Rosenberg's Reich: The Myth of The Twentieth Century

[X_X]

“We were all more or less gathered together in his house waiting to receive the news of wherever or not he had received a deal with Hindenburg when he returned triumphantly. Celebrations were had by all, with Rudolf Hess enjoying his drinks a bit too much. Towards the end of the party, Hess approached me and said ‘You realize the entire future of his godforsaken country rests in our hands, right?’ I don’t think it was until then that I really realized what had occurred.

“I have a lot of work to do over the next few weeks.”

-From The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels



“The context was in truth, not that Rosenberg was some kind of political mastermind and manipulator, so much as there was nobody else for the position. Kurt von Schleicher wanted to dissolve parliament and run Germany as a dictatorship, but Paul von Hindenburg hated the idea. Schleicher’s extremely poor health also complication matters. Hindenburg truly wanted Franz von Papen to be chancellor, but the latter wasn’t interested. That left Rosenberg as a default.

“Up ahead were still more federal elections to solidify Nazi power. Party leaders understood the importance of getting out the vote to ensure as many seats as possible, no matter what it took. Opposing parties representing the left and Catholic interests were attacked, brownshirts and stormtroopers invading homes and party meetings, and censoring newspapers and radio addresses. And then a little case of arson gave those on the fence reason to pause and wonder if the fascists were correct all along…”

-Excerpt from The Continent of Blood: The History of War, Authoritarianism, and Terrorism in 20th Century Europe


“Death to the fascists and liberals! May Marxism reign supreme!”

-Words allegedly spoken by Marinus van der Lubbe before setting off the Reichstag Building Fire


“This portrait of the inferno is the most perfect photograph I’ve ever seen. For once, we don’t even need to touch it up.”

-Joseph Goebbels



“After these disturbing actions, which we believe were funded by Moscow’s socialist terror machine, we are taking great care with the upcoming elections. Rest assured though, this process will be entirely democratic.”

-Alfred Rosenberg


“After the March 1933 elections, the Nazis gained an addition 61 seats, for a total of 290. Under increased pressure from the Nazis following the highly publicized Reichstag Building Fire all moderate parties supported a bill allowing Rosenberg emergency power to pass laws without the consent of parliament.”

-Except from The Continent of Blood: The History of War, Authoritarianism, and Terrorism in 20th Century Europe

“Germans! Boycott Jewish Businesses! Give not a cent to these thieves who are ruining this great nation!”

-Headline from Julius Streicher’s The Stormer Newspaper, April 1933


“It is clear to me, that the Roosevelt Administration is secretly run by those of the Jewish ethnicity, who seek to destroy our American way of life! As they have for decades, as detailed in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, they continue to creep up upon us, and these new policies towards gold are simply their latest hoardings. Germany has made a great example of itself over these past few months and may, in fact, be the only sane nation left upon earth! I ask of all my fellow Republicans, keep the Jews out of our party!”

-Statement given by Representative Louis Thomas McFadden (R-Pa-14)

 

[stirlingdraka]

Great update on the new German Chancellor.

 

[Bookmark1995]

I find the wingnut from Pennsylvania to be more unsettling, considering he is a born and bred American.

 

[alleightbits]

I find the wingnut from Pennsylvania to be more unsettling, considering he is a born and bred American.

He, apparently, was like this OTL as well.

 

[X_X]

“In the largest loss of life upon European soil since the First World War, millions died of famine in Ukraine. This event called the Holodomor is still poorly understood by many outside Eastern Europe, and even among those within the region. In the most conservative estimates, 2.4 million died, but many recent researchers claim that these numbers are much higher, some stating that the total death toll could be 12 million. The Holodomor is recognized as either genocide or a crime against humanity by many countries today, with many researchers claiming the famine was a deliberate ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians by the Stalin government.



