Stefan Nowak’s heart beats rapidly in his chest as he approaches the Nazi checkpoint.
Heavily armored SS soldiers check each person's papers before they are allowed to enter the
heart of the Nazi Empire.
Stefan watches in horror as a man is pulled from the line screaming.
He is thrown to the ground.
The man pleads with the Nazis to spare his life.
That the Star of David burned into his arm was just a mistake; he isn’t really Jewish.
But the Nazis don’t listen.
The commander pulls his pistol out of its holster and shoots the man in the chest.
Stefan shows no emotion as he watches the innocent man die.
He knows that if he’s going to successfully infiltrate the lands of the Third Reich, he
needs to maintain his cover.
Stefan has been working tirelessly to assume a new identity.
One that will allow him to move freely across the European continent, which is now completely
controlled by Adolf Hitler.
Before the Nazis won the war in Europe, Stefan was a resistance fighter in the Polish Army,
but now there is no war to fight.
The Nazis have full control of Europe, and Stefan only has one thing on his mind: to
find his wife and daughter before they are worked to death in a concentration camp or
executed for being related to an enemy of the Nazi State.
As the war came to an end, Stefan received word from Polish underground forces that his
wife and daughter had been taken by the Nazis and put on a train to work in one of the slave
camps somewhere in the Empire.
He immediately called in all of his favors to secure fake documents and uncover as much
information on his family’s whereabouts as possible.
The good news is he knows where to start his search.
The bad news is that the start point is in Berlin, the heart of the Nazi Empire.
Stefan reaches the front of the line.
The Nazi soldier asks for his papers.
He keeps his eyes on the ground as a sign of fear, even though he would be more than
capable of snapping the Nazi’s neck and taking out a few of his comrades in the process.
But he must remain undercover if he has any hope of locating his wife and daughter.
The soldier is quiet for a moment as he looks over the papers.
“What business do you have in the capital?”
the Nazi asks.
“I wish to give my life to the Third Reich.
I was a stonemason before the war, and I know the Fuhrer is in need of hard-working men
to complete his vision for Germania,” Stefan replies.
The Nazi grunts.
“Polish scum,” he says.
“Very well.
Continue on.”
The Nazi slams Stefan’s papers into his chest, slightly pushing him backward, and
points to where he should go.
It takes everything Stefan has not to punch the Nazi in the face, but he knows what the
consequences of such an action would be.
He continues through the checkpoint and boards a bus for Berlin.
The bus drives through the German countryside.
It looks untouched by war.
The Nazis work quickly, and it helps that they now have a gigantic pool of slave labor
to pull from in order to rebuild their roads and buildings.
Anyone who does not conform to Hitler’s vision of the Aryan Race is treated as a second-class
citizen.
Anyone belonging to ethnic minority groups, such as the Jews, are enslaved and either
worked to death or killed as a part of the Nazi’s mass genocide program.
The bus enters what was once Berlin.
The city has been transformed into Hitler’s megacity called Germania.
Everywhere Stefan looks he sees statues dedicated to Nazi leaders and generals.
Grand buildings made of marble quarried by slaves rise from the ground like mountains.
The city seemed to have popped up overnight thanks to the millions of forced laborers
Hitler and his architects had at their disposal.
The sight of swastikas and Nazi symbols on every building and street corner makes Stefan
sick.
The bus comes to a stop in the heart of the city.
Stefan gets off.
He has instructions from one of the informants in the Polish underground network to pick
up more information on the whereabouts of his family in a newly constructed housing
complex.
He heads there immediately and finds a small eagle representing the Polish coat of arms
etched into one of the stones of a building.
Stefan pushes the stone.
It moves slightly to reveal a hidden compartment.
In it is a set of papers that indicate his wife and daughter have been sent to the east.
Early in the war, the Nazis reached an agreement with the Soviet Union, saying that they would
stay out of the war in exchange for Hitler not invading their country.
Hitler had no intention of upholding his end of the bargain, but he needed the time to
focus his efforts on defeating the Allied forces in France.
