germans wouldn’t have Nuclear weapons.
The final deed that the Germans would enact would be the destruction of the Catholic Church and Christianity as a whole. The Nazis hated the idea that a non-government organization might have some influence over the Europeans. In fact the Nazis hated all religion believing that it held back humanity from its true potential. Raids would be carried out on churches throughout Europe and the Vatican City would have been ransacked, the pope would either be killed or imprisoned on charges of treason. Places of worship would now be dedicated to Nazism. Rather like the religious reforms of England in the 16th and 17th centuries, the repression of all religion would be devastating and widespread.
In our world there were many cultural splits between generations, and this would occur here as well. The older generations, while still supporting the fanatic fascism, wouldn’t be anywhere near as emotionally dedicated to the cause as the younger generations. This would be because of the brain washing that would dominate the global schooling process. The children of the Nazis would be taught to suppress all of those who they thought were under them racially and socially. These children would exhibit outright violent behavior and over a number of decades children would become more and more violent until there would come a time that violence in the streets against “low-level” ethnic groups wasn’t only accepted but it was supported. This pushes the ethnic divide even further and corrupts the children of the occupied countries. The children of the suppressed ethnic groups would be taught that the Germanic people were above them and they would be told to view them as gods.
As well as a military victory the Germans would also need other factors to obtain their dominance: mainly economic stability. In this alternate scenario if the Nazi economic model held up, creating jobs and allowing good standards of living in the first decade of the war then Europeans would not only accept Nazi domination but actively support it. This would cement the credibility of the Nazi rule. Also this would dampen the amount of support that the Rebel movements would receive because there would be less urgency for change in the eyes of the prosperous Europeans.
In this timeline the development of weapons and tactical warfare would be accelerated to a massive degree. The Germans continent wide empire would use superior weapons to gain an advantage above all else. Germany would be the only country to own nuclear weapons and this would mean that nothing could be done against the Third Reich. There would be no cold war, there would be no wars in Korea or Vietnam and none in the Middle East. There would just be Germany, a single powerhouse that could and would conquer anything it wanted. Since no other countries hold nuclear weapons the Germans could use theirs without fear of international retaliation. Germany would just offer occupation or nuclear destruction.
From here there are 2 possible routes. Germany could declare war on the USA or they could stay neutral. First lest explore the scenario where Germany goes to war. Landings on the US homeland would be impossible so the war would be rather like the battle of Britain. Naval forces would assume defensive stances on both sides and bombings would commence. Our WW2 Germany focused much of its efforts on so called superweapons like the V1 and the V2. However these would already be developed and this meant that the Germans would be able to focus their efforts elsewhere, on 2 key features. Nuclear weapons and the long range bombers to carry them to the US. A new class of bomber would be made, one that could reach the US, most likely equipped with a jet engine. However would they now be the only one with nuclear weapons? No, the Americans would have easily made a nuclear weapon. They would be forced to use it on Germany much like they did on japan in our world. However, even though the destruction of a city would be a political blow it would not cripple either nation. It would just push the world into a new era where nuclear strikes are the norm. Thus cities of the coast of the US like New York and Boston would be wiped from the map as well as all of the current capitals of Europe. Creating a scenario much like the one feared throughout the cold war. Protests and riots would be held all around the Globe even in the Third Reich as people start to fear for their lives. As rocket technology advances the war would spread across the continents utterly destroying both nations as social unrest spreads to Germany. So in this scenario the Germans would not survive.
Now what would have happened if there was no war? Germany during the 1930s became a suitable market for American businesses to invest. No matter what the US government said. Even during the war American companies kept in touch with their German counterparts. Without a war this would have flourished to its full potential. With resistance practically useless, companies are the first to accept the new order as a good market. And the Nazis would become less hated by the countries as the years went on. The Nazis were still viewed carefully, however they were better than the Japanese. Slowly all hate for the Nazis would simmer away in the US and they would accept the Nazis and as they are, not as they should be.
In Conclusion, Nazis rule would transform the world into a much darker one than the one we have today. All Untermensch would be killed or forced not to marry. Extreme class divisions would separate all Europeans with the poor suffering under Nazi taxation and the very rich benefiting from the Nazis economic model. Weapons technology and development would increase a hundred fold. And the future of the world would rest on whether Hitler chooses to go to war with the USA.
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