Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

ferdi254

Banned
TTL has no Holicaust and no Chinese KP and no Pol Pot. Meaning ITTL the worst villain in world history is without anyone even remotely close

Stalin
 
Part 129, Chapter 2203
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Three



10th February 1973

Tempelhof

Lunch with Anne was enjoyable right up until she mentioned what she had intended to talk with Kat about all along. Today, it had to do with a political comic that struck her as ringing all too true. What was depicted was the classic stereotypical Prussian Bureaucrat working away at his desk, in the background a bottle of poison labeled Anti-Semitism was in a glass case and the words “In case of emergency, break glass” was written across it. It was something that was constantly in the back of Anne’s mind lately due to events far across the ocean in the United States. As certain regions in that country had faced industrial decline, there had been a surge of groups that were organized on the sole purpose of hatred of longtime scapegoats.

Anne’s concern was that the same process of industrial decline was playing out in regions of the German Empire. Where it had been hatred of Blacks, and those of Spanish descent in the United States, Jews and Gypsies had frequently been targets during difficult times in Germany. Anne had her children to consider, and she had spoken at length to Kat about her fears and worries in that regard. She had followed the events in Poland. How the slow fade of mining had caused frustrations of boil over and catapulted Nationalists into power.

Anne had pointed out that one of the things that had provoked the civil war had been the pogrom in Lwów that had really caused the Jews of Krakow to throw their lot with the Galician Freikorps in what had been a profoundly ironic move on their part. At the time Kat had suspected that it was a case of choosing the lesser of two evils. It had however worked out in the end due to the influence of Marie Cecilie as the Queen of Galicia-Ruthenia and how she had insisted on the most liberal and inclusive State Constitution possible. The concern that Anne had was this was just glimpse of things to come.

The conversation eventually drifted around to what their children were up to. Anne’s oldest, her son Otto had gotten into the American sport of Basketball, a game which Kat found to be rather silly the few times she had seen the game mentioned on the evening news. Lina was at loose ends, having no idea what she wanted to do. Then what thirteen-year-old did? Sophie and Lina had never been more than acquaintances, something that Anne had always found a bit disappointing. Kat had told Anne all about how she had Sophie minding Heinrich, Asia’s little boy. Due to circumstances, Heinrich would never have any brothers or sisters so having Sophie as a big sister of sorts was going to be good for him.



Potsdam

The last year had been quite an education for Jost. He’d had no clue as to what he was going to do when the Heer had only left him with the option of retirement due to age. He had knocked about his mother’s house in Wunsdorf-Zossen for a while, after more than three decades as a Feldwebel, his pension had been considerable, so he had hardly needed to go looking for a job. His mother wasn’t happy with the situation though and had badgered him about how he needed to be doing something. For lack of anything better to do, he had used Tilo’s old typewriter to peck out a script for a Horror movie, the sort of movie that he would actually want to see.

The trouble was that Jost had no idea what he was doing when it came to shopping a script in Potsdam. Oddly, as it had turned out no one was interested in Jost’s script. Instead, the interest was in Jost himself as there was a war film in preproduction that depicted a battle which Jost had been involved in during the Soviet War. He had been hired as a consultant and tasked with getting a group of actors who seemed to think that hardship was living in a seedy Ukrainian motor lodge for a week or two during principal filming was going to be real a hardship to look and act the part of soldiers in the field. Jost showed them what actual hardship looked like over the course of a few weeks and had dealt with complaints the same way he always had, by ignoring them. However, the complaints had reached the ears of the Director and he had demanded to speak with Jost. That was where things became a bit odd, the Director, an American named Stanley Kubrick whose film Jost was familiar with had lunch with him and they had discussed movies, the Soviet War, and how Jost had been under the direct command of Walter Horst for much of the conflict. It had turned out that Kubrick shared his opinion of the actors and had suggested that Jost remind them that they had signed a contract that said that they would do exactly what he said they would.

Then Jost had been asked if he wanted to play a role in front of the camera. The idea was to have him basically play himself as a Senior Noncom. The trip to Ukraine had been like walking on ghosts, there he had been on the exact same ground that he had fought Russians over twenty-five years earlier. He had made damn sure that the actors knew the significance of that.
 
Then Jost had been asked if he wanted to play a role in front of the camera. The idea was to have him basically play himself as a Senior Noncom. The trip to Ukraine had been like walking on ghosts, there he had been on the exact same ground that he had fought Russians over twenty-five years earlier. He had made damn sure that the actors knew the significance of that.

If Zella sees this and is smart enough to put two and two together, especially if Emil sees too, imagine this:

A documentary on the Soviet War, featuring soldiers from both sides meeting up and talking about the various battles in the places they occurred. Make a Joint Russo-German production in both languages and show the human side of the conflict and more importantly, the human cost, and have Jost narrate it.
Kat won't go within a million miles of appearing on the documentary, but enough of the men and women who served with her will, just, FFS, DO NOT let any junior producer think it's a good idea to put a Scare cat in the same room as any former Russian soldier tasked with trying to hunt down the German commando units behind the lines.