“Mass malnutrition and death was first reported in the region in January 1933, with the starvation continuing for months afterward. There were widespread claims of resorting to cannibalism to survive and several thousand were arresting for the act. Information about the famine was greatly censored in the press, contributing to a culture in which foreign aid was not sought, even though many argue it could’ve saved lives. The rapid collectivization throughout the Soviet Union in the early 1930s is seen as a key catalyst for the causes of the famine, alongside the aforementioned aid rejection, and restriction of population movement.

“Lesser known is the famine that occurred in Soviet Kazakhstan at the same time. Demographic information shows that the famine-affected ethnic Kazakhs disproportionately more than the minority ethnic Russians. It would not be until the 1990s that the Kazakhs would become a majority in the land that shares their name, in total, an estimated 1.5 million persisted, though some claim slightly higher numbers.

“An unfortunate topic that must be addressed here is the denial that these events even occurred, many modern communists claim it little more than “Goebbels propaganda”, ignoring that no scholarly evidence used to research the Holodomor came from Nazi Germany. Even as the famine was ongoing, prominent men such as H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw denied that it occurred. In the United States, there were several clashes between American Communists and Ukrainian-Americans at public political demonstrations.

A clash between Communists and Ukrainians in America

“The legacy of the Holodomor is complex and still coming undone to this very day. But the opinions of amateur Neo-Stalinists are little compared to the ever-changing tides of the international community willing to preserve history’s tragedies. A recent bill penned by Ukrainian-American senator Paul Wellstone to acknowledge the Holodomor as a crime against humanity was passed near-unanimously by the American Senate.”

-Except from The Continent of Blood: The History of War, Authoritarianism, and Terrorism in 20th Century Europe

 

[Bookmark1995]

Is this going to be important later on?

 

[X_X]

Is this going to be important later on?

Not particularly, but I think these events are important enough to be mentioned briefly in a timeline covering the 1930s.

This won't be the last of the Soviet Union's atrocities though.

 

[X_X]

“The fears of the people of Peking came true on July 6, 1933. On that day authorization was given by the Japanese government to begin bombing the city in pretense to invade it. Prime Minister Araki, ever gaining an authoritarian grip as laws expanded his power and opposition parties were shut down, declared this to be the next step in taking control of Asia for the glory of the Japanese ‘master race’ as part of the nation’s holy war.

“For those on the fence, the narrative was now clear as reports of Japanese cruelties spread in the Western press; in some ways, it was comparable to the reception the Spanish were given in the 1890s: as a manic nation hellbent on causing bloodshed throughout their occupied land. Political cartoons had Araki (always a favorite for caricaturists due to his facial hair) sitting upon a throne of skulls, the emperor portrayed as a cast aside broken marionette.

“Western volunteer militias, primarily from the USA, Germany, and the UK came to the aid of the right-wing Chinese nationalists, while Soviets supported Mao Zedong’s Communists. Throughout the summer and autumn of 1933, the international community indirectly gave funding to both Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao, though the latter was almost entirely limited to communist nations and their sympathizers. Regardless of this international comradery, it was an uphill battle for years as a large part of the Japanese economy had not been negatively affected by the Great Depression like most industrialized nations. For the rest of the 1930s, China would see more battles than any other region of the world, except Spain. The Sino-Japanese War had begun.”

-Excerpt from Gingko and Cherry Blossom: Japan in the 20th Century

 

[X_X]

“As the Nazis rose in power in Germany, the Balkans increasingly became home to high tensions, often lead by Fascist-aligned Croats. The rest of the world ultimately became aware of this conflict through a rare but shocking act of violence: one of the most high-profile suicide bombings of the 20th century.



“On January 16, 1934, a plot to assassinate the Yugoslavian King, Alexander I went underway and succeeded. A trenchcoated Croatian man, hiding a crude suicide vest made of dynamite lunged at the monarch blowing them both up in the resulting exposition. The incident was captured from afar on film. Within hours of news of the murder reaching foreign countries, the Ustaše, a Croatian ultranationalist terrorist organization, took responsibility. Their leader, Ante Pavelić, hiding in Italy, released a statement to the press praising the bomber as a “martyr to his race” and “evidence of the growing wave of Croatian superiority”. While Pavelić was banned from entering Yugoslavia, and the Italian police heavily sought him, he could not be found, still taunting that the Serbian people were soon to meet their reckoning.


“As for the Yugoslavian monarchy, Alexander’s eldest son Peter II became King, though still a child, his uncle Prince Paul had the true legal power in continuing the sovereign dictatorship. Paul, of course, knew that dark days were ahead for the Balkans, but what this meant for both the Croatians' standing in both Europe and Catholicism, not even he could imagine.”

-Excerpt from The Continent of Blood: The History of War, Authoritarianism, and Terrorism in 20th Century Europe

“Croatians! We will take back our land from its occupation by these who insult our religion and our blood. From those who kill our children and rape our women! From those who oppose our God-given purity! Know this, Christ is on our side! And while you may at first cower at the Herculean task ahead of providing a Greater Croatia as is destined to know this: The only thing you have to fear is fear itself!” - Ante Pavelić

 

[Bookmark1995]

Pavelic was a real monster. I dread what he could do with even greater success.

 

[stirlingdraka]

Great series of updates.

 

[X_X]

“One of the most interesting excursions I’ve had in cataloging this volume was the researching of the films of director Yasujirō Ozu. Drafted into the army in 1934 for the Sino-Japanese War, some of Mr. Ozu’s works, mostly consisting of silent comedies or crime dramas, are lost to time due to the poor film preservation policies of Japan. Those that do still exist, titles such as Walk Cheerfully, That Night’s Wife, Tokyo Chorus, Dragnet Girl, and I Was Born, But…, exhibit a talent rare for his country at the decade. There is great inventive cinematography and editing and surprising emotional depth despite the economic production values commonplace of the time.

“Ozu was stationed in Shanghai turning the 1934 invasion of the city by Japanese forces and died early on during the several months long battle over control of the jewel of the Oriental. One cannot help but ponder on what could’ve been had the cruel realities of war not cut down one of the standout stars of early 1930s Japanese cinema so soon.” [1]

-Excerpt from World Cinema 1900-1950




“I ask of German Catholics to be wary of Rosenberg’s rhetoric towards religion. I’ve read his work and it is clear he is no servant of Christ. He is rapidly leading his people back to an age of paganism.”

-Pope Pius XI


“A most embarrassing occurrence happened in 1934 when a Hungarian-Jewish journalist known as Franz Szell published a scandalous report that widely circulated throughout the world and caused Rosenberg a fair amount of grief. Szell, who was based in the Baltics, claimed that he had begun researching the Rosenberg lineage out of curiosity and said that the German Chancellor was not a Baltic German. Rather, claimed Szell, Rosenberg was descended from Jews, which would be mammoth indeed for Europe’s most high-profile anti-Semite. These scandalous accusations managed to reach Germany, despite the strong press censorship that had been imposed by Goebbels.

“For their own part, however, the Nazis put a nice spin upon this, especially seeing as how Szell did not appear to be very trustworthy in his research. Indeed, to this day few historians take his word honestly. It was far too simple to paint him as an ideologue over his head trying lethargic sabotage. Rosenberg had spent a lot of effort into building a cult of personality at this point. And as usual, the cultists could claim victory once more as the Szell scandal made yesterday’s news.”

-Excerpt from The Continent of Blood: The History of War, Authoritarianism, and Terrorism in 20th Century Europe


“And now the Jew claims that our leader deceives us? Is this blatant fib not all the proof you need to show that a lying tongue runs through their foreign blood?”

-Excerpt from an editorial by Julius Streicher


“Rest assured, all within our borders who traffic in such slander shall be fired from their jobs as reporters. I will look into your question on whether prison or deportation is a more apt sentence for such Jewish-backed criminals.”

