What had formerly been strong national "brands" such as the French wine, Belgian chocolate, Swiss watches and banks, etc. either disappeared entirely or were simply re-branded as German products. The exports of German production were primarily consumed by trade partners in Central and Southern Africa, Asia, and South America (Mills). Boycotts of German products remained in effect for many years in North America and England. but, over time, even these barriers fell.
Most significantly, without the ability of the international community to bring any real effect to bear on the situation of the Jews in the new Germany, the eradication of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and other "undesirable" groups expanded and became a true genocide (Priest). While a European version of the American Civil-War era Underground Railroad existed to secret targeted people out of Germany, it succeeded only in rescuing a few thousand survivors over the course of the next twenty years. During that time period, more than forty-million people were killed. After the concentration camps closed in 1952 due to their significant success, Germany took to developing a very strong and quite pervasive internal policing and spying system in which virtually no German citizen was free from "monitoring." Much as Orwell had predicted for his native England, it was the German preoccupation with "cleansing" and the establishment of the Aryan super-race that led it to establish the concept of the state as Mother and Father and the Fuhrer as the ultimate patriarch (Walton). Finally, as part of an agreement with the West to lift trade restrictions and to further attempt to become a serious world-player, Germany formally ended the official killing of Jews within the German territory (but, by this time, there were so few left and none in the "open" that this concession was a minor one at best).
Hitler's own history changed dramatically after the end of the war. His health, never having been very good and being plagued by insomnia, tuberculosis, syphilis and vertigo (Kersten), Hitler spent the last few years of his life...
While he continued to rule over Germany, increasingly it was his primary confidant and aide, Himmler who made day-to-day decisions. Following his
death in 1953, Himmler became the Chancellor of Germany, leading it into the
Cold War after the secrets of the Rosenberg's had been lost not only to the Soviets but to the
Germans as well - the irony being, of course, that it was Germany's own Oppenheimer who led the
Manhattan project in America with the idea of stopping all wars that made the destruction of the Earth possible.
Anti-German sentiment remained very strong in the West and in the
Soviet Union after the end of the war. This was increased with the eventual discovery of the genocide that had been taking place since the war had begun. With the increasing levels of American outrage at the extermination of the Jews, the German absolute opposition to the creation of the Jewish state of Israel (which was successful only with the absolutist backing of the United States in the face of threats from Germany), and the rapid escalation of the Cold War, a major showdown occurred in the deserts of Lebanon and Syria with a massive American force having been deployed standing alongside the declared Israelis Germany determined that the threat of nuclear confrontation was not worth the continued aggression and backed down. The result was the securing of Israel and the establishment of the United States as the primary player.
Today, Germany has generally renounced its previously held beliefs about the
manifest destiny of the Aryan race, has become more of a world -player on the economic markets, and is seen as being a primary force in developing self-sufficient trade partners throughout the world. While the ugly past remains present in the minds of millions, it is the younger generations who have begun to shift the general impression of Germany from war-mongering expansionist imperialism to a legitimate social democratic society that takes care of its citizens.
Works Cited
Kersten, Felix. The Memoirs of Doctor Felix Kersten. Trans. Ernst Morowitz. New York: Doubleday, 1947.
Mills, Charles. If Germany Won World War II. Alexandria: Apple Cheeks Press, 1997.
Moorcock, Michael. "If Hitler Had Won World War Two..." Telegraph.co.uk 07-11 2005: 2.
Priest, Christopher. The Separation. Baltimore: Old Earth Books, 2005.
Walton, Jo. Farthing. New York: Tor Books, 2007.