Another thought: If Stanley Kubrik's film does well, imagine if Jost is nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. The FBI and CIA will have fits of sheer terror realising that another Schultz is coming to America.
 
Another thought: If Stanley Kubrik's film does well, imagine if Jost is nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. The FBI and CIA will have fits of sheer terror realising that another Schultz is coming to America.
While I can't see it for what would be, at most, a bit part, I could definitely see it happening later.
 
Anne is right to be concerned about the possibility of the rise of Anti-Semitism in Germany and the rest of Europe because of no Holocaust ITTL the revulsion of the extreme logical "solution" of the questions of the "Jewish Problem" doesn't happens and that makes anti-Semitism more socially acceptable.
I could see in the aftermath of The European War where Jewish Communists are the main scapegoats for the war by extension the Jewish citizens of various Eastern and Middle European countries will bare the brunt of both official and unofficial actions up to and including violence against them.

Jost after the success of his film debut will have his screenplay be taken more seriously and while judged to be raw and unpolished it has great potential and Jost will encouraged to have a seasond, professional scriptwriter to be a collaborator with him.
 

ferdi254

Banned
One disadvantage of TTL. No holocaust means no second council meaning the RCC will still be fairly antisemitic. And even OTL 10-15% of all persons asked are fairly antisemitic.

Oh and btw in all so called christian countries. Centuries of both churches spewing antisemitic poison has left their traces.

Sort of got ninjaed.
 
Anne is right to be concerned about the possibility of the rise of Anti-Semitism in Germany and the rest of Europe because of no Holocaust ITTL the revulsion of the extreme logical "solution" of the questions of the "Jewish Problem" doesn't happens and that makes anti-Semitism more socially acceptable.
I could see in the aftermath of The European War where Jewish Communists are the main scapegoats for the war by extension the Jewish citizens of various Eastern and Middle European countries will bare the brunt of both official and unofficial actions up to and including violence against them.
One disadvantage of TTL. No holocaust means no second council meaning the RCC will still be fairly antisemitic. And even OTL 10-15% of all persons asked are fairly antisemitic.

Oh and btw in all so called christian countries. Centuries of both churches spewing antisemitic poison has left their traces.

Sort of got ninjaed.
True.

One small crumb of comfort is that I don't see it getting to anywhere near the same extent in Germany as it did OTL. Like, Nazi-level Anti-Semitism was primarily made possible thanks to the bitterness of defeat and the Dolchstoßlegende. Here, Germany is the dominant European power and a global superpower - kind of hard to 'blame the Jews' when there's no cataclysmic loss of power to blame them for. Though yeah, decline of traditional industries could stir things up to worse than they currently are ITTL.
 
Yeah but antisemitism ITTL would be much more rampant in Russia and France.
I posted in the first thread about the possibility of the Second Russian Empire using anti-Semitism as way to unify the people against the "Foreign Jewish Cosmopolitans"_who brought the Communists in to power with that " Georgian " Stalin being a willing puppet never mind the fact that Stalin himself was a violent Anti Semite.
Gia's adopted daughter Anya who was raised in a Russian Orthodox orphanage causally sprouted anti Semitic bigoted words was a product of both the official Stalinist line and the historic Russian Orthodox Church bigotry.
 
Then Jost had been asked if he wanted to play a role in front of the camera. The idea was to have him basically play himself as a Senior Noncom. The trip to Ukraine had been like walking on ghosts, there he had been on the exact same ground that he had fought Russians over twenty-five years earlier. He had made damn sure that the actors knew the significance of that.
Jost is going to end up as TTL's R. Lee Ermey, as that's how Ermey got the role of Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann in Full Metal Jacket.
 
I posted in the first thread about the possibility of the Second Russian Empire using anti-Semitism as way to unify the people against the "Foreign Jewish Cosmopolitans"_who brought the Communists in to power with that " Georgian " Stalin being a willing puppet never mind the fact that Stalin himself was a violent Anti Semite.
Gia's adopted daughter Anya who was raised in a Russian Orthodox orphanage causally sprouted anti Semitic bigoted words was a product of both the official Stalinist line and the historic Russian Orthodox Church bigotry.
Anya found herself sent off to the Frank family as I recall so she could meet some actual Jewish people and discover they weren’t the ‘monsters’ she’d been misinformed about.
 
Presenting Jost Schultz playing Jost Schultz in "Vollmantelgeschoss".
Alternatively, Jost holds true to his vision and plays a character closely based on himself in a cross-over miltary action/sci-fi/horror film he wrote the script for. Provisionally titled 'das Raubtier' - 'Beast of Prey/Predator'?
 
