Japanese planes bomb Calcutta when it is still being crushed by the weight of the Bengali famine. Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer are obsessively trying to increase war production so Germany can begin launching its vengeance weapon against Britain. The wars of resistance continue across the Balkans with continued brutality and a new resistance force emerges in Italy.
In the weeks after Goebbels' Sportpalast speech, we realize that Total War might mean an apocalyptic end for Germany, with Hitler's blessing. No wonder that some Germans are looking to end Hitler before he ends them, and what a blessing that at least one Nazi with influence on the fate of thousands of Jews turns out to have a heart and soul.
In early 1943 Nazi German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is preparing to rally the German people behind an unrestrained war - or “total war” as he puts it. It’s unclear what that means, Nazi Germany is long waging an unrestrained war, and it seems that the United Nations Alliance is now ready to do the same on Germany.
A report on the effect of strategic bombing called the 'Dehousing Paper' is spread to justify the targeting of the civilian population of Germany. In Poland, one by one, extermination camps are starting construction. This month, a new one is finished, named Belzec. Here, Jews and other minority undesirables from Poland are gassed.
The crackdown on 'undesired' ethnic populations in the Balkans continues as Mario Roatta issues 'Circular 3C'. The Germans kill 5000 German Jews in the 'Dünamünde Action', and the Japanese purge the Chinese communities of Singapore in the 'Sook Ching' massacre. Additionally, the new camp of Auschwitz Birkenau opens its doors in Poland.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an order to intern all Japanese-American citizens on the West Coast of the United States, while the Italians open up new concentration camps to deal with their ethnic enemies in the Balkans. At the same time, a large group of Jews attempts to escape Europe by boat, with disastrous consequences.
The early weeks of 1942 show how much of a global War Against Humanity this really is. People in occupied zones across the globe suffer under the boot of their tormentors. In Greece, thousands die in a famine, while repressive tactics claim the lives of many more in the Balkans. The Holocaust continues in cities and the extermination camp of Chełmno, while the Japanese army wreaks havoc in South-East Asia as they advance on Allied positions.
The Wehrmacht is deeply involved with the Nazis' War Against Humanity. They are complicit in the murder of thousands of Jews in the 'Holocaust of Bullets', and the severe treatment of Soviet Prisoners of War. In October 1941, Wehrmacht General Walther von Reichenau issues the 'Severity Order', taking away any ambiguity there may be as to the Wehrmacht's vision.
Were all German faithful Nazis? Not by a stretch, but a resounding majority approved of the Nazis, especially before the war, and again after the victory in France. Anyone that actively opposed Hitler and his gang were not only risking their life, but faced an uphill battle against public opinion. And yet... some people did.
When the Nazi German Reich invades western and northern Europe this creates a massive refugee and forced migration crisis all across Europe. In eastern Europe, The Nazis and the Soviets have already been forcing families out of their homes to be relocated, incarcerated and murdered for nine months by now.
When the Second World War breaks out, it is at first largely a war between one side of totalitarian aggressors against a portion of the democratic countries of the world defending other totalitarian states. From the first day of the war in Poland, as it already is in China, this will be a war against humanity.