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Chapter 2
The New European Order, Restructuring of the European Continent under Axis domination.
Official State Issued Portrait of Alfred Rosenburg, Reichsminister of the Occupied Eastern Territories and one of the orchestrators of the new European Order
The Victory of the Greater German Reich in the Second Great War was a War that certainly would change history forever, it cemented the German Reich's hegemony on the European continent and also cemented the German's as one of the two main Superpowers of the Earth alongside the United States of America, the drastic restructuring of Europe during and after the end of the War was all according to the plans Hitler and the German High Command had deliberated and formulated even before the Nazi Party's rise to power in 1933, while the scope and aim of the former German Führer and the Nazi Party's plans for the New European Order evolved and changed in aim over the course of the War, the general goal always remained the same for those in the highest echelons of the German Reich's leadership, the formation of a Greater Germany that stretched from the English Channel to the Ural Mountains, assimilating the various nations of the larger Germanic world into a single unified Germanic nation headed from the German capital of Berlin, the ideal of "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" (One People, One Reich, One Leader), a common quote found in much of the German propaganda of the Era, and served as the German Reich's ultimate main goal in the West, to reunite the Germanic people's who had strayed from the "Deutsches Vaterland", the German nation would bring their "Ethnic brothers" back into the fold, incorporating the former nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Denmark and Norway into the Greater Reich, as well as large chunks of France, who's border with Germany reverted to that of the ancient Holy Roman Empire (or First Reich, as described in Nazi histography).
the German leadership began working on expelling the Frenchmen living in a strip of territory annexed from France known as the "Territory of German Settlement", the German's overall plans were for the region to be cleansed of it's French population and colonized by German settlers from other parts of Europe, as well as Volksdeutsche from across Europe, as for the other territory annexed, the former nations of Western Europe soon found themselves liquidated and divided into several Reichsgau, Belgium was divided into two Reichsgau (Wallonien and Flandern), neighboring Netherlands was incorporated as "Reichsgau Westland", Luxembourg was incorporated into the pre-existing Reichsgau Moselland, while Denmark was incorporated as "Reichsgau Nordmark", (Northern March), Norway remained under Military Administration, however plans for transfer to Civilian Rule as "Reichskommissariat Norwegen" were being planned by German leadership, Overall the situation in the West was better off for those incorporated into the Reich then those of the East, their ethnic similarity to the Germans meant that incorporation into the Reich was smoother then that in the East, the existing local population was trusted more by Berlin to handle civilian affairs due to their "Aryanness", their direct incorporation into the Reich meant they were in a better position then other annexed people's of the Reich, however the areas in the West still suffered under the suppression of Berlin, as the SS and Gestapo assumed the duties of stamping out local resistance and anti-German opposition, as well as undertaking the overall brutal task of eradicating the separate National and Cultural Identities of the local populations in the annexed territories of the West.
a photo taken of the Parade in downtown Berlin that occurred during the First Siegtag (Victory Day) celebrations conducted on July 19th, 1947 throughout the entire Greater German Reich, the date of the signing of the Treaty of Geneva was declared a Reich National Holiday by Führer Adolf Hitler upon it's signing, with 1947 being the first formal celebrations of the Siegtag.
Over in the East was however a completely different matter, The territory annexed from the Soviet Union had long been desired by the Reich's leadership as living space for the German people, the rich and fertile agricultural and resource rich lands of European Russia were seen as the perfect territory for the Aryan race to expand into, not only relieving , in the minds of the German leadership, the Fatherland of the constraints of the ever growing population of the Reich, but providing resource rich lands from which the Reich could sustain herself from inwards agriculturally and industrially, eliminating the need for relying on outside Food sources that had long plagued the German nation in many previous Wars.
the annexed territory, populated mainly by Russians and various other Slavic people's, brought the Reich millions of new subjects, these millions of new subjects were deemed by the twisted ideology of the Nazi Party to be "untermenschen" or Sub-Human, people's deemed by the racial theories of the Reich to be unsuitable for life, the overall scope of the plans for the East, known as "Generalplan Ost" to those in the Nazi High Command, would see the local Slavic population of the newly conquered territories either outright exterminated in the various Death Camps located across Europe, run by the Party's Paramilitary Arm, the SS, some were deemed to be used as Forced Laborers, Worked to Death as they built fortifications and other construction works undertaken by the German Reich across the vast expanse of it's territory, while others lucky enough were just forced across the border into the remnants of Russia, even then however, millions of Slavs would die making the trip, serving Nazi goals even further, the Scope of Generalplan Ost and German goals in the East were to see the local Slavic populations of Eastern Europe either completely exterminated or enslaved, while the land would be colonized with German settlers, and through a process of colonization, would become as German as Munich or Berlin, some of Berlin's new subjects found themselves within the ever expanding scope of the Aryan Ideal, the Ideal which originally encompassed Native Germans with "pure blood" it's scope expanded as the War dragged on, and Slavs deemed to have a sufficient amount of desirable racial characteristics (such as the Aryan Blond Hair and Blue Eyes) and blood deemed were given the opportunity to become "Honorary Germans", where they would over time become fully accepted members of the German "Volk", gaining all the rights of the normal "Aryan" citizens of the Reich, those who attempted to resist Re-Germanization efforts saw themselves suffering the same unfortunate fates as their fellow ethnic cousins and other people's deemed undesirable by the Reich.
