It's better to keep a Czech puppet state. "Pretty borders" is not a geopolitical concern, and this way Czech industry already belongs to Germany with the added benefit of a local collaborationist government. For example, the Czech Partisans (the guys who took out Reinhard Heydrich IOTL in Operation Anthropoid) will have a lot less support as long as the Czech people retain nominal independence and the semblance of their own country.
Wagner’s Germany: An Axis Victory TL
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It's better to keep a Czech puppet state. "Pretty borders" is not a geopolitical concern, and this way Czech industry already belongs to Germany with the added benefit of a local collaborationist government. For example, the Czech Partisans (the guys who took out Reinhard Heydrich IOTL in Operation Anthropoid) will have a lot less support as long as the Czech people retain nominal independence and the semblance of their own country.
I see you are quite right, it is Nordschleswig being referred to.
As pointed out, B-M is already at the Germans' disposal in an economic sense, so there would be no particular gain from annexing it.
Then I guess there's another area where Wagner has to implement a solution postwar (or maybe before Barbarossa), if the doesn't want regional wars popping up all the time.
The other one would be Yugoslavia. I doubt it would hold together for too long.
It is correct that there hasn't been (so far).
I agree that these situations are rather unstable and he'll probably have to do something to address them at some point.
This subject has got to be covered, so here it is.
Appendix: The “Last Answer”
Heydrich (left) arriving in Paris in July 1942 to supervise the removal of French Jews.
Heydrich (left) arriving in Paris in July 1942 to supervise the removal of French Jews.
The invasion of the Soviet Union also gave the NSVP an opportunity to “solve” the “problem” of Europe’s Jews, which in accordance with the weltanschauung which had been inherited from Hitler, it viewed as a long-standing and intractable menace to Germany and European society more broadly. Although moderation according to the needs of the moment might be practiced, in the end the goal of making Europe “Jew-free” remained unaltered, the confinement of Jewish populations to ghettos mentioned earlier never having been viewed as anything more than a temporary half-way measure which would be replaced with permanent removal as soon as an opportune moment arrived. The first such concrete proposal was made in the latter part of 1941, to be implemented after the war with Britain was concluded. Known as the “Afrika Plan,” it called for the deportation of the Jews, following their dispossession of all worthwhile property, to the vast colonial empire in Africa which the Axis was shortly to come into possession of. Although given serious consideration, this course of action was ultimately rejected, both because it would involve the use of considerable amounts of valuable shipping which was needed for valuable imports, and because it would attract unwelcome negative, and largely undivided, attention at a time of peace.
A Jewish-owned store in Amsterdam, soon to be seized and auctioned.
A second option presented itself with the prospect of the defeat of the USSR, the transportation of the Jewish population to a “reservation” somewhere in the vast expanse of Russia. Compared to the first plan, shipping would not be involved, and the deportations would begin while foreign eyes were to a large extent distracted by the spectacle of the fighting itself. This was the form the “Last Answer to the Jewish question” was to take and was approved soon after the decision for war in the east itself was confirmed. After considerable debate, the region chosen was a small area south of Leningrad, mainly because it was swampy, poor farmland, the National Socialist leadership believing that Jews, as a “uniquely parasitic presence,” were as a group unable to perform any productive activity and therefore that settling them on better land would result in its potential being wasted. SD chief Reinhard Heydrich was placed in overall control of the operation, and for the most part he encountered little resistance in obtaining the cooperation of the rest of the ETL’s security services. In this aspect, the “cleansing” of Europe of its Jewish presence merged with other aims. Heydrich was instructed to exercise a greater degree of control (through the ETL) than was usual over the way the process was conducted, ensuring that as many people and businesses as possible across Europe received “de-Judaized” property and were made aware of where it came from. By making them participate in and benefit from what was done to their former neighbors, they were bound closer to the NSVP.
A papal delegation being greeted in Berlin.
The delaying of implementation until after the beginning of the war was also of some assistance in exploiting one of Soviet Union’s largest public relations problems, the extensive persecution of religion communist rule had brought, which was of some significance in creating sympathy for the Axis cause in neutral countries, and especially in the United States. Pope Pius XII was known to fear greatly the expansion of Soviet influence and, much to Wagner’s satisfaction, was persuaded to agree to issue a public proclamation which, although it stopped just short of openly endorsing the war, stated that “Although all shedding of blood in war represents a tragic and regrettable waste of human life, in view of the manifest persecution and torture which the faithful have endured under Bolshevik rule in the name of the false god of communism, it can be hoped that one of the results of the conflict now beginning will be an alleviation of their suffering.” Many of the major Protestant denominations made similar statements, all of which were to used extensively in the public representation of the war by the European Treaty League and those who, whatever their reasons, were supportive of it.(a)
Notes:
(a) Credit for this idea goes to a reader's suggestion.
Yeah it sounds a little too cool even for Wagner. I have to imagine the deportations will be very harsh and that many will die of malnutrition and disease along the way, also the Jews will probably have dicks for neighbors.
^ Exactly this. Plus there will be numerous abuses and summary killings of Jews by Nazis during the deportation process. And the logistical strain of deporting, housing and then feeding the entirety of European Jewry to such a small area will be massive, with the "reservation" being overstretched to the limits.
This is like a industrialized anti-Semitic Trail of Tears, or even the Armenian Genocide when the Ottomans drove columns of dispossessed Armenian civilians through the Anatolian hinterlands and the Mesopotamian desert. Hundreds of thousands of them died.
Not sure if Wagner would allow a Trail of Tears type situation. His main objective is the removal of Jews from Europe, with as few negative repercussions as possible. With the scale the removal will be on, a certain number of deaths can be explained due to "logistical difficulties." But if it becomes known that the routes to the Jewish settlements were deliberately set up to be deathtraps, or that the resettlement camps designed to provide not even bare minimum to sustain them, it could be very damaging politically to Wagner. So long as the Jews are removed from Europe he should be satisfied, and from what I've seen of him ITTL he would always be planning that details of anything negative in the resettlement could potentially get out and want to minimize anything that could be used negatively against him and the ETL.
I think a lot of lower ranking Nazis will make the transferring of the Jews to the east as difficult and possible, whether Wagner approves or not. They might be sly about it especially when foreign press are around but where they are not, it will be bad.
Plus this might not be the final "final" solution. Depending on how the war goes and what territory opens up after the defeat of the USSR I could see the Jewish people made to go further East. Think about it. If the Jews are all pushed East of the Urals it solves everyone's problems.
Well, there is an autonomous Jewish Oblast in the Russian Far East IOTL...
In other news, I made some maps with @CrimsonKing's blessings.
Europa, Asia, and Africa:
European Treaty League members:
European Common Market members:
Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere members:
Europa, Asia, and Africa:
I thought that France got the former Belgian Congo for their trouble? Great maps otherwise, though.