-Excerpt from a letter from Joseph Goebbels to Alfred Rosenberg


“Christianity arose from the Semitics. It is alien to our homeland and incompatible with Nazi values. What shall occur over the following decades is a transformation, a return to the Germanic religions of yore. The cross replaced with the swastika and the King of the Jews with images of Rosenberg.”

-Martin Bormann


[1] Ozu was drafted in OTL in 1937 and survived several battles. An earlier invasion of China sees one of cinema's greats not so lucky depriving us of cinematic classics like Only Son, Tokyo Story, Floating Weeds, and An Autumn Afternoon

 

[X_X]

This was a fun one to write.



“Himmler and I entered his study and there he was sitting in his easy chair reading a comic book. He was happy to see us and hear the news that he expected.

‘So?’ he began ‘Everything went according to plan?’

“‘Alfred, yes’ Himmler responded with an awkward smile that I shared with him. “Gerlich is dead, and Jung is dead, and Probst, and Rohm, and Schleicher.”

“‘Excellent, excellent,’ and he returned to the funny pages as if we were talking about the weather.

“’You’ll put a fair spin on this won’t you Joseph?’ he asked me

“’Well, I’ll try sir.’ I said as we sat down. I could tell how dry Himmler’s mouth was as he gulped down a class of iced water. As he drank, Rosenberg got a look on his face; he had remembered something.

“’And Strasser?’

“’Pardon?’

“’And Strasser? Is Strasser dead?’

Himmler took a deep breath. “’Sir, I don’t know how this happened, but he was tipped off… I don’t think he is even in Europe anymore. We did not find out until last night.’

Rosenberg looked up from his comics. “’Oh,’ he said mockingly ‘he got away?’

“’…Yes…”

And before I knew it, that pitcher of cold water was flung across the room, hitting a painting.

“’He was the leader of this whole fucking thing! This coup! I don’t care what it takes you find that man! He’s out there plotting my death my right now! And yours Joseph! And yours too, Himmler!’” his tone got colder after this fiery outburst. “’Himmler! You fire the stupid kid you put in front of this whole thing. He’s moronic! Probably a half-Aryan to fool this up!’”

-Excerpt from The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels

“’Half-Aryan?’ said the old man sitting down on the sofa. ‘Yeah, I was just a joke to him now, but those weeks before he treated me like a rising star. Said I was gonna be a real icon for his cause. I had the looks and smarts. And it wasn’t even my fault though. One of the Strasser cronies found out and tipped his boss off. See, the blame should fall on Himmler. But did he wanna do anything that would make him lose power? I was just the fall guy.’

‘…you never got back up if you crossed Rosenberg the wrong way. Unless you were really chummy, and there were just like ten guys who were his friends, you were expendable. And who knows, maybe if he respected people like me, we wouldn’t have that fucking kike Kissinger fucking Europe up.’”

-Excerpt from Gestapo: When Big Brother Wasn’t Fiction


“I hear that South America is very nice this time of year.”

-Gregor Strasser

 

[stirlingdraka]

That update was also fun and interesting to read as well.

 

[Unknown]

Wonder how World War II will be different ITTL...

 

[X_X]

“'Back in the 1930s things were simply horrible. I had fully come to believe that many Americans were stepping upon Constitutional Rights of Negros out of bigotry. There were millions of people who weren’t willing to respect your human rights simply because of who you were. There was one time I read in the papers of an incident in Tennessee. A lynch mob had burned down a courthouse out of rage, they had just learned that the black man they had come to kill had been moved to another county out of his own protection. They went ballistic. The National Guard had to be called in, by the Governor’s request, but by then it had been too late. The crowds took out their anger upon several other young black men. And a few of the attackers were later killed after they charged the National Guardsmen. The photos were just horrific, and I cried for the first time in years that night trying to get sleep…’

“’Wow…I can only imagine…’

“'Yes, but from my depression came new strength. Over the next few decades, I worked hard. I did difficult cases for the NAACP. I encouraged public demonstrations in the 50s and gave grand speeches. And then in 1965, I was even caught off guard slightly when I was in the running to be the first black attorney general. And then a few days later I stated ‘Mr. President, I aspect your request.’’

