Spoilers for a movie that is over ten years old are ahead.
So, on a superficial level, Inglourious Basterds would have left Nazi Germany and the entire European Theater of World War II in a spot quite similar to the scenarios often spun on this site and elsewhere about a successful 20 July plot: Hitler and many other high-ranking Nazis would be killed in a decapitation strike during the summer of 1944. Now, what exactly would have happened after a successful 20 July plot (whether the coup participants would have been successfully able to wrest control of the German government, how the German military would prosecute the rest of the war, what sort of deal Berlin might be able to conclude with Allies, what Europe’s postwar borders would have looked like, etc.) are the subject of debate, but suffice it to say, this has been a topic that has been frequently discussed on this forum before.
However, there are important differences between a successful 20 July plot and the scenario that Quentin Tarantino laid out in his film. Rather than being killed by elements within the German government, Hitler was caught between the pincers of two separate outside efforts to assassinate him - one being undertaken by a team of Jewish American commandos organized by the United States government, the other a revenge plot organized by a French Jewish theater owner (though they were aided at the critical moment by the defection of a high-ranking SS figure, the fictional Hans Landa). Furthermore, the bulk of the film takes place a month before the 20 July, between D-Day and the Allied liberation of Paris. Theoretically, those who had been planning a coup would have a golden opportunity to act after Hitler’s death, but the circumstances would be radically different than what they had initially planned.
Herein lies my question: despite the similarities, is there reason to believe that WWII would have played out in a radically different manner in the two scenarios? In which scenario would the 20 July plotters have been left in a better position to seize control of Germany and try to conclude their separate peace? What might Europe, and the world generally, have looked like in the aftermath of either scenario?
So, on a superficial level, Inglourious Basterds would have left Nazi Germany and the entire European Theater of World War II in a spot quite similar to the scenarios often spun on this site and elsewhere about a successful 20 July plot: Hitler and many other high-ranking Nazis would be killed in a decapitation strike during the summer of 1944. Now, what exactly would have happened after a successful 20 July plot (whether the coup participants would have been successfully able to wrest control of the German government, how the German military would prosecute the rest of the war, what sort of deal Berlin might be able to conclude with Allies, what Europe’s postwar borders would have looked like, etc.) are the subject of debate, but suffice it to say, this has been a topic that has been frequently discussed on this forum before.
However, there are important differences between a successful 20 July plot and the scenario that Quentin Tarantino laid out in his film. Rather than being killed by elements within the German government, Hitler was caught between the pincers of two separate outside efforts to assassinate him - one being undertaken by a team of Jewish American commandos organized by the United States government, the other a revenge plot organized by a French Jewish theater owner (though they were aided at the critical moment by the defection of a high-ranking SS figure, the fictional Hans Landa). Furthermore, the bulk of the film takes place a month before the 20 July, between D-Day and the Allied liberation of Paris. Theoretically, those who had been planning a coup would have a golden opportunity to act after Hitler’s death, but the circumstances would be radically different than what they had initially planned.
Herein lies my question: despite the similarities, is there reason to believe that WWII would have played out in a radically different manner in the two scenarios? In which scenario would the 20 July plotters have been left in a better position to seize control of Germany and try to conclude their separate peace? What might Europe, and the world generally, have looked like in the aftermath of either scenario?
