"Yesterday's future" by Harry Mulisch

[Max Sinister]

In the 1990s, or maybe the early 2000s, I discovered the book - must've been after it was translated into German in 1995.

The Dutch original is called "De toekomst van gisteren". It's a strange book: although the author put ten years of work into it, he never finished it - if you take a look at his ideas, you may understand why. It's really not the easiest topic after all. Because as said, Nazi Germany wins WW2.

The rough plot Mulisch thought up works like this: The plot of July 20th seems to have worked, Hitler is dead, leading nazis like Himmler and Heydrich (OK, so we have a PoD in 1942 or earlier, not 1944) are in prison. New president Ludwig Beck contacts the western Allies and not only makes a separate peace with them (so they broke their promise to Stalin not to do that, but maybe Mulisch didn't know about that), but even gets some nukes to fight the Soviet Union so the Anglos won't have to do that.

It both works (the Soviet Union is defeated indeed) and backfires spectacularly: Not too long after the Soviet Union's knocked out, Himmler and Heydrich are broken out and take over Germany. In the resulting chaos, hundreds of thousands of war-weary Allied soldiers become prisoners of war. There's an uprising of British Nazis as well, who hang Churchill at a gas station. Then, there's even a Nazi revolution in THE US, and new führer Himmler sends troops to make sure the US will become his satellite.

Around that time, Himmler dies under suspicious circumstances, and Heydrich becomes third führer, who else. In this situation, a Dutchman tries to assassinate him. It doesn't work and makes things worse: Heydrich survives, only loses his right arm, and the Dutchman is caught. So Heydrich makes two orders: First, the Nazi salute has to be done with the left arm from now on; and second, the Dutch - yes, all of them - are declared untermenschen and have to wear yellow clog stickers.

Some decades pass. The Nazis have murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and Slavs. And Dutch too, as it seems. The original Netherlands are settled by Germans now, Amsterdam was renamed to "Rembrandt-Stadt" e.g. The surviving Dutch were deported to the General Government, which is meanwhile "cleansed" of Poles. Warsaw was renamed "Amsterdam at the Vistula" e.g. And the last Dutch are discussing whether they should try to fully assimilate, giving up their language and culture, to be accepted by the Germans.

In this situation, we learn that Heydrich has died and a Konrad Bayer has become new führer. Who makes a speech promising that not only will the "experiments" on humans not be stopped, but if necessary, even his own body shouldn't be taboo...

Yes, really makes you fear to think what'll happen next in this world.

[stevep]

Sept 7, 2022 23:11:58 GMT Max Sinister said:

In the 1990s, or maybe the early 2000s, I discovered the book - must've been after it was translated into German in 1995.

The Dutch original is called "De toekomst van gisteren". It's a strange book: although the author put ten years of work into it, he never finished it - if you take a look at his ideas, you may understand why. It's really not the easiest topic after all. Because as said, Nazi Germany wins WW2.

The rough plot Mulisch thought up works like this: The plot of July 20th seems to have worked, Hitler is dead, leading nazis like Himmler and Heydrich (OK, so we have a PoD in 1942 or earlier, not 1944) are in prison. New president Ludwig Beck contacts the western Allies and not only makes a separate peace with them (so they broke their promise to Stalin not to do that, but maybe Mulisch didn't know about that), but even gets some nukes to fight the Soviet Union so the Anglos won't have to do that.

It both works (the Soviet Union is defeated indeed) and backfires spectacularly: Not too long after the Soviet Union's knocked out, Himmler and Heydrich are broken out and take over Germany. In the resulting chaos, hundreds of thousands of war-weary Allied soldiers become prisoners of war. There's an uprising of British Nazis as well, who hang Churchill at a gas station. Then, there's even a Nazi revolution in THE US, and new führer Himmler sends troops to make sure the US will become his satellite.

Around that time, Himmler dies under suspicious circumstances, and Heydrich becomes third führer, who else. In this situation, a Dutchman tries to assassinate him. It doesn't work and makes things worse: Heydrich survives, only loses his right arm, and the Dutchman is caught. So Heydrich makes two orders: First, the Nazi salute has to be done with the left arm from now on; and second, the Dutch - yes, all of them - are declared untermenschen and have to wear yellow clog stickers.

Some decades pass. The Nazis have murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and Slavs. And Dutch too, as it seems. The original Netherlands are settled by Germans now, Amsterdam was renamed to "Rembrandt-Stadt" e.g. The surviving Dutch were deported to the General Government, which is meanwhile "cleansed" of Poles. Warsaw was renamed "Amsterdam at the Vistula" e.g. And the last Dutch are discussing whether they should try to fully assimilate, giving up their language and culture, to be accepted by the Germans.

In this situation, we learn that Heydrich has died and a Konrad Bayer has become new führer. Who makes a speech promising that not only will the "experiments" on humans not be stopped, but if necessary, even his own body shouldn't be taboo...

Yes, really makes you fear to think what'll happen next in this world.

Sept 7, 2022 23:11:58 GMT Max Sinister said:

work

Sept 7, 2022 23:11:58 GMT Max Sinister said:

The Dutch original is called "De toekomst van gisteren". It's a strange book: although the author put ten years of work into it, he never finished it - if you take a look at his ideas, you may understand why. It's really not the easiest topic after all. Because as said, Nazi Germany wins WW2.

Sept 7, 2022 23:11:58 GMT Max Sinister said:

contacts

  Something funny with the formatting above? 

  That seems to set a new low for AH.  Or at least gives a challenge to Dragon Strike.

  Assuming that the allies have landed in Normandy - which was the immediate prompt for the OTL July plot - and other things have gone as normal I can't see the western allies making a separate peace, simply because its not in their own interests.  At the very least I would suspect they would insist on all western Europe being liberated from Nazi rule, which would release a lot of German manpower but also reduce their resources.  Which would make a German attempt to regain control of those areas when Himmler suddenly regains power - which would be very difficult given he's likely to suffer a fatal case of lead poisoning as soon as the military gain control - pretty much impossible especially since the Germans would be fighting and probably losing a savage battle on the eastern front.  No way in hell would the allies give the Nazis nukes - which they won't have for another year anyway or the capacity to deliver such heavy weapons.  Not to mention as soon as Himmler gains power that breaks all the agreements so the allies nuke Germany.

  Then there are those mad pro-Nazi coups in the UK and US.  Utterly insane.

 

[Max Sinister]

Maybe those are the reasons Mulisch didn't write the book at the end. And I have no idea either how to pull this off. Because the nazis put everyone so much in awe that they can't do anything but fall over?