“'That must’ve been a difficult choice, knowing no matter what you pick you might regret it later.’

“'Oh, for sure. I barely made it in. No senator South of the Mason-Dixon Line voted for me. But still, I made it. And Mr. Romney, I saw him the next day, and he said ‘Thurgood, I think you just turned John Rarick whiter than he’s ever been.’ And he both laughed.’

-Excerpt from the BBC documentary Thurgood Marshall: Born A Crime

 

[Bookmark1995]

The idea of Attorney General Marshall makes me smile, but I'm a bit worried about the tumult between now and then.

 

[X_X]

“The following series of Associated Press articles to be published over the next three weeks looks at the concerning phenomenon of Jewish owned businesses being attacked by arson in Berlin. Such in-depth coverage of Germany will doubtlessly be hard to come across over the next few years as tighter restrictions are placed upon foreign journalists.” – December 2, 1934


“I hope that our message is loud and clear to all Europeans! We are test-driving the future!” -Alfred Rosenberg speaking to the crowds during his first visit to Mussolini’s Rome


“To the nation above all else! For the homeland and for the Emperor and Prime Minister! Be that in a hundred years there is nothing upon this earth but Japan!” -Prince Yasuhiko Asaka


“During 1933 and 1934, there were two ongoing fronts in the Japanese assault upon China. From the north, the Japanese used their air force to move south from Manchuria into Beijing, the bombings being particularly costly to Chinese defenses. And from the sea came an invasion of Shanghai. Using chemical weapons, the Japanese had no hesitation to gas soldiers or civilians as they advanced through the Yangtze, the Pans-Asiatic dreams of Generals like Iwane Matsui seemingly becoming more real which each passing day.


“By the end of 1934, they had made it as far west as Wuhan. But China and her allies would not go down without a fight. Weapons were being given to the Nationalists from the West and to the Communists from Moscow. Volunteer brigades from as far as Nazi Germany had come to aid, American soldiers with Chaplin caricatures drawn as their emblems (ironic considering the late director’s pacifism), and Russians to hold the hammer and stickle together with Mr. Zedong. Official government help would come later…”

-Excerpt from Gingko and Cherry Blossom: Japan in the 20th Century



The Swastika was already a minor symbol among some nationalists, it took on new meaning among Chinese fans of German volunteers


“The Roosevelt administration, increasingly concerned about the continued domination of Japan through China is starting to build-up defenses in our Pacific territories- chiefly Alaska, Hawaii, and The Philippines. The philosophy here being that even a nation as crazy as they would not dare to attack lands already occupied by a superior nation.” – ABC News Radio Bulletin


“Japan was perhaps the most hated nation of Earth in the 1930s, stories of atrocities were published around the world. Mass rapes and slaughters of Chinese civilians in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanking, and Wuhan shocked and titillated the public and seemed to enforced their fears and stereotypes they had about the “slants”. A new age of Yellow Peril gripped the world from Vancouver to Auckland and back again, which as seen in the pop culture of the day. Sexual fears about Asian men appeared more frequently in cheap novels and movies. As Dixie feared the African-American, the West Coast feared the Japanese-American.”

-Excerpt from West Sees East: Perceptions of Asia Through American Pop Culture

Japanese Solders Wearing Protective Gear As They Enter An Area Bombed With Chemical Weapons

“The Japanese Government maintains to this day that no weapons of mass destruction were used in the Sino-Japanese war. Earlier this year, in Spring 1971, the one-party legislature passed a law making it a crime punishable by death to acknowledge the country’s war crimes that occurred almost three decades prior. This mixed in with the seemingly never-ending control by ultranationalists threating another conflict, and boasting of their “racial and religious purity” makes the Pacific look as though it could likely be the location of an upcoming nuclear war. Not much is known about the alleged Japanese nuclear program other than that the Prime Minister continues to state that it does not exist, but how trustworthy is a government ranked by human rights organizations as ‘one of the worst for free speech in modern history’?”

-Excerpt from the 60 Minutes documentary Inside the Hermit Kingdom

 

[stirlingdraka]

That`s a very interesting series of updates. How can a 1970s Japan have a secret nuclear program?

 

[X_X]

Over 5000 views! Thank you all so much, for the comments and feedback. Here’s an update:


“We above all strive for the future, a pure future, an eternally German future. But the science is clear that the current healthy genealogy of the populace will not survive under such modern international pressures. If we allow miscegenation, then we jeopardize the health of our children, in fact not since the Black Death perhaps have the German people faced such a health crisis. We become neither German nor Jew, but a disturbing unknown, an animalistic man of a nightmare future. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to do anything you can do for the protection of your children, ensuring they grow up in communities with like-minded patriots and not foreigners who worship false prophets and hang strange flags in their houses. And with that know this: if you break the Nuremberg Laws, we will find you.”

-Radio statement by Fuhrer Alfred Rosenberg


“Christians worship a desert rabbi and see him as a god. They think his return will bring salvation to all. How is this suppose to ally with German nationalism?!”

-Martin Boorman



“Germany continues to fail to uphold the rights they have guaranteed with the Vatican over the fate of the German Catholics. We are witnessing the forced disappearance of a faith under tyrannical rule, as prominent Catholics are slain by the state and Rosenberg pushes forward this monstrous creation of 20th-century paganism. Is it soon to be that the Catholic will be treated like the poor Jews, stripped of their citizenship and forced to be treated as if we were subhuman? Such is the Nazi way. Soon they may be as dangerous to our existence as the communists. Catholics are being removed of their right to organize politically and I will not budge an inch in my criticism of Rosenbergism until religious freedom is restored upon all corners of Europe.”

-Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli




“Could Mr. Mussolini please shut up with these Ethiopian plans. Does he not know that he is putting the lives of all white Africans at stake? Jesus, does he want to send us into a bloody race war by enraging every black on this continent?”

-Jan Smuts


Beck: “And beyond the fact that Creationism should certainly be taught in public schools is this, Darwinism is racist, it was promoted by the Nazis to justify killing Jews! In fact, Mr. Gould here as a Jew would be killed under Nazi Darwinist teachings, an irony he would be all too happy to ignore.”

Moderator: “Mr. Gould your reply?”

Gould: “Thank you. When I agreed to this debate I did not expect this topic to appear. But Mr. Beck is correct, I would’ve likely killed. But do not even pretend for a second that it would be because of On the Origins of The Species. It would be because of another controversial book, The Myth of The Twentieth Century by Alfred Rosenberg. And that is a book I certainly would not want to be in schools. Nazism has nothing to do with Charles Darwin. I have spent a great deal of my life debunking the racial pseudoscience promoted by ethnic nationalists. This whole absurd notion that science is racist and thus should be sheltered from children is totally asinine. White nationalists cherry-pick numbers and ignore the vast majority of data, something me and all respectable biologists would never do. That’s the new dog whistle these days, “Oh but it's true I saw it in the journals”. Who peer-reviewed that paper though, Strom Thurmond? Perhaps, Mr. Beck it this is what you’ve picked up from science journals then it says more about your reading habits.

“Furthermore, it highlights the tragedy of the continued politicization of genocide. I just heard on the radio today that if some liberal wins the presidential election then the days of concentration camps won’t be far behind. This is clear scare-mongering hogwash. It is a total disrespect, Mr. Beck, that you will exploit the ethnic cleansing committed by the Germans and Croatians under fascist rule to promote your glorified Bible Study classes and NRA lobbying."

-Excerpt from a 2004 CNN debate