[AH Fiction] Murder in Hitlerstadt

[varyar]

Are the Waffen SS and SS-Kustenwache still under the Reichsfuhrer SS?

Yes, but also under the OKW. Yay, Byzantine hierarchies!

And now, today's update.

EIGHT

“Ich bin der Vater!
(vater)
Ich bin der Siedler!
(siedler)
Ich bin der Soldat!
(soldat)
Ich bin das Volk!
(volk)
Ich bin das Reich!
(reich)
Ich bin der Führer!
(führer)
Ich bin die Zukunft!
(zukunft)
(zukunft)”

Ich bin die Zukunft, Mjölnir

DIRECTORATE V – HOMICIDE INSPECTORATE
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT T171065
27 SEPTEMBER, 2017 – 6:32 PM

KRIMINALASSITENTIN FRANZISKA MEESTER: Uwe Hartenstein, born July 13, 2002, Neukölln, Hitlerstadt. Is this correct?

UWE HARTENSTEIN: Yes.

MEESTER: You live at 12 Mariendorfer Straße and attend Engelbert-Zaschka-Oberschule. Correct?

HARTENSTEIN: Yes.

MEESTER: Your parents are Georg and Edelgard Hartenstein. Correct?

HARTENSTEIN: mh

MEESTER: Is this correct?

HARTENSTEIN: Yes.

MEESTER: Do you know why you’re here?

HARTENSTEIN: Yes.

MEESTER: Please explain for the record.

HARTENSTEIN: Because – because of what happened to Fat Lukas.

MEESTER: Lukas Tomitch.

HARTENSTEIN: Yes.

MEESTER: What happened to him?

HARTENSTEIN:

MEESTER: Well?

HARTENSTEIN: There was a fight.

MEESTER: A fight.

HARTENSTEIN: He started it. He shoved me.

MEESTER: He shoved you.

HARTENSTEIN: Yes. He was always – he was crazy. Wild.

MEESTER: I have here pictures of Tomitch. One year younger than you, thirty pounds lighter.

HARTENSTEIN: That’s not true.

MEESTER: It’s true. I think you have been eating more Scho-Ka-Kola than you should.

HARTENSTEIN:

MEESTER: Now. He shoved you, yes, okay. And then what?

HARTENSTEIN: I’m no coward. I punched him.

MEESTER: And then?

HARTENSTEIN:

MEESTER: And then?

HARTENSTEIN: What does it matter?

MEESTER: It matters a lot.

HARTENSTEIN: He was just some stupid Croat. Not a German, not any kind of Germanic. Who cares?

MEESTER: His family cares. The Reich cares.

HARTENSTEIN: The Reich! Come on! He’s just a Slav dog with a dog bricklayer for a father.

MEESTER: A bricklayer? This is what you think?

HARTENSTEIN: He is. He always told us when we asked.

MEESTER:

HARTENSTEIN: What? Isn’t he? What does he do? Shovel shit?

MEESTER: His father is Matthäus Tomitch. Kriminalobersekretär in the Geheime Staatspolizei.

HARTENSTEIN: No. No. No.

MEESTER: Yes, he is. See here? I have his file. Look. Here it is.

HARTENSTEIN: No. Shit. Shit!

MEESTER: Now is the time to tell me what happened.

HARTENSTEIN: I’m dead. I’m fucking dead.

MEESTER: Tell me the truth. It’s your only chance.

HARTENSTEIN: Fuck you, I’m dead. You bitch. I’m dead now. Tell me the truth. I’m dead. Aren’t I? Please? Tell me.

MEESTER:

HARTENSTEIN: Tell me! Please! Tell me!

MEESTER: You’re dead.

 

[viperjock]

Yes, but also under the OKW. Yay, Byzantine hierarchies!

Actually the situation may not be that bad. The United States Marine Corps falls under the Department of the Navy but the Commandant of the Marine Corps is a member of the Joint Chiefs along side the CNO of the US Navy. During OTL WWII the Waffen-SS fought under OKW control.

