Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II

Central themes and motifs

In terms of tone, the concept of a victory usually creates a background of depressing melancholy, audiences seeing plots unformed in a dark, strained atmosphere. Examples of writers using this device include Philip K. Dick, Stephen Fry, Robert Harris, and Philip Roth among many others.^[1]

Early depictions

Swastika Night, authored by Katherine Burdekin under the pseudonym "Murray Constantine" in 1937, is a unique case given that it came out before World War II began. Strictly speaking, it deserves to be considered a novel of future history rather than an "alternative" one - as at the time of writing, it did not depict a "might have been" but a potential future actually facing the writer and readers. Writing in 2009 for The Guardian, journalist Darragh McManus remarked that "[t]hough a huge leap of imagination, Swastika Night posits a terrifyingly coherent and plausible" story-line. He also wrote, "And considering when it was published, and how little of what we know of the Nazi regime today was then understood, the novel is eerily prophetic and perceptive about the nature of Nazism". The journalist particularly noted the "violence and mindlessness" as well as the "irrationality and superstition" found in the post-victory dictatorship.^[5]

The first Nazi-victory 'alternate history' as such, in any language, was published in 1945 months after Hitler's suicide and written by the Hungarian author Laszlo Gaspar.^[1] Titled We, Adolf I (Adolf the First), the novel envisions German success after fighting in Stalingrad eventually leading to the victorious Hitler crowning himself a new modern 'Emperor'. Erecting in Berlin a huge Imperial Palace incorporating elements of the French Eiffel Tower and the U.S. Statue of Liberty among other spectacles, the narcissistic despot prepares a dynastic marriage with a Japanese princess in order to produce an heir who would rule the whole world.

Often known in English by the title The Last Jew, the Hebrew work Ha-Yehudi Ha'Aharon (היהודי האחרון) by the Revisionist Zionist physician and political activist Jacob Weinshall came out in Tel Aviv 1946. In it, hundreds of years in the future, a completely Nazi-dominated world ruled by a "League of Dictators" discovers a last surviving Jew hiding in Madagascar. The Nazi rulers plan to publicly execute this last Jew during the forthcoming Olympic Games. However, before this can take place, the Moon moves close to the Earth as a result of the Nazis' misguided attempt to colonize it. The catastrophe causing the end of human civilization and thus of Nazi rule. Weinshall's Hebrew text, as of 2000, has never received a full, formal translation into other languages.^[7] The novel should not be confused with Yoram Kaniuk's novel The Last Jew, which has been translated to English.^[8]

The work Peace in Our Time explored a fascist-dominated London and the deleterious effects of occupation on regular people. English playwright Noël Coward, whose name appeared on a Gestapo arrest list in the event of a ground invasion of the UK, authored the drama, and it received its stage debut in 1947. Although facing a muted response at first, lingering interest in Coward's work as well as the specific themes of Peace in Our Time have meant that subsequent productions have gone on, even into the 21st century.^[6]

Later depictions

Additional notable depictions of Axis victory include:

Literature

The World under the victorious Axis in the novel The Man in the High Castle.

• Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin (1937)
• The Sound of His Horn by Sarban (1952)
• "Living Space" by Isaac Asimov (1956)
• The Big Time by Fritz Leiber (1957)
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (1962)
• The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad (1972) depicts a science fiction/fantasy allegory of a Nazi victory
• The Ultimate Solution by Eric Norden (1973)
• SS-GB by Len Deighton (1978)
• The Divide by William Overgard (1980)
• The Bush Soldiers by John Hooker (1984)
• The Proteus Operation by James P. Hogan (1985)
• "Thor Meets Captain America" by David Brin (1986)
• Budspy by David Dvorkin (1987)
• "The Last Article" by Harry Turtledove (1988)
• Clash of Eagles by Leo Rutman (1990)
• Timewyrm: Exodus (Doctor Who novel) by Terrance Dicks (1991)
• Fatherland, by Robert Harris (1992)
• '48 by James Herbert (1996)
• Attentatet i Pålsjö skog by Hans Alfredson (1996)
• Making History by Stephen Fry (1996)
• Against the Day by Michael Cronin (1999)
• After Dachau by Daniel Quinn (2001)
• Collaborator by Murray Davies (2003)
• In the Presence of Mine Enemies by Harry Turtledove (2003, the first 21 pages were originally a short story published in 1992)
• Mobius Dick by Andrew Crumey (2004)
• The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2004)
• Warlords of Utopia by Lance Parkin (2004)
• Farthing, Ha'penny, and Half a Crown, series by Jo Walton (2006–2008)
• Resistance by Owen Sheers (2007)
• "The Conquistador's Hat" by John Maddox Roberts (2011)
• Dominion by C. J. Sansom (2012)
• A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin (2014)
• The Madagaskar Plan by Guy Saville (2015)

Counterfactual scenarios are also written as a form of academic paper rather than necessarily as fiction and/or novel-length fiction. For example, Greenhill's Alternate Decisions is an entire series written by military historians, academics, and officers without any pretense at the novelistic suspension-of-disbelief.

Television

This map depicts the occupied U.S. described in the television series The Man in the High Castle.

• The Other Man (1964)
• An Englishman's Castle (1978)
• Star Trek: The Original Series: "The City on the Edge of Forever" (1967)
• Star Trek: Enterprise: "Zero Hour"/"Storm Front" (2004)
• The Man in the High Castle (2015–present), an Amazon Studios series based on the 1962 novel.
• SS-GB (2017), a BBC miniseries based on the 1978 novel.
• "Crisis on Earth-X" (2017), four-part crossover episode of Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow.