Interwar Period – Widerstand (4)

March 10, 1939, Berlin, Germany train station

"Hey, Dietrich!"

"Well, look who it is. Long time no see, Clemens."

I shared a warm embrace with Clemens, whom I hadn't seen in a long time. The reunion felt wonderful, though bittersweet.

He was my comrade, my leutnant, and the friend who had taken over my company in that hellish Spanish conflict.

"Hey, how have you been?"

"Um... Let's see... Oh, I don't even know where to begin."

The Spanish Civil War was over.

The Republican faction, dominated by Soviet communists, had purged figures and anarchists who didn't align with their ideology even as the tide turned against them, ultimately fracturing into a civil war within the civil war.

Franco succeeded in defeating the divided Republican factions—split between communist and anti-communist elements—and consolidated his control over Spain.

I couldn't imagine it, but Spain must be hell right now. Franco's reign of terror and the devastation that followed reportedly made even fascists recoil in horror...

"Look here! Now I'm a captain too! Captain Clemens Fleck! You're no longer my superior officer!"

"Ah, yes. Congratulations."

While I was studying diligently at the War College and occupied with resistance activities, Clemens had apparently participated in the Spanish Civil War until its conclusion, distinguished himself as a major contributor, and been promoted to captain.

It seemed I was still far from achieving the rank of major. The German military was notoriously slow with promotions in peacetime.

Even officers with recognized talent like Manstein and Model had faced this reality—it typically took more than ten years to advance from captain to major.

"Still, it's good to be back in the homeland after so long. God, I'm sick of Spain!"

"Haha, I can imagine."

The end of the Spanish Civil War. I couldn't recall the exact date, but in original history, it had occurred after the annexation of Czechoslovakia—yet here it had ended earlier.

I honestly didn't know how much influence I'd had in Spain. However, seeing evidence that things changed through my actions gave me hope.

The early conclusion of the Spanish Civil War, and unintentionally, the seeds I'd planted with Willy Brandt in Spain were now bearing fruit...

"Hello, Captain Fleck? My name is Claudia Jung. I've heard so much about you."

Claudia, who had been watching from a distance, smiled warmly as she introduced herself, and Clemens's eyes widened.

...and her support, along with that of the social democrats, was ultimately a result of my efforts.

"Wow—what a beauty! Nice to meet you! I'm Captain Clemens Fleck! You know, you're absolutely stunning. Do you have a boyfriend?"

Good God, this man hadn't changed at all.

"Hey, idiot, what about Rafaela?"

Clemens flinched at my words, then suddenly his expression crumpled. Ah, there it was.

"That heartless woman... I was so good to her!"

Clemens suddenly began crying bitterly. What had happened? For a while, his letters had been filled with nothing but praise for Rafaela, but at some point, they'd stopped coming...

"But there's someone even better right in front of me. Plus, she has blonde hair instead of black!"

"Uh, what? Oh..."

...this wasn't worth worrying about.

Seeing Claudia's discomfort as Clemens ogled her, I couldn't take it any longer.

"But wait, how do you know Dietrich? Are you perhaps..."

"We're lovers!"

Clemens's face registered more shock than if he'd been struck by lightning.

Claudia grinned and nodded to Clemens, who stared back with a bewildered expression, and he let out a wail.

"This is insane! This eternal bachelor has a girlfriend, but I'm single!"

March 14, 1939, Neue Reichskanzlei, Berlin, Germany

Czechoslovakia's former president, Edvard Beneš, had resigned following the Munich Agreement, and his successor, Emil Hácha, arrived in Germany at Hitler's summons.

Though it was unseemly to treat the president of a sovereign nation in such a manner, Czechoslovakia—betrayed by its allies Britain and France and forced to surrender the entire Sudetenland with its powerful fortress lines—was completely defenseless against German threats.

Compared to Prague, the Czech capital as beautiful as a painting, the shabby and crude scenery of Berlin, filled with the iron-and-blood imagery of swastikas, terrified him by its very appearance.

"I must be careful... the fate of our nation rests in my hands..."

Hácha took out his heart medication with trembling hands and swallowed it. This grim-looking country was not good for someone with a weak heart.

Germany, which had presented a spectacular military parade for Neville Chamberlain during the Munich Agreement, prepared nothing for him—the president of Czechoslovakia.

Without any ceremony or explanation, they simply led him to an imposing building. Called the New Reich Chancellery, this structure had been designed by their as Minister of Armaments and War Production, Albert Speer.

