General Zod
Banned
This is an idea I got while discussing the Fatherland TL, but might deserve its own discussion.
Assume that in the 1923-1940 period, Hitler's geopolitical and racist views gradually shift to the following:
a) He is more inclusive in his racism: he deems and preaches that while Germans are a ladder above the rest, most of the other Aryan European peoples explicitly share a racial special destiny with them, they just need to be "gently" brought into the proper (Nazist, pro-German) perspective to create a united Paneuropean homeland and Aryan brotherhood, given an appropriate place in the Nazi system, and in the very long term, politically and racially united with Germans. Say he deems that ancient Germans largely shared blood with most of Europe, those blood roots just need to be awakened and strenghtened with the proper (Nazi) attitudes. This is surely true for not just for Germanics and Nordics, but also French, Italians, Spaniards, British, Hungarians, Romanians, etc.
I leave it to your preference the butterfly of whether he gets to include any, most, or none of European Slavs in this worldview. However let's assume that he at the very least regards them as an inferior but salvageable (at least as serfs/vassals) variant of Aryan European. Only Slavs that in his perspective "stole" German land long ago (Czechs and Poles) committed an unforgivable crime and hence are always singled out for radical Germanization/extermination/expulsion in Europe.
b) He comes to realize that the true optimal location for Lebenstraum (large-scale enslavement and genocide of native population, and their substitution with settlers) is not European Russia, but Subsaharian Africa, and optionally also North Africa and the Middle East. Of course, Germans is going to get the lion's share from this colonization, but other Nazified, pro-German Europeans are welcome to share in the effort and reap appropriate benefits. From a racial PoV, Blacks, not Jews, are now identified as the worst menace, and targeted for Final Solution (deportation being deemed unfeasible from the start). Arabs may be either regarded as fundamentally equivalent to Blacks, or the ladder below Slavs, and treated accordingly. Jews are deemed and treated the same level as Arabs, whichever it is.
c) He remains as fundamentally and radically anti-Communist as IOTL, but his plans for Russians change according to the above. He is interested in destroying Soviet Russia and remodeling European Russia as a vassal, if at all possible, but the deal being given to natives is to vary according to racial views of Slavs (either a deal slightly or significantly worse that the one of other Europeans). However, he's fundamentally uninterested in any major colonization of European Russia.
From 1923 to 1940, he gradually comes to share this view and he adjusts his plans and actions, as well as Nazi doctrines, accordingly.
How is course and outcome of *WWII going to change with this PoD, in your opinion ? IMO this would be a frighteningly effective way for Nazism to score a major long-term victory.
The PoD would require Hitler to lose his landbound geopolitical tunnel vision, and believe/deem that a total land and aeronaval war against Britain and France could and should be completely won necessarily before Germany would turn against Soviet Russia, if any, and so believe that Africa and the Middle East could be won for Lebenstraum. A major revision, but doable IMO. A strongly, explicit Pan-(Western)-European version of Nazism that on a European level becomes as outspokenly inclusive as Communism IMO only slightly emphasizes or changes OTL Hitler's views and Nazi doctrines, so it's easily done. As it concerns the shift about Slavs, it would be a consequence of the change in Lebenstraum focus.
Assume that in the 1923-1940 period, Hitler's geopolitical and racist views gradually shift to the following:
a) He is more inclusive in his racism: he deems and preaches that while Germans are a ladder above the rest, most of the other Aryan European peoples explicitly share a racial special destiny with them, they just need to be "gently" brought into the proper (Nazist, pro-German) perspective to create a united Paneuropean homeland and Aryan brotherhood, given an appropriate place in the Nazi system, and in the very long term, politically and racially united with Germans. Say he deems that ancient Germans largely shared blood with most of Europe, those blood roots just need to be awakened and strenghtened with the proper (Nazi) attitudes. This is surely true for not just for Germanics and Nordics, but also French, Italians, Spaniards, British, Hungarians, Romanians, etc.
I leave it to your preference the butterfly of whether he gets to include any, most, or none of European Slavs in this worldview. However let's assume that he at the very least regards them as an inferior but salvageable (at least as serfs/vassals) variant of Aryan European. Only Slavs that in his perspective "stole" German land long ago (Czechs and Poles) committed an unforgivable crime and hence are always singled out for radical Germanization/extermination/expulsion in Europe.
b) He comes to realize that the true optimal location for Lebenstraum (large-scale enslavement and genocide of native population, and their substitution with settlers) is not European Russia, but Subsaharian Africa, and optionally also North Africa and the Middle East. Of course, Germans is going to get the lion's share from this colonization, but other Nazified, pro-German Europeans are welcome to share in the effort and reap appropriate benefits. From a racial PoV, Blacks, not Jews, are now identified as the worst menace, and targeted for Final Solution (deportation being deemed unfeasible from the start). Arabs may be either regarded as fundamentally equivalent to Blacks, or the ladder below Slavs, and treated accordingly. Jews are deemed and treated the same level as Arabs, whichever it is.
c) He remains as fundamentally and radically anti-Communist as IOTL, but his plans for Russians change according to the above. He is interested in destroying Soviet Russia and remodeling European Russia as a vassal, if at all possible, but the deal being given to natives is to vary according to racial views of Slavs (either a deal slightly or significantly worse that the one of other Europeans). However, he's fundamentally uninterested in any major colonization of European Russia.
From 1923 to 1940, he gradually comes to share this view and he adjusts his plans and actions, as well as Nazi doctrines, accordingly.
How is course and outcome of *WWII going to change with this PoD, in your opinion ? IMO this would be a frighteningly effective way for Nazism to score a major long-term victory.
The PoD would require Hitler to lose his landbound geopolitical tunnel vision, and believe/deem that a total land and aeronaval war against Britain and France could and should be completely won necessarily before Germany would turn against Soviet Russia, if any, and so believe that Africa and the Middle East could be won for Lebenstraum. A major revision, but doable IMO. A strongly, explicit Pan-(Western)-European version of Nazism that on a European level becomes as outspokenly inclusive as Communism IMO only slightly emphasizes or changes OTL Hitler's views and Nazi doctrines, so it's easily done. As it concerns the shift about Slavs, it would be a consequence of the change in Lebenstraum focus.