German Propaganda from the War, with the slogan "Hitler the Liberator!" written in Ukrainian, the Nazi's made several attempts, these attempts pushed by one Alfred Rosenburg, to paint themselves as Liberators of the Ukraine from Soviet tyranny
The Territory Annexed by the Greater German Reich from the Soviet Union was large, encompassing all of the USSR West of the Urals, the Task of undertaken Generalplan Ost and preparing the territories for full integration into the Reich was placed under the management of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, headed by Alfred Rosenburg, devised the overall plan for the territorial organization of the new Eastern Territories, suggested the division of the Eastern Territories into several "
Reichskommissariate", to facilitate the break-up of the Soviet Union and Russia as a geographical entity West of the Urals, the conquered Soviet territory would be divided into several Reichskommissariate: which were named Ostland, Ukraine (who's territory was massively expanded Eastwards towards the Volga), Kaukasus, and Moskowien, these Reichskommissariat's existed outside of the Greater German Reich in a direct legal sense, functioning as de jure independent states, but the Civil Authority of the Reichskommissariat's, headed by a Reichskommissar, however the various Reichskommissar's ruled their assigned territories as German Governor's representing and working on behalf of the Führer, with Berlin controlling their foreign policy and having final say over politics within the entities, in a technical sense making the territories nothing more then German colonies, territories destined for eventual direct incorporation into the Reich proper, the Reichskommissar's were tasked with exploiting the natural resources of the Reichskommissariat's for the benefit of the German Reich, as well as coordinating colonization efforts, and working with both the SS and the various Einsatzgruppen to liquidate those deemed undesirable by the Regime, Several Parts of the annexed Eastern Territories saw themselves incorporated in other matters however, Bessarabia and Transnistria, including the Port of Odessa, were incorporated into neighboring Romania, while large parts of Northern Russia were gifted to co-belligerent Finland due to their contributions during the War against the Soviet Union, and despite it's geographical proximity to the Reichskommissariat Ukraine and on the insistence of Hitler himself, the Crimean Peninsula and small parts of the mainland in Southern Ukraine, were directly incorporated into the German Reich as a new Reichsgau, known as "Gotenland" (literally, Land of the Goths), with Theodorichshafen (formerly known as Sevastopol before the War), becoming the eventual home of the German Black Sea Fleet as well as Capital of the Reichsgau, Gotenland's local inhabitants were declared to be cleaned out and the area recolonized by Germans immediately as per Fuhrer Directive 29, the first Directive issued by Hitler and the German since before the signing of the Treaty of Geneva that ended the Second Great War.
Philippe Pétain, Chief of the French State (known to those who oppose the legitimacy of the German backed regime as Vichy France), addresses crowds in Paris upon his return to the city at the end of the Second Great War.
Elsewhere in Europe, the new European Order took shape outside of the Reich proper, Germany's ally, Italy, took her place as the Southern Flank of Fortress Europe and Protector of the Mediterranean, the Italians, after long evaluations by Italian leader Benito Mussolini, began massive programs to reform the Royal Army and the Regina Marina after the failures of Italy's offensive actions during the Second Great War and the loss of her entire Colonial Empire to the British, however in a attempt to save face, her gains in Europe were deemed sufficient enough to blowback against the loss of Africa, with Italy establishing herself as the hegemon of the Balkans, other German Ally's, such as Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania soon focused themselves into the New European Order was bulwarks of Germany's Southern Flank alongside the Italians, in Western Europe, the German military occupation of France formally ended and full civilian control of France was handed to Petain and the Vichy government, who moved French governmental operations back to Paris from the Wartime Capital of Vichy, while Petain and the French government had nominal control of all of France, the French Atlantic Coast remained under the de facto control of the German Military, who kept control of the Coast as well as it's garrison along the Atlantic Wall defense system that stretched from Wilhelmshaven to the Spanish Border, which was being extended now that peace had been established with the Western Allies, the French regime in Paris also had to compete with Charles De Gaulle's French Republic, based in Algiers, for legitimacy as the one and only France.
With the end of the Second Great War, the only countries within the New Europe that remained outside of direct Axis influence of control were Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, however both Switzerland and Sweden, despite their neutrality, would be forced to establish close ties with the Reich, considering the precarious position they sat in surrounding by the Axis in Europe, while the Fascist Governments in Portugal and Spain, led by Antonio Salazar and General Francisco Franco respectively, were both friendly to Berlin, leaving the last bastion of Freedom in Europe as the British Isles.
Next Time, we will explore the effects of the Peace of Geneva on the Western Allies, and how they reacted to the events of 1946, however despite the end of the War, is the conflict truly over? this question would be tested on a fateful day in Summer of 1947