The way I see it OKW oversees SS unit deployments (2nd SS "Das Reich" does a one year rotation to the Urals, The Kustenwache augments the Kriegsmarine when needed). The Reichsfuhrer maintains administrative day to day control (Budget, Policies, etc).

 

[traveller76]

From what I read and seen the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany had a large drug problem in all levels of government, society, and the military. So what does this Nazi Germany handle the drug problem? Are there safer and purer drugs developed by the companies and the government? Do any of the party officials look away in return for bribes or as long as it kept in the 'non-Germanic' parts of the city/country?

 

[varyar]

From what I read and seen the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany had a large drug problem in all levels of government, society, and the military. So what does this Nazi Germany handle the drug problem? Are there safer and purer drugs developed by the companies and the government? Do any of the party officials look away in return for bribes or as long as it kept in the 'non-Germanic' parts of the city/country?

The Reich's war on drugs is being handled with less subtlety than and equal success to America's in OTL.

Actually the situation may not be that bad. The United States Marine Corps falls under the Department of the Navy but the Commandant of the Marine Corps is a member of the Joint Chiefs along side the CNO of the US Navy. During OTL WWII the Waffen-SS fought under OKW control.

The way I see it OKW oversees SS unit deployments (2nd SS "Das Reich" does a one year rotation to the Urals, The Kustenwache augments the Kriegsmarine when needed). The Reichsfuhrer maintains administrative day to day control (Budget, Policies, etc).

Works for me!

 

[varyar]

Amorous update!

NINE

Ziska walked through the girl’s bedroom, studying it. There wasn’t much to study. A cheap wood bed (no headboard). A cheap metal nightstand with an alarm clock and a lamp on it, and a dusting of white powder, the remnants of what must have been a considerable pile of cocaine not too long ago. On the floor next to the nightstand was a photograph in a bent frame, surrounded by shards of glass. Ziska knelt down and turned it over. The dead girl looked out from the frame, an unreadable look on her face. Sunlight and summer, a far cry from Hitlerstadt in the predawn gloom of an October day.

Suddenly, the dead girl grabbed Ziska by the arm. Cold fingers closed around her wrist. Wide, glassy eyes didn’t quite look Ziska in the face.

She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came.

Ziska awoke with a start. A dim, unfamiliar room. Lights shining through the drawn blinds, cheap plastic things, and then mostly darkness. A hint of light outside, somewhere nearby.

“Unh...” Reality crashed down on Ziska’s head even as someone shifted at her side.

Kurfürstenstraße.

A cheap by-the hour-motel.

A bed with linen of questionable cleanliness.

A warm, naked body next to her.

“Are you okay?” Monika asked. She rolled over to face Ziska. Headlights through the blinds gave her a halo for a few seconds, and then all Ziska could see was her silhouette.

The TV in the next room had its volume up high, high enough that it was clear someone was trying to drown out the often energetic background noises of the motel. It was tuned to BuE-Rundfunk, the Hitler Youth channel, from the sound of it. Some gravel-voiced skald was loudly proclaiming the virtues of the Aryan man in a sing-song sort of way.

“Mmhm. I fell asleep?” Ziska asked, a little embarrassed.

“Eventually,” Monika said. She traced a finger down Ziska’s jaw. “You don’t remember? I’m hurt.”

“I remember the fun parts.”

“Hm.” Monika grinned. Ziska couldn’t see it, but she knew all the same.

Ziska stared at her in the darkness. “Tell me about yourself,” she said after a moment of gentle silence.

“You know where I work.”

“That’s not so important. Tell me about who you are, Fraulein Vienna.”

“Bit by bit,” Monika answered, again running her finger down Ziska’s jaw. “Consider me a puzzle.”

Ziska shook her head. That was too much like work. “Only if it’s worth it.”

“I’ll make it worth it.”

At that, Ziska had to laugh. She felt like a teenager again. “Then tell me one bit. Tell me about your service.”