Hácha frowned upon noticing that the entrance, which should normally be at the center of the building, was inconveniently positioned on the side, then stepped into the building as directed.

The moment he entered, he was overwhelmed.

"Heil Hitler!"

A long, magnificent marble corridor that seemed to stretch several hundred meters into the distance, filled with SS members raising their right hands skyward and shouting in unison, their voices echoing like thunder through the building's halls.

"Huh, huh..."

"Why are you hesitating, Mr. President? Please come in. The Führer is waiting for you."

"Ah, yes, I understand."

The old and frail President Hácha shuddered and stepped forward, feeling as if hundreds of SS officers were wielding swords rather than raising their hands.

Despair overwhelmed him, as if the scene projected Germany and Czechoslovakia's relationship—he struggled forward alone without escort while hundreds of SS officers and their reflections in the polished marble floors surrounded him.

When he finally reached the Führer's office after walking alone through the 400-meter marble corridor designed solely to intimidate and terrify visitors, President Hácha was drenched in sweat.

"Heil Hitler! Your Excellency, the President of Czechoslovakia has arrived."

Adolf Hitler waited for him, seated behind his massive desk with his hands clasped under his chin, gesturing for Hácha to approach.

Neither Göring's sinister smile beside him nor Goebbels's stern expression registered with Hácha at this moment.

Suffering from humiliation, he stumbled forward as if possessed until he reached Hitler's desk.

"Mr. President, you must make a decision for your country."

"What... what kind of decision...?"

In response to Hitler's harsh words directed at the leader of a sovereign nation, Hácha asked with cold sweat beading, and Hitler replied with a smile.

"You have no power to protect yourselves. Yet you have continued to oppress the Slovak people. Just as we Germans once liberated the oppressed Germans of the Sudetenland, we wish to liberate them as well."

"That, that's..."

Whether Hácha accepted reality or not, Hitler was merciless and said only what needed to be said.

"We will grant Slovakia freedom, and we will return the former Hungarian territory of Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary. After that, you who cannot protect yourselves—Czechoslovakia will become part of the empire as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia."

"No, this is nonsense, it's absurd... Ahhhhhhhh!"

Hácha, about to protest against Hitler who was pronouncing sentence on an intact sovereign nation, clutched his chest and collapsed, beginning to convulse.

"Hmm, I heard his heart was weak, but I didn't think it would be this severe..."

Dr. Goebbels observed the scene with a flat tone.

"The doctor's suggestion was quite effective."

When Hitler gestured dismissively as if annoyed, waiting doctors and SS members administered first aid to Hácha, forcing stimulants on him and slapping his face to revive him.

"Heh heh heh heh..."

No one present expressed concern or sympathy for the nearly dying Hácha.

"Now, can you perform your presidential duties in that condition? I'll make this easy. Sign it, Mr. President."

He barely regained consciousness, but with a pale complexion, the trembling Hácha took the document Hitler offered for his signature and read it.

The guarantee of independence that Germany had provided by removing the Sudetenland with its 3 million inhabitants from Czechoslovakia had become an agreement to divide the remaining territory into three parts.

"This is... this damned... Even if I die here, I will never sign such a humiliating pact..."

"Mr. President, Prague is such a beautiful city, isn't it?"

It was Hermann Göring who interjected into Hácha's desperate determination.

"The President surely knows about Guernica in Spain. Coincidentally, the civil war has ended and our Luftwaffe soldiers who distinguished themselves at Guernica have returned..."

The horrors of the Guernica firebombing, which had devastated an entire town, were well-known through press coverage, so Hácha was fully aware of them.

To the terrified man, Göring added with a grim smile:

"If something were to happen—if the beautiful scenery of a city like Prague were to disappear overnight—wouldn't that be a terrible shame?"

"Heh, heh heh heh..."

Hácha could only tremble with tears in the end, and when SS members, receiving Hitler's glance, grabbed his hand and forced him to sign, he fainted.

"Take proper measures so he doesn't die. If he dies needlessly, things will become troublesome."

Czechoslovakia—a sovereign Central European nation created after the Great War with support from the major powers—disappeared from the map due to their betrayal and neglect.

Ludwig Beck had urged Army Commander-in-Chief Brauchitsch to resign his position to prevent the annexation of Czechoslovakia, but Brauchitsch, compromised by his debts to Hitler, refused to act.

Hitler ultimately annexed Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became a German puppet state under the guise of liberation, and the Carpathian Ruthenian provinces were forcibly annexed after refusing Hungarian annexation.

