Christopher Nuttall: Storm Front

President Roosevelt had no illusions that Germany’s declaration of war on Japan was anything other than a paper gesture. Roosevelt believed that Nazi Germany was the greatest threat the United States had faced since the Civil War. However, Roosevelt was unable to manipulate Hitler into starting a war or take the United States to war himself. Therefore, as Nazi Germany completed the conquest of Russia, North Africa and large parts of the Middle East, America waged a titanic war against Japan. By the time the Japanese Home Islands were physically occupied (the invasion was launched in 1944), the war in Europe had largely ground into stalemate. Once Churchill’s successor took office, Britain agreed to a surprisingly decent truce with Germany. The Second World War (the European War) was over.

It is now 1985.

Nazi Germany is politically divided into five component sections; Germany Prime, Germany North, Germany East, Germany Arabia and Germany South.

Germany Prime is the core of the Greater German Reich, stretching from the coasts of France (the 1940 occupation zone) to Poland. States such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland have completely disappeared from the map. Populations deemed insufficiently Germanic have been forcibly relocated, enslaved or exterminated. In their place, German settlers have taken their lands and established their own settlements. Germany Prime is considered the best place to live in the Reich, but that isn’t saying much.

Life within Germany Prime is quite regimented. Children go to state schools from age 5 and join the Hitler Youth from 12. The Hitler Youth isn’t precisely compulsory, but membership can open doors – and refusing to join can mark someone as a potential enemy of the state. Exams are held at sixteen for anyone wishing to apply to the universities; anyone who doesn’t apply is liable for conscription (see below) or being streamlined into a job.

Education is segregated and intensely focused on one’s role within the state. Young men are taught that they might have to sacrifice themselves for the Reich , while young women are prepared for a life as homemakers. Once old enough to marry (17), men and women are encouraged to marry and have children as soon as possible. (See below.) Young women rarely enter the workforce; older women, who have had two or three children, make up a female professional class.

Freethinkers are barely tolerated; many of them are either sent to the universities or reported as potential troublemakers. The secret police keeps an eye open for sedition and a single report is often enough to ruin a person’s life.

Hardly anyone in Germany knows that Jews are human. Indeed, Jews (and anyone non-white) are portrayed as barely-humanoid monsters. (If they met a Jew, they wouldn’t recognise him.) Very few truly understand the level of the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis – or, indeed, recognise them as crimes.

Despite the best efforts of the secret police, there exists a criminal underground within Germany Prime.

Germany North consists of Denmark and Norway. Both states have been declared ‘Germanic’ (with the exception of the usual undesirables, who were marched off to concentration camps and killed) and German rule is very light, provided neither state causes trouble. The Reich maintains a considerable number of naval and air bases within both states, but otherwise relies on collaborators to keep the countries under control. Germanic propaganda has been wearing away at the resistance ever since the British bowed out of the war; it isn’t uncommon for Norwegians to join the SS or be invited to settle in Germany East and marry into German families.

Germany South consists of the former Belgium Congo and South West Africa (Namibia). It has a fair claim to being one of the most horrific places on Earth; the Germans, having taken both colonies after the European War ended, rapidly reminded the natives why they were glad to see the back of the Germans in 1918. Oddly, it is also one of the most liberal places in the Reich; German settlers are rather less concerned about blood (as long as the newcomer looks white) than they are about having another pair of hands to work the fields, mind the slaves and keep the natives under control. (The SS has periodic witch-hunts for Jews in Germany South, although these searches are deeply resented by the local Germans). As of 1985, the endless bloodletting of the South African War has spread into Germany South.

Germany Arabia consists of everything between the Suez Canal and Iran. Hitler’s original promises to the Arabs were forgotten once the Germans won the war; the Arabs, having helped slaughter the remaining Jews in Palestine, found themselves under the yoke of a master far worse than the British Empire. This lead to a brutal uprising in 1950 which, after giving the Germans some very nasty moments, was eventually crushed. As of 1985, the original population has been sharply reduced and German settlers have established new homes near the seas.

Germany East has a well-deserved reputation as the worst place in the Reich , which puts it up against some pretty stiff competition. Formally, Germany claims all the territory from Poland to Kamchatka; practically, Germany controls much of the terrain as far north as the Urals. Much of the original towns and cities of Russia have been destroyed; in their place, the Germans have established massive plantations and slave labour camps. The Slavic population, declared subhuman, is brutally mistreated; unsurprisingly, most of the German settlements are actually fortresses. (Notably, Germany East is the only place in the Reich where the SS is genuinely popular).

The death of Adolf Hitler in 1950 (after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease) left the Reich with something of a quandary. Hitler had presided over a divided state, allowing him to serve as the final arbiter; he had never named a successor (at least not one who was unchallenged by everyone else.) The different factions within the government nearly started a civil war over just who should succeed Hitler; indeed, it is quite likely that the uprising in the Middle East saved the Reich from internal collapse. Even so, the post-Hitler government was extremely unstable.

Formally, the Fuhrer is the Head of State, with the Deputy Fuhrer as his designated successor. However, neither of them possess any real power; the latter, in particular, is seen as a place to dump awkward sods who are too prominent to place on the Reichstag or simply shove out of power altogether.

Practically, real power is vested in the Reich Council, which is dominated by the Reichsführer-SS , the Finance Minister and the Head of OKW (effectively, the uniformed head of the German military.) Each of them rules a shifting bastion of smaller factions; the Finance Minister, in particular, must balance an array of competing elements to hold his place within the troika. Confusingly, several factions that appear to have a natural bent towards one of the councillors have a habit of going in other directions; army commandoes, for example, trend towards the SS while the navy is generally more supportive of the Finance Minister’s ‘government’ faction.

Government is generally by consensus. The SS can be said to be the hardliners of just about any decision, while the civilian (insofar as the term can be used in Nazi Germany) departments favour a more balanced approach. Personality clashes between the two are constant, with the military taking sides or not as it wills. Partly in order to keep the clashes from turning into open war, it is generally agreed that the SS has near-complete control over Germany East while the remaining parts of the Reich are ruled by the civilians.