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Part 130, Chapter 2204
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Four



3rd March 1973

Tempelhof

Riding around in the back seat of a chauffeured car had its disadvantages. Kat liked being able to pack up and leave on moment’s notice and the Mercedes Benz town car that she’d had seized from the estate Franz von Papen was a great wallowing barge on wheels. The reason why it had been suggested to Kat that she do things this way was because it was in keeping with her present station. Having the Prefect of Berlin driving around in a beat-up old VW Föhn wouldn’t be keeping up appearances. However, when one needed to comfort a distraught teenager without the distraction of driving there were advantages.

“After what she did to me… How could this happen?” Sophie sobbed.

“Five years is a very long time” Kat said to Sophie, who was having the worst sort of day imaginable.

Of all the things that Sophie’s mother could have done, there would have been few other ways for her to cut the daughter she had never wanted to the quick. It was something that had never once entered Sophie’s thinking over the last few years. That her mother had simply moved on with her life.

Everyone liked to think that awful people got what they deserved. However, Kat knew that justice was thin on the ground in the best of times. It seemed that Sophie had this fantasy that her mother was living an empty, miserable life somewhere and that had turned out not to be the case. Today, she had learned that her mother had a different job, better life, and apparently a new family. There was a religious aspect to all of that and of all the asinine things that Sophie’s mother might have done, she asked Sophie to forgive her in a way that implied that there was mutual blame to go around. Kat would have cheerfully torn her to pieces over that sort of haughty nonsense. Sophie wasn’t like Kat in that regard which was to her credit. That wasn’t to say that Sophie wasn’t above berating her mother in a public place and creating a massive scene. Kat got Sophie out of there before it escalated to a physical altercation.

Now, Sophie was still understandably upset.

“You never have to see that woman again” Kat said, “I believe that you rather thoroughly said your peace with her this time.”

“You think?” Sophie asked in reply.

“It was loud, and you were talking fast, but you mentioned everything including the beatings and neglect” Kat said, “She cannot deny any of that.”

“She certainly tried to” Sophie replied, “She implied that I played a role in that.”

“You were a defenseless child, and she held all the power in that situation” Kat said, “She just found out the hard way that is not who you are, not anymore. It becomes hard to hit someone after you know they can hit back.”

Though she was still crying, Sophie smiled at that.



Los Angeles, California

Earlier, as the Prosecution presented its case, Ritchie had been introduced as a star witness. He had just told what he had witnessed from his perspective with no embellishments. There had been experts who had traced the movements of all the players in Roosevelt High School. So, it was not Ritchie’s job to mention more than he had seen personally. Still, the State Assistant District Attorney had laid it on thick. He had introduced Ritchie as a decorated Police Officer and a Sergeant-Major in the California National Guard. That was supposed to lend him far more credibility with the jury than he would otherwise have. Then, after lunch, the Defense got their turn.

“You showed absolutely no hesitation in shooting my client, Officer Valenzuela” The Defense Attorney said with as much mock indignation as he could.

The client in question was seated quietly, his legal team having taken great pains to make look as young and innocent as they could. Ritchie knew that was a total load of crap. Before he had taken the witness stand, he had been warned about giving flip answers or engaging in sarcasm. The Defense was going to do their level best to knock down his credibility as a witness. The idea that Ritchie had been bloodthirsty and reckless was a part of that.

“The defendant had just shot one of the members of the facility right in front of me” Ritchie replied, “Stopping him was the only option.”

“Yes, stopping him?” The Defense Attorney asked, “You used an M-10A3 rifle of the sort that the Army issues. Many would argue that was overkill for that sort of situation. Is that typical for the Los Angeles Police?”

As if three blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun would have been better than taking three bullets from a Stoner Rifle. By some strange miracle, Dicky Scott had three 6mm bullets pass through him without actually hitting anything vital. The reason given was that Ritchie had used ball ammunition and they had not expanded or tumbled. He remembered that one of the Captains had given him a box of cartridges loaded with silverpoints, the sort used to kill deer by expanding and becoming spinning razorblades upon impact. He had told Ritchie to do a proper job of it next time.

“It is Department Issue” Ritchie replied, “Officers occasionally find themselves in situations where a pistol is insufficient. Like say, a mass shooting in a High School where the assailant is armed with a carbine.”

The Defense Attorney had clearly not liked that answer, but there was nothing he could object to too strenuously.
 
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This is what Kat is riding around in, a Mercedes Benz Grosser MB600
images1.jpeg
 
Just a reminder for me, the M10A3 that Ritchie used, it's basically the OTL Stoner 63, right? Just chambered different?
Different chambering, IOTL it is a wildcat cartridge; 6mm/223 Rem. The rifle itself had a different design evolution, having been developed in the Springfield Armory as a replacement for the Gerand. It uses a piston system because in TTL Eugene Stoner realized that the Military would use whatever ammunition it could get from the lowest bidder and building a rifle system around a particular brand of smokeless powder would cause trouble.
 
