The Third Reich of Struggle

  Himmler was a bit excited, hastily patted his body, and with trembling hands pulled out a pack of American "Camel" cigarettes. He glanced at Li De, preparing to go outside for a smoke. Li De stopped him, indicating that he could smoke here. Himmler unexpectedly opened his mouth, and under Li De's repeated requests sat down, observing the Führer's expression while clumsily lighting the cigarette, taking a light puff.

  A long-forgotten tobacco fragrance filled his heart, and Li De silently took a few puffs, then pitied himself: as the emperor of a country, in ancient China he was high above, with all ministers kneeling and worshiping, having tasted all the beauties of the world, eating all the delicacies of the five states, yet relying on such thieving methods to satisfy his nicotine addiction. It's truly pathetic, sad, and hateful. He couldn't help but let out a long sigh, Himmler thought the Führer was bothered by his smoking smell and hurriedly went outside to smoke, Li De was even deprived of the right to smoke second-hand smoke.

  Himmler paced back and forth in the room, his eyes gleaming with intensity. Liddell fiddled with the red and blue pencils in his hand, speaking sincerely to Himmler: "My loyal Himmler, let's return to what you were saying earlier. First of all, I won't be intimidated by the enemy. But why am I becoming more cautious about dealing with the Jews? Is it for the benefit of the empire and the people, including the safety and well-being of those present here?"

  The last sentence made everyone take a cold breath. Himmler crossed his arms, gazing out the window, and Liddell also stood up, clenching his right fist to strike the air: "Why can I be the Führer while others cannot? Because I have quite accurate foresight into the development of things, their inner laws, and results. Remember my words, at this moment, the Soviet Seventh Army is launching a counterattack against the German army occupying Tikhvin, but those old die-hards don't believe it at all. I can only prove my superhuman foresight to Marshal Leeb with facts."

  "Professor, speak up." The Führer said, his mouth dry and tongue parched, waving his hand at Goebbels.

  Goebbels coughed twice, trying to avoid Himmler's gaze, and said passionately: "Please allow me a few minutes to tell the story of my foster son, Lieutenant Harold."

  ……

  After the start of Operation Barbarossa, Harrold entered the endless Soviet territory as a member of the 137th Infantry Division of Hermann Geyer's Ninth Army. Near Minsk he was ordered to stay behind and lead his engineer company in cutting wood for railway troops.

  The surroundings of Pripyat marshes are endless forests. He led more than a hundred old, weak and sick people and over a thousand local Russian civilians who were recruited to enter the dense forest. In the depths of the forest, there were also dozens of households of loggers, he first let everyone repair the small church and set up a small school. These Russians are very friendly. When Harold just entered the forest area, he encountered scattered Red Army soldiers, under the persuasion of these loggers, they laid down their weapons and became new loggers.

  Two months later, Harrod's logging crews reached over three thousand men, half of whom were captured Soviet soldiers. Lumber flowed steadily into ties and Russian broad-gauge railroads were converted to European standard gauge rails.

  Several months ago, Harrold was leading several hundred people at work when a few British Bren carriers suddenly burst in. The vehicles were packed with heavily armed and grim-faced SS troops.

  The platoon leader of a third assault company jumped agilely off the car and shouted for everyone to gather before he had even landed. His subordinates quickly dispersed, driving together the workers who were working. Some of those who moved slightly slower got kicked in the butt. A few Russian prisoners who seemed to have seen some scenes ran towards the depths of the forest with their legs lifted, and after a burst of gunfire, they fell down with a thud.

  The sudden change left Harold's mind a complete blank, and it was some time before he came to. He rushed forward, punching the SS man who still had smoke coming from his gun barrel to the ground.

  The surrounding party guards immediately pointed their submachine guns at Harold. The sappers on guard also raised their guns - all were some broken guns eliminated from the front, whose power was not much stronger than a large axe for cutting trees.

  The squad leader rushed up to Harold and raised his fist, thought for a moment, then put it down and roared viciously:

  "I'm going to find out which of these Russian swine are Jews and commissars. Do you want to cover up for the enemies of the Empire?"

  Harold glared at this arrogant guy whose military rank was no higher than his own and said word by word:

  "There are no people here like you said, only loggers who work day and night for the empire. What right do you have to shoot them?"

  "Haha, haha." The battalion commander may have encountered for the first time a low-ranking military officer of the National Defense Army who dared to block his way, and he asked challengingly: "Can you tell me who dares to obstruct the Party Guard Special Troops?"

  "Can you tell me who dared to interfere with the Führer's order to repair the railway as quickly as possible?" Harold asked sharply.

  The sergeant's Adam's apple moved but he couldn't say a word. Harold yelled at the workers who were standing like wooden chickens:

  "Ladies and gentlemen, I have workers here but no others. You can rest assured and focus on your work. All of you are doing a great job."

  The forest was once again filled with bustle and noise. The SS men strode away as they had come. The cheering workers lifted Harold up and tossed him into the air.

  The next day, Harrold paid the price for his carelessness. A first lieutenant from a shock troops battalion arrived and ordered the laborers to line up and confiscated their few broken rifles. Nearly half of the poor workers - Jews and prisoners of war - were driven away by the SS with whips, supposedly to a prisoner-of-war camp.

  Harold's workers had all disappeared without a trace. He sent out three squad leaders to search for them, but most of them returned empty-handed. He himself found some with a few old soldiers in a huge tree hole, and these Russians first thanked him, then blamed Harold for harming their compatriots. As for going back to work, they didn't even want to think about it. An elderly man told him that twenty years ago he had dealt with Germans, but now the Germans seemed different from their predecessors, "as if dew had wetted their heads". Now even you yourselves don't have any rules. For example, in the village, those wearing green uniforms reopened schools, while those wearing black clothes closed them again. Those wearing black uniforms are simply beasts, we would rather hide forever in the forest. Perhaps it won't be long before we all become guerrillas.

  Harold silently walked away after throwing some bread to the former loggers. At that time, he was indignant that his fellow villagers called these people beasts. It wasn't until a few days later - several workers discovered thousands of swollen and stinking corpses by a small stream tens of kilometers away, which were the workers who had been taken away in front of him that day.

  ……

  Himmler listened to the Reich Minister of Propaganda's speech with a poker face, lit a cigarette nonchalantly, took one puff and threw it away, seemingly unwillingly said to Lide: "Alright, I'll listen to you, what's your idea?"

  "Firstly, regarding the Jews' emigration! Our previous plan was to remove the Jews from Europe. Of course, our original plan to move the Jews to Madagascar was a pipe dream, but moving them to Asia is still feasible. For example, next year we will occupy Kazakhstan and it would be easy to find a place for the Jews in that desolate land."

  Goebbels took over: "The policy in the occupied territories must also be changed. The Minister for the Eastern Territories should also be called today."

  Lee De hastily took over the conversation, elaborating on the second issue. After the start of Operation Barbarossa, the German army achieved unprecedented results, capturing more than 3 million Soviet soldiers from June 22 to October. One often overlooked reason is that many Russians did not fight to the end. Peasants were forced into collectivization, workers who were late by three hours would be sentenced to prison, ethnic conflicts, purges, religious policies and so on, all contributed to this result.

  Lidell cut in as everyone kept looking at their watches: "In fact, Stalin is most afraid that we will take advantage of his huge political weakness, so he emphasizes the Red Army's offensive and leads the war abroad. The Soviet Interior Ministry intentionally persecutes German prisoners of war, with the goal of making the German army retaliate, but unfortunately, we fell for it. When Stalin saw our increasingly blatant racial policies, he was probably overjoyed."

  "Alright." Himmler replied gloomily. Bormann made a scribbling motion with his pen, staring at Himmler.

  Himmler glanced at Goebbels, who was standing firmly beside the Führer, and then looked at G?ring, who seemed to be thinking deeply. Whoever met his gaze quickly looked away. Himmler hesitated before speaking: "Regarding the Jews, we will focus on migration. Of course, Heydrich has drafted another plan, a more fundamental solution... it seems that won't work out. Naturally, no one can predict some relatively small-scale... cleansing."

  "As for the policy in the occupied Eastern territories, the SS will of course act in consonance with the imperial policy; I believe there can be no question about that. As for many previous questions, blame should be placed on the empire not having established a uniform policy, rather than placing all the blame on the SS."

  "No intention of blaming the SS."

  "The Party Guards are the strong fortress defending the party and the state."

  "The SS made a huge contribution to the Empire, first and foremost because it had a leader with leadership genius."

  Others bustled around to comfort him, until Himmler was embarrassed and everyone saw the sparkle behind his glasses. G?ring stretched lazily, patted his prominent belly and said to those on either side of him: "My stomach is calling."

  Everyone's opinions were surprisingly consistent.

  Lee Te's heart was filled with an indescribable sense of relief and satisfaction: originally, today was supposed to be a discussion about international issues, but unexpectedly, it led to the Jewish problem that had been keeping him up at night, and it got solved by replacing Heydrich's bloody, crazy, and inhumane "Final Solution" plan with relocation. How could he not feel exhilarated? This was what they called hitting two birds with one stone, digging a hole and finding treasure. No matter what, these people still prioritized national interests. He felt a surge of warmth flowing through his body - the leader of the Third German Empire.

  Actually, the Jewish issue is quite complicated. The Nazis' policy towards Jews could be implemented with the cooperation of local people. After the German army occupied Ukraine, only a few thousand special action teams killed tens of thousands of Jews, which would have been impossible without the cooperation of Ukrainian civilians.

  Europe originally had a tradition of anti-Semitism: Jews were first religious enemies, as people believed that Jesus was betrayed by Judas. Secondly, some Jews engaged in high-interest lending and other professions, possessing genius in finance, often arousing jealousy, "the tall tree is broken by the wind." In addition, both Jews and Gypsies did not have their own countries, living in other countries for a long time, just like distant relatives who linger at home and do not leave. When there was a lack of manpower, people needed your help; when food was scarce, people naturally disliked you, blaming everything unpleasant on you. Therefore, a country, a nation must strive to become strong. Even between husband and wife, whoever does more housework, whoever earns more money, has a higher position in the family, this is an unshakeable truth.