Once this mission was complete, he launched Operation Sealion across the English Channel
into Britain.
The Allied forces in Britain were still recovering from the Dunkirk invasion and were no match
for the Nazi Blitzkrieg.
Britain fell soon after.
Now it’s ruled by Hermann Göring, one of Hitler’s top generals and good friends.
Göring is a monster who has turned Britain into his own private island.
He has luxury goods imported from around the Empire and throws lavished parties for his
Nazi comrades in what was once Buckingham Palace.
Resources from Britain are sent back to Germany as tribute to Hitler, but for all intents
and purposes, Göring is the new king of England.
He must do exactly what the Führer orders, but in return, he has free reign of the British
Isles and is quickly stripping them of their resources while oppressing their people.
As soon as Hitler controlled all of western Europe and defeated British military forces,
he turned his attention toward the Soviet Union.
The Nazis coordinated an attack with Japan, who struck from the west while their forces
pushed across Eastern Europe and into Russia from the opposite direction.
All Hitler really wanted was the territory up the Ural Mountains.
Eventually, he would take over the world, but this would complete the first stage of
his plan and put all of Europe under his control.
Stefan puts the stone back in its place and heads to the train station, where he purchases
a ticket for the Nazi territories in what was once the Soviet Union.
When Hitler defeated the Allies in Europe, he annexed Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.
Most of the populations in these regions conformed to his definition of what the human race should
look like.
There were resistance fighters who tried to protect the freedom of all peoples in these
nations, but they were quickly disposed of by the SS.
Now the Dutch and Scandinavian governments are puppets for Hitler to do with as he pleases.
However, the people in the former Soviet Union aren’t so lucky.
Stefan looks out the window of the train car as the lands east of Germany seem more like
hell than Earth.
The landscape has been ravaged for its resources.
Hitler had no intentions of incorporating the people of the Soviet Union into his empire.
All he wants is to use them as slave labor and harvest the oil, metal, and timber from
their land.
Stefan feels sick to his stomach as he passes ghost town after ghost town.
Buildings are in ruin from the war.
People are living in houses missing entire walls.
After days of traveling, the train jerks to a stop, and Stefan gets off.
The air is cold, but the smell of smoke fills his nose.
He looks down the road and sees the fencing of a work camp where thousands of people are
being held.
He follows the procession of new laborers that were onboard the train with him but,
at the last minute, ducks into a thick patch of bushes that sits on the edge of the tree
line.
He waits for the Nazi guards who were escorting the group to enter the camp before he starts
making his way towards the fencing.
Stefan peers into the camp.
SS and newly conscripted Russian soldiers who are sympathetic to the Nazi cause shout
orders at the workers.
Many are malnourished and are nothing but skin and bone.
Anyone who is seen by the Nazis as having an inferior bloodline or belonging to an ethnic
minority is used for slave labor.
Unfortunately, this constitutes anyone from Russia.
Stefan makes eye contact with one of the men walking toward the barracks.
The man’s face is covered in dirt; he can barely stand up straight from exhaustion.
Stefan recognizes this man.
He was a soldier in the resistance.
They had conducted a few missions together.
The former ally looks around to see if anyone is watching and then makes his way to the
fence.
“Stefan, what are you doing here?” he whispers.
“I am looking for Tonia and my daughter.
An informant told me they had been taken to this camp.”
The man’s expression becomes even more somber.
He shakes his head back and forth.
“I am so very sorry, Stefan,” he says.
“Your wife and daughter were loaded onto a transport a week ago.
The Nazis are diverting people to the coast of France as they plan for the attack on the
United States.”
Stefan’s heart breaks.
He is silent for a moment.
“How were they?
Had they been hurt by these Nazi bastards?”
“No,” the man on the other side of the fence responds.
“They were weak like all of us, but they were in relatively good health when they left.
I’m sorry, Stefan, I wish I had better—.”
Suddenly, a gunshot rings out.