Part 130, Chapter 2205
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Five



18th March 1972

Tzschocha, Silesia

With it being a Sunday afternoon, everyone was watching television the common area of the dormitory when the show they were watching was interrupted by a breaking news story about the bombing of a Secondary School in County Tyrone, Ireland. For Mathilda it was more than just an annoyance. A year ago, she had been ignorant of these things. Going out into the wider world had meant that she had learned far more than she had imagined she would, but she had come to understand that it had not made her happy. In one of her classes, she had read a poem by an Englishman a couple hundred years earlier; Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise. There had been discussion at length about what that meant, as if Mathilda didn’t already know. She had lived in a forest on an island for her entire life before she had run off to Berlin.

Having had enough of a modern world that felt like it was spinning out of control, Mathilda left the dormitory room that she shared with a dozen other girls, walked to the castle courtyard and out the gates. She noticed that it was a cold afternoon as she crossed the causeway, and she pulled the hood of her coat over her head. She didn’t intend to go too far, she just wanted to ground herself after witnessing some of the chaos of the wider world. Part of her arrival to this place had been to learn the history. How there had been a fortress here at Tzschocha for centuries and it had changed hands many times with each successive owner adding to the complex, before falling into ruin after a fire in 1793. Then in 1909, an eccentric named Ernst von Gütschow who had made his fortune manufacturing cigars had purchased the castle and engaged in a massive reconstruction effort. Later, von Gütschow had been involved in a dispute with the Government of Silesia, the Mayor and Council of Breslau in particular revolving around his large private library, extensive collection of artifacts from the Romanov Family of Russia, and how they hadn’t liked a historic monument being privately owned. It was said that he had made a point of having the castle turned into a Gymnasia as a part of his will out of spite. No sane Government official would want the image of dozens of young ladies being evicted to appear on the evening news, not if they wanted to win another election in their lifetime.

Regardless of that, Mathilda had realized that she had found herself in a place that was truly ancient. From the stones of the castle to the forest that surrounded it, she could feel the weight of ages. The other students walked through life unaware of that. To them it was just a place they went to live while they went to school. The worst of them by far was Anna Schultz and her friends. They just drifted through life, only able to see the superficial and Mathilda felt bad for them. The world was such a rich place for those willing to see beyond the surface. They were determined to keep their eyes closed.

Once she was among the trees, Mathilda felt like she was exhaling after holding her breath for a long time. Tzschocha was far from the main roads, so the only sound was the wind through the branches of the trees overhead. Spring had not yet taken hold in the land, so it still slept. Mathilda could see the green buds on some of the trees though, she knew that it was dreaming of the rebirth that would happen when there was enough warmth to melt away the blanket of snow that still covered the ground.

Mathilda remembered how she had not been thrilled when Ilse had bought her the shoes that she was wearing. Hearing the snow crunching under her feet this was one of the few times she was glad that she wasn’t wearing the sandals that she normally preferred. Breathing in the fresh air, Mathilda tried to order her thoughts, only to hear approaching voices approaching.

Much to her annoyance.

Scrambling to one of the tree trunks, Mathilda slipped into the shadowy side and made herself as small as possible. With her grey dress and brown coat, she was almost invisible. She willed herself to be as still as possible and pictured herself as part of the tree trunk. Mathilda had no idea if that really worked or not, just that people almost always walked right past when she did this.

A few minutes later, Anna Schultz appeared with one of her friends. Mathilda had not bothered to learn the names of Anna’s friends. There was a half-dozen or so of them and they were all pretty much interchangeable. Small minded, petty, and shallow for the most part, they slavishly followed Anna mostly out of fear of what would happen if they ever found themselves on the outside of that circle. That didn’t mean that the girl was happy about following Anna into the forest this afternoon.

“I saw her come this way” Anna said.

“It’s too cold for this” The girl whined, “Why are we out here anyway?”

“Because I want to really see if that little freak sings to the trees” Anna replied as she stomped through the snow. “She left a saucer with little bits of food on it by one of the doors to the courtyard the other day.”

That was stupid, Mathilda thought to herself.

She didn’t sing to the trees. She sang for herself, and the forest merely provided the backdrop. The food on the saucer had been for the Tortoiseshell cat in the castle who she had been trying to befriend.

After a few minutes, Anna and her friend plodded off. Mathilda could hear them bickering for several minutes after they were no longer in view. Standing up, Mathilda walked off in the opposite direction, back towards the castle. With Anna out here in the cold trying to find her, it would make for a nice afternoon inside next to a fireplace.
 
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