Britain, which had praised Neville Chamberlain for bringing "peace in our time," claiming he had saved them from war, was shocked when Hitler's promise to make no further territorial claims was broken in less than six months.

While Czechoslovakia was annexed and Britain and France reeled from this reality, Hitler seized Memel from Lithuania, a weaker Eastern European country, on March 22nd before the shock had subsided.

On March 30th, finally enraged British and French politicians issued a statement guaranteeing war if Germany invaded Poland.

After Hitler's great success with the Munich Agreement, high-ranking officials and military officers who had secretly distanced themselves from the resistance began devising plans to stop Hitler in the face of the approaching threat of war.

The last chance to stop the Nazis before war began had arrived.

April 1, 1939, in front of the OKW, Berlin, Germany

To commemorate the success of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War, all German personnel dispatched to the Condor Legion gathered at the parade ground.

General Hugo Sperrle, who had commanded the Luftwaffe during my service there, Leutnant General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, who had been army commander, Richthofen, who had been a Leutnant Colonel when we first met but was now promoted to Major General.

And Major General Model, who had arranged my assignment to Berlin and was actively protecting me through Brauchitsch.

Leutnant Colonel Edmund Bechers, who had been my battalion commander, Clemens, Leutnant Egon Ross, Leutnant Karlheinz Beckermann, and Sergeant Kocher.

Though of different ranks, the comrades who had fought with blood and sweat in that wretched Spain were all gathered together and received an enthusiastic welcome from a splendid honor guard and the citizenry.

If we were to be welcomed like this as victors in an honorable war, as people living in this era, it would have been blissful to receive such recognition from an honorable government.

"I am delighted to welcome back into Germany the proud Condor Legion, who, hearing my words as Führer of the German Reich, defended liberty and justice against those communists in Spain!"

Even in this era, the Nazis, who were harsher on freedom than anyone else, claimed freedom and justice with their words.

"Your devotion proves the eternal friendship between Germany and Spain, and your sweat and blood were the very essence of Germany!"

It was ironic how the German people showed respect for the Führer's remarks.

"But there are those who envy Germany's right to reclaim what is ours. Those who dare deny Germany's rights despite Germany's long patience!"

I knew it was nonsense intellectually, but hearing that dynamic speech made me feel drawn to Hitler as well.

How could one not be affected by such oratory?

"But you must know that those weaklings dare not stop the great German flight! Germany, soaring on steel wings, will ruthlessly crush those insignificant ones, and I have no doubt that you are the vanguard!"

"Sieg Heil!"

"Heil Hitler!"

"Deutschland über Alles!"

Hitler descended after his speech to enthusiastic applause and began personally awarding medals to those who had achieved distinction in the Spanish Civil War.

Having served from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, many of my comrades were receiving high-level decorations with swords.

Hugo Sperrle, Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, Wolfram von Richthofen, Adolf Galland, Werner Mölders, and even Walter Model.

Everyone looked happy. Finally, it was my turn.

"Dietrich Schacht... Captain."

Hitler grinned at me, as if contemplating my name and rank.

"He made crucial contributions to the Battle of Brunete when he was only a leutnant. Haha... You're the only one to receive this award at the rank of an army leutnant. A promising officer for the future."

Hitler said this and hung a silver Spanish commemorative medal adorned with swords on my chest. A medal engraved with the swastika.

"Thank you!"

I responded by saluting Hitler. I should have left after that, but Hitler studied my face for a moment and sighed before speaking.

"Your father... he was a great help to me and Germany. But unfortunately, not recently."

When I wondered why this man was spending so much time on one captain, that was the reason. I felt cold sweat running down my back.

"...Will you be loyal to me and Germany? Dietrich Schacht, Captain."

"As a member of the Wehrmacht, I am loyal to Germany."

Hitler smiled at my answer, patted my shoulder, and turned away.

...But he didn't leave, instead turning back slightly, shaking his head, and asking again:

"What about me?"

Hitler's cold gaze was fixed on me.

"...Your Excellency the Führer is Germany's leader."

"Haha. Hahaha..."

Hitler smiled as if satisfied with my words and moved on to the next recipient. I was drenched in cold sweat but seemed to have passed the test.

Almost all the officers were watching me, so I had to smile awkwardly. I didn't want this kind of attention.

When I looked around, Hitler, who had made me nervous, was smiling and awarding medals in a friendly manner.

Yes, Führer, you are Germany's leader.

...For now.