The former resistance fighter’s eyes open wide.
Stefan reaches out through the fence to steady him.
Blood trickles from the man's mouth as he falls to the ground.
Stefan looks up.
Several Nazi guards are running toward him with their guns raised.
Stefan turns and sprints into the forest.
He weaves around trees, trying to put as much distance between him and the Nazi camp as
possible.
He hears the sounds of dogs barking and men shouting from behind him.
Stefan pushes his body as far as it will go.
He knows that if he is captured, his hopes of seeing his wife and child again would be
crushed.
Stefan spots a tree with thick branches and abundant foliage.
He darts towards it and leaps off the ground grabbing onto one of the branches.
He begins to climb higher and higher into the tree.
If he can hide there until the Nazis pass, he may be able to get out of this alive.
Moments later, several dogs appear.
They bark and growl as they run past the tree Stefan is hiding in.
He lets out a sigh of relief, but it’s premature.
The dogs realize they have lost his scent and backtrack towards the tree he is hiding
in.
They begin sniffing all around the area.
The Nazi soldiers catch up and begin looking for Stefan.
He closes his eyes and prays that he is not discovered.
Yelling can be heard from another part of the forest.
The Nazis turn their heads to listen.
They give new commands to the dogs, who stop sniffing around the tree and sprint towards
the sound of the shouting.
The Nazi soldiers follow.
Stefan stays in the tree for what feels like hours.
When he finally climbs down, the sun has set, and the frigid night air is quiet.
He makes his way back towards the train tracks, where he waits for a transport to pass by.
The sounds of a locomotive can be heard off in the distance.
Then a behemoth of a train comes into view.
Stefan runs out of the forest as fast as he can.
He times his jump perfectly and grabs onto one of the handles of the train.
It takes every ounce of his strength, but Stefan manages to slide the car door open
and falls into the train car.
It’s carrying supplies towards western Europe, where they will be used to launch an attack
across the Atlantic.
The clicking and clacking of the train on the tracks is like a lullaby.
Stefan doesn’t know exactly where this train is headed, but he knows that at least it’s
bringing him closer to finding his wife and child.
Stefan blacks out from exhaustion.
When he awakes, the train is still crossing the former Soviet Union.
By the angle of the sun, it seems as if it isn’t traveling due west but slightly to
the south.
This isn’t ideal, but he is relatively safe onboard the train, and he knows that it will
eventually make its way to the west coast to deliver supplies.
Several more days go by.
Stefan survives off of stores of grain that have been packed aboard the train.
Whenever it rains, he catches the precious liquid in a Nazi helmet he found in one of
the crates.
As the sun rises a week after he snuck aboard the train, an ominous sight comes into view.
In the distance, Stefan can see gigantic snow-covered peaks jutting up from the landscape.
He knows these must be the Alps.
He is now in the newly formed Roman Empire.
As the train travels through the countryside, Sefan sees a mix of Nazi and Italian soldiers
at different checkpoints.
When Hitler conquered northern Europe and the western Soviet Union, he allowed Mussolini
to control the lands that were once under the control of the Roman Empire.
However, it’s clear that Mussolini is not really in control.
In fact, he isn’t even allowed to make his own decisions.
He almost cost the Nazis the war in southern Europe, and now Hitler uses him as a figurehead
while he controls the nation.
There has been recent contention between the Italian puppet government and Hitler as the
Italians try to hold onto their Roman Catholic religion.
Hitler, on the other hand, wants to dismantle Christianity and organized religion completely.
This tension has caused the Nazis to deploy forces around the new Roman Empire to make
the transition to a State Ideology go more smoothly.
Hitler is adamant that the only allegiance and belief system anyone in his empire should
have is to him and the Nazi Party.
The train Stefan is hiding on reaches the coast of what was once Southern France.
He looks across the Mediterranean.
On the other side of these waters is Northern Africa, which is also under the control of
the Nazis.
Once the Allied forces in Europe were defeated, the Nazi army faced little to no resistance
while invading other parts of the world.