“That’s not so interesting, you know,” Monika said. “But okay. I went into the Luftverteidigung.”

“What did you do?” Ziska asked.

“A computer database clerk. See? I told you. Not so interesting.”

“Where?”

“Seislaustadt.”

Ziska nodded. That was one of the main Reich military bases in RK Ural. There was a Luftwaffe bomber base, Army ICBM silos, a Luftverteidigung interceptor base as well as a cluster of strategic radar arrays. It was called Syktyvkar by the historians and Zielscheibenstadt by the military residents – Target City. If the Reich ever went to nuclear war, the city would be vaporized by warheads from six or seven different countries.

So would Hitlerstadt, for that matter.

Ziska pushed the morbid thoughts aside. “Computers and rockets. You should meet my father.” A second later, a wry grin on her face, she added “And Kurt.”

“Who’s Kurt?”

“Kurt Herzog. The man my father wants me to marry.”

“Mm. Already I don’t think I like him.”

“That makes both of us.”

“How hard is he pushing?”

“Father or Kurt?”

“Either one.”

“Not too hard,” Ziska said. “But I’m sure Father will bring it up or Kurt will call me sooner or later. Probably for Oktoberfest.”

“My cousin is the same.”

Ziska sighed.

More headlights shone through the blinds.

Ziska shifted a little, uncomfortable suddenly. They were miles away from where she lived and where she worked, but still... Her pulse quickened and her face flushed at the possibilities.

Monika mistook fear for something else and caressed Ziska’s cheek, then pulled her close.

Ziska smiled delightedly and pressed her lips against Monika’s.

Later...

“You should tell me about yourself now,” Monika said.

Ziska was about to when the music next door suddenly stopped in the middle of a long, repetitive percussive beat. She tensed, listening. Silence. “We should go,” she murmured, reluctantly but firmly.

Monika hesitated, then nodded.

“You first,” Ziska added, a soft smile on her face.

Monika nodded again. She kissed Ziska fiercely, got dressed, and left without another word.

Fifteen minutes later, when Ziska left the room, she saw a blonde girl, sixteen or seventeen, smoking a cigarette under a flickering orange sodium light a couple doors down. The two of them, cop and hooker, eyed other silently for a few seconds. Then Ziska pulled up her collar a little and hurried on her way.

Well, she thought, I’m fucked if I ever go back there.

 

[varyar]

In other news, I've been vaguely wondering if I should make a general In and Out of the Reich TL thread for setting discussion/brainstorming/Q&A, and focus discussion in the story threads on the tale in question. What say ye?

 

[viperjock]

In other news, I've been vaguely wondering if I should make a general In and Out of the Reich TL thread for setting discussion/brainstorming/Q&A, and focus discussion in the story threads on the tale in question. What say ye?

Sounds good to me. It gives a place for us readers to ask questions not related to the main story. You establish exactly what is canon.

 

[Wolf of Badenoch]

So the ten year service soldiers are from the lower level of German society? Poor farm kids and city kids from the German hood? I guess They didn't have the grades or interest to go to university. They scored low on military aptitude tests so they don't get technical jobs in the air wings or on a nuclear U-boat. Basically they go straight from high school to a grunt (infantry) unit in the east. Ten years fighting guerillas and freezing in Russian winters. Some probably stay in the military and make a career out of it. Some probably get out and stay in the east on some farm or factory. It sounds like you get a bunch of young people who come back home with no skills other than killing people. So they get into making easy money through crime or just can't deal with the stuff they have seen. It sounds like the Reich has no veteran benefits.

Sounds very much like the same cannon fodder used by the Soviets in Afghanistan.

 

[Wolf of Badenoch]

nazis thought Woman should stay at home. This with traditional gender role in place.. I don't think ziska could rise into that level..

Depends on how desperate they are for talent. Even the Saudis IOTL are now allowing women to work as air traffic controllers!

 

[Wolf of Badenoch]

Education? I'm curious to see what life is like at Hedryich High.