Hitler has no interest in building up infrastructure in Northern Africa, but he is incredibly interested
in its resources, especially oil.
Stefan closes his eyes and thinks about his wife and daughter.
The train has now begun to travel northwest.
Soon it will reach the western coast of Hitler’s Empire.
After the Nazis defeated Britain and the Soviet Union, Hitler turned his attention toward
Spain.
He appreciated what Francisco Franco was doing in the country, but there could only be one
dictator in Europe, and it was going to be him.
Hitler ordered his Luftwaffe to carry out bombing runs on key targets in Spain and Portugal,
followed by a series of infantry invasions.
Both countries quickly fell, and Franco’s pleas to remain the leader of Spain fell on
deaf ears.
As a sign of respect for his fellow dictator, Hitler did not execute Franco but exiled him
to South America instead.
The Nazis immediately began constructing railways through the country all the way to the Strait
of Gibraltar, where a massive fortress was created to guard the entrance to the Mediterranean.
New docks were also created to allow for easy transportation of goods and natural resources
from Africa onto mainland Europe.
Stefan feels the train begin to slow and prepares to jump off before it reaches the station.
This is no ordinary Nazi outpost; the final destination of this train is Brest in what
used to be France.
It’s from this region that Hitler will launch his aerial assault of the eastern United States.
The Brittany Penninsyla has been converted into one big airfield full of Amerika Bombers
and other long-range aircraft.
Stefan tuck and rolls off of the train right before it crosses into a heavily guarded train
yard where the supplies aboard will be offloaded.
The French countryside has been completely demolished, and in its place are factories
and airfields as far as the eye can see.
Trains and transports run constantly from Germany to the western coast of Europe as
the only real threat to Hitler’s domination of the world is the United States of America.
Many French people have been enlisted to aid in the war effort.
Their armies fell quickly after the initial invasion of the country by the Nazi Panzer
and infantry divisions.
Stefan breaks into a nearby house to steal clothing and food before setting out to locate
his wife and daughter in the various work camps in the area.
He is surprised to find a Nazi SS uniform in one of the drawers, and even though the
outfit goes against everything he stands for, he puts it on as the brown cloth with the
swastika stitched onto the arm will allow him to move more freely to search for his
family.
A belt with a holster hangs on the back of one of the doors.
In the holster is a Luger with a full clip.
Stefan knows if he has to use the pistol, it will likely be the last thing he ever does,
but having a weapon may come in handy if he runs into serious trouble.
The new reality of Hitler’s Europe is that no matter where anyone goes, there are always
concentration camps set up to provide a free source of labor.
The main group of people in the camps are Eastern Europeans and prisoners of war.
Hitler’s Empire will always need workers, so the mass extermination of people has slowed
slightly.
Hitler knows that with an almost unlimited amount of free manpower and resources pouring
in from all of his newly acquired territories, he can make any of his sick dreams a reality.
Stefan makes his way from camp to camp, careful to interact with as few Nazis as possible.
Each time he enters a new area, he tries to remain calm and conduct a thorough search
for his family.
After days of searching, Stefan feels defeated.
He knows he can’t give up, but the pain and suffering he has witnessed is enough to
drive him mad.
The individuals in each work camp are treated more like animals than people.
They are starving and overworked.
He will not give up, but with every camp he enters, he loses a little bit of himself.
Stefan is about to call it a day when he sees a young girl with her back to him.
She is holding onto the fence, looking out across a field.
Stefan slowly approaches her.
“Anna?” he whispers.
The girl turns around, tears streaming down her face.
It is his daughter.
Stefan resists every urge to wrap his arms around her, so he doesn’t look suspicious.
“Papa?”
the girl asks.
Stefan’s eyes begin to water.
“It’s me.
I am going to get you out of here, but we have to pretend we do not know each other.”
His daughter stares at him.
She can’t believe that her father is really there.
She squints as she looks at his Nazi uniform.
Stefan understands.
“It is only a disguise, my love, so that I could find you and your mother.”
He pauses for a moment to look around.
“Anna, where is your mother?”
His daughter begins to sob.
“They took her,” she manages to blurt out.
“Mamma refused to do any more work for the Nazis.
She spat in one of their faces and was taken away.
I think they’re going to kill her.”
Stefan’s eyes open wide.
“Where did they take her?” he asks.
His daughter points to the other side of the fence where she had been staring previously.
Stefan can just barely make out a group of figures standing in a straight line.
Clustered in front of them are several Nazis.
They hold their weapons by their sides, but it is clear what is about to happen.
“Come with me,” `Stefan tells his daughter.
They walk quickly towards a Jeep parked outside one of the mess halls.
Stefan holds his breath as he looks at the steering wheel.
The keys are in the ignition.
“Get in the back and cover yourself with the blanket on the seat,” he says to Anna.
She does as she's told.
Once his daughter is safely hidden, Stefan slides into the driver’s seat of the Jeep
and turns the key.
The engine roars to life.
From inside the mess hall, Stefan can hear plates clatter and voices yelling.
The sound of the engine alerts the Nazis that something is wrong.
He must get to his wife before she is executed, or he and his daughter are captured.
Stefan floors the Jeep and speeds towards the gate.
The crack of gunshots rings out behind him as the Nazis flood out of the mess hall and
open fire.
The guards at the gate raise their machine guns and shoot at the incoming vehicle.
Stefan unholsters the Luger he stole and returns fire.
He holds his breath to steady his aim and focuses.
His resistance training immediately kicks in.
He buries a round in the chest of one of the guards and sends the second diving for cover.
Stefan pushes the accelerator down so hard he feels as if his foot might go through the
floor of the Jeep.
The vehicle slams through the gate and veers down the dirt road.
Stefan turns the wheel hard and steers towards the row of prisoners who are about to be executed
in the field.
The Nazi guards watch the incoming Jeep, unsure of what is going on.
Then they see their comrades in pursuit from the work camp.
Before they can raise their guns at the Jeep, it is upon them.
Stefan hits several of the Nazi soldiers as he skids to a stop, sending the men flying
through the air.
There are now only two soldiers remaining.
They unleash a barrage of bullets into the side of the Jeep.
Stefan rolls out onto the ground.
He pops up from behind the door and returns fire.
He hits one of the Nazis in the stomach; the man falls to the ground.
Stefan turns the pistol on the second Nazi soldier.
He pulls the trigger.
But instead of firing, there is only a click.
The gun has jammed.
Stefan ducks back behind the Jeep just as the Nazi opens fire again.
The bullets ricochet off the metal frame of the vehicle.
Stefan crawls to the side of the Jeep; he waits for the Nazi to run out of bullets.
When the firing ceases and Stefan hears the soldier begin to reload, he sprints out from
behind the vehicle and runs straight toward the enemy.
He tackles the man to the ground and punches him as hard as he can in the face.
His fist connects with the Nazi’s nose, shattering it and knocking the soldier out.
Stefan pants as he regains control of his body and slows his heartbeat.
Then he hears a familiar voice.
“Stefan, is that you?”
He looks up to see his wife.
She has a shocked look on her face, but when their eyes meet, she smiles and places a hand
gently on his cheek.
“I knew you’d come,” she says.
Stefan stands and embraces her for a moment.
The shouts of the Nazi soldiers running toward them breaks the joyful moment and brings them
back to reality.
“Come on,” Stefan says, signaling to the Jeep.
Stefan, his wife, and the other prisoners who were to be executed pile into the vehicle.
Anna hugs her mother.
The Jeep drives away, leaving the Nazis in its dust.
Stefan and the escapees have a long way to go to get out of Nazi-controlled Europe, but
he is now reunited with his family, and he will do anything to make sure they get to
safety.
Now watch “Hitler's Plans for the World if He Won.”
Or check out “What If the Allies Captured Hitler Alive During WW2.”