The obvious temptation would be for our deliciously non conformist heroine to fall in love with lady who turns out to be Jewish?

 

[Deleted member 94680]

The obvious temptation would be for our deliciously non conformist heroine to fall in love with lady who turns out to be Jewish?

I doubt there are any people like that left in this TL’s Europe.

 

[Wolf of Badenoch]

I doubt there are any people like that left in this TL’s Europe.

Without wishing to be unkind, can I suggest that that's a slightly naive presumption. Jews have 3000 years of experience in surviving and even in Berlin in 1945 Shabat was celebrated.

 

[mudhead]

In other news, I've been vaguely wondering if I should make a general In and Out of the Reich TL thread for setting discussion/brainstorming/Q&A, and focus discussion in the story threads on the tale in question. What say ye?

Sounds good - possibly in the Writers Forum.

 

[Wolf of Badenoch]

In fact, given the clue that Monika is Viennese, I wonder of the author is already planning this?

 

[varyar]

In fact, given the clue that Monika is Viennese, I wonder of the author is already planning this?

I wasn't, but now I'm intrigued, and sort of have an idea on where to go with that...

 

[Wolf of Badenoch]

Well, I love what you have done so far, the dystopia you have created is highly credible and there are just so many ways you could take this.... but forbidden love has to be a very attractive scenario, especially when the heroine is a police officer (with all the baggage so entailed with such a job in the prolonged Third Reich). Can I also say that you heroine's character and motivation is very credible? Far too often women in Alternate Histories are very one dimensional.

 

[varyar]

Well, I love what you have done so far, the dystopia you have created is highly credible and there are just so many ways you could take this.... but forbidden love has to be a very attractive scenario, especially when the heroine is a police officer (with all the baggage so entailed with such a job in the prolonged Third Reich).

True, true...

Can I also say that you heroine's character and motivation is very credible? Far too often women in Alternate Histories are very one dimensional.

Why, thank you very much. I appreciate it!

 

[Deleted member 94680]

Without wishing to be unkind, can I suggest that that's a slightly naive presumption.

@varyar has said the holocaust in this TL lasted a decade. I would suggest it’s naive to presume there are surviving Jews who publicise the fact to anyone not related to them if there are any at all.

Jews have 3000 years of experience in surviving and even in Berlin in 1945 Shabat was celebrated.

Agreed, but this is a Third Reich victorious TL. To assume the Nazis would give up on eradicating European Jewry is naive.

 

[viperjock]

In the Europe of this timeline there might be some "Jews" left but that is by the Nazi definition. What I mean is that there are probably the descendants of someone who might have successfully hid their true identity from the Nazis back in the forties. These people might only be considered Jews because the Nazi racial laws say so. "Your Great Grandmother was half Jewish" kind of situation. Probably these individuals as of now have no idea they had Jewish relatives. The only way they might find out is if they trace their family history. Even then I suspect that over the decades for the right amount of money a clerk in some office could make your Jewish roots go away. If someone was bold enough to pass on Knowledge of their Jewish heritage, by 2017 that knowledge is extremely diluted. After over seventy years of no contact with the Jewish religion in culture at best you might get a few Hebrew/Yiddish words passed down or snippets of a prayer (badly mispronounced). Over the decades there were probably Germans who emigrated or escaped from the Reich who claim to be of Jewish heritage. Think about how here in America so many people claim to have "Indian blood" (the Cherokee tribe being the most popular). They might have brought with them some old photographs hidden away or a hidden heirloom like a star of David or some ring with Hebrew characters. Some might just rely on some family legend. It may make a better story to explain your German background as being a secret Jew than saying "I would have been third generation SS".

 

[Jürgen]

The Nazi defined a person as Jewish if he had 3 Jewish grandparent, if you were German and had less than that, you was defined as Mischling (mixling) and was banned from some position and marrying another Mischling, but you wasn't on the way to the camps. There are simply too many Germans with a Jewish ancestors a few generations back for the Nazi to kill everybody with Jewish ancestry.