Chapter 24:

The referendum to approve the Annexation of Austria passed with a staggering 97% in favor.

With the German Military guarding every ballot box for such ballots, the 3% of brave souls who voted against it are even more amazing.

Austria had now clearly become German territory, and the Austrian Army was also incorporated into the Wehrmacht.

As most of the German Military, no longer needing to be stationed in Austria, withdrew, I was able to return to Berlin.

The Wehrmacht superiors seemed quite pleased, having gained a large number of troops from a country spanning the Alps Mountains, who were accustomed to mountain warfare.

Lieutenant General Heinz Guderian had managed the advance of the vanguard armored unit to Vienna with relative success, mobilizing even civilian gas stations and leaving behind all the tanks that broke down during the Anschluss, which had been a complete mess in terms of supplies and planning.

This achievement silenced the conservative generals who had not hidden their skeptical glances at the ‘Armor’ branch, and it further strengthened the position of Hitler, who had actively sponsored Guderian’s Armorization Policy.

The interest of young officers in the Armor branch grew significantly, and Captain Michael and I, who had built a foundation of knowledge by attending Guderian’s lectures in advance, were transferred from the infantry to the Armor branch on the recommendation… or rather, the order of Major General Model, who was a devotee of the Armorization Policy no less than Guderian.

Was ordering us, who were in the infantry branch, to attend Guderian’s lectures groundwork for this… Come to think of it, General Model is surprisingly a Korean-style ‘just do as you’re told’ type of general.

The key players of World War II were gradually taking the stage.

I finally received an invitation card from Sir Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, the host of the Kleist Group, to attend the May Meeting with my father.

-

May 1, 1938

Berlin, Northern Germany After the Annexation of Austria, all of Germany was swept up in a storm of nationalism.

The popularity of Hitler and the Nazi Party, who had achieved the Greater Germany that had been the aspiration of Germans since the days of the Kingdom of Prussia, easily covered up their dark sides, like the Beer Hall Putsch, the Night of the Long Knives, and the persecution of Jewish people.

Not only Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, but also Poland’s Danzig and Lithuania’s Memel.

The German regions that were once German territory but had been separated after the last great war were clamoring for re-unification, causing all sorts of riots and disturbances.

When Hitler declared that he would ‘liberate’ the Germans of the Sudetenland from the oppression of the Slavic Peoples (the Czechs are of Slavic descent) based on the principle of national self-determination, the Germans welcomed it with fanatical fervor.

The justification that the victorious Entente Powers of the last great war had used to tear apart the defeated Central Powers, the principle of national self-determination, became the weapon of Hitler and the Nazis 20 years later.

“Welcome, Captain Schacht. Well—don’t get your hopes up too high.”

“Thank you for the invitation, Reporter Jung. Then, I shall come in.”

Being invited to the home of a beautiful female reporter on a leisurely Sunday was a development that could make one's heart pound, but…

That feeling, even without Claudia’s words, vanished completely not even five minutes after I set foot in her home.

“Your home… is quite… um.

It shows your thorough work ethic as a reporter.”

“You can be honest and just say it’s a complete mess.”

I couldn’t help but nod at Claudia’s cool remark.

Her not-so-large home was filled with all sorts of newspapers, documents, books, newspapers, documents, photos, newspapers, documents…

Ah, my head is spinning.

I could clearly see her usual path of movement inside the house.

What I mean is, except for the path where she moves, the entire place was filled with all sorts of paper bundles and clutter.

“…Excuse me, but do you ever clean?”

“Hmm—once every two weeks?”

“…More often than I thought.”

This is the home of someone who cleans once every two weeks? When I voiced my doubt, Claudia slightly averted her gaze and corrected herself.

“My runaway conscience is poking me, so let’s just say it’s once a month.”

“…Haha…”

I sat at the table Claudia offered – half of which was piled with documents – and tried to look around, but I felt dizzy and quickly gave up.

No matter how I looked at it, this was the home of someone who only slept here, running out to work in the morning and coming back late at night.

I knew she was a very passionate workaholic from what I had seen so far, but I didn’t expect her to prove it with her home.

Wouldn’t this person have lived a good life even if she had been born in 21st Century Korea?

As I waited for a moment with such idle thoughts, she brought a bundle of documents and placed it on the table with athud.

“Here are the materials you requested on the Second Sino-Japanese War, Captain.”

“Ah, thank you.”

I began to quickly read the documents she handed me.

It wasn't strange that there was little interest in Far East Asia in Europe at this time, but even so, Germany had almost no news about the Second Sino-Japanese War.

So much so that even I had forgotten that the Second Sino-Japanese War was in full swing.

Even when I tried to look into it, no one knew anything properly, so I had to ask her.

The documents Claudia handed me contained surprisingly detailed information, from the start of the war with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, to Germany’s repeated failed attempts at mediation (the Trautmann Mediation), and all the way to the Nanjing Massacre.

“…This is… surprising. It’s been revealed to this extent, and yet there’s no mention of it in the press?”

“Well… the Republic of China is a rather old friendly nation, and the Empire of Japan is in a relationship with us, having signed the Anti-Comintern Pact.”

The Anti-Comintern Pact was an agreement signed by Germany and Imperial Japan to justify fascism under the pretext of stopping the communist Comintern.

Though it falls short of a formal treaty of alliance, it meant that Germany and Imperial Japan were already in a cooperative relationship against a common enemy, the Soviet Union.

Well, that's just on paper. Imperial Japan would later commit the madness of attacking America instead of the Soviet Union, despite the formal treaty of alliance that would be signed.

“The Nazi Regime is not so generous as to leave alone a media company that would publicize the fact that those two friendly nations are at war and that our Ministry of Foreign Affairs failed spectacularly in trying to stop it.”

I see.

It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

In Europe, war clouds are still just gathering, but in the Far East, Korea, as a colony of Japan, is already participating in World War II.

The Independence Army must also be going through a hard time, with a puppet state established in Manchuria and their sponsor, the Republic of China, reduced to a state where it’s busy just fending off Japan.

“There was someone who tried to inform Hitler about the incident in Nanjing.”

“Hitler doesn’t know about this situation either?”

“No, I heard he doesn’t. Was it John Rabe? An employee at Siemens, I heard he wrote a letter from Nanjing to Hitler.

When the letter wasn’t delivered to Hitler, he returned to Germany just a short while ago and tried to inform the press, but I heard he was dragged away by the Gestapo.”

Siemens is Germany’s top engineering company.

John Rabe… I felt like I had heard that name before. Was he the person who tried to stop Imperial Japan during the Nanjing Massacre?

I know that Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany formally formed the Axis powers after the outbreak of World War II.

It’s still a distant story, but if I don’t want to be lumped in with Imperial Japan as one of the Axis powers and get beaten up by America as an enemy of Korea, it would be good to remember any personnel who could be helpful in contacting the Republic of China.

…Just in case it could be of some help to Korea.

“Ah, and also. I heard they plan to recall Ambassador Trautmann and the military advisors soon.”

Come to think of it, there was also Falkenhausen, the head of the military advisory group in China who had a special relationship with Chiang Kai-shek.

Falkenhausen was of great help to the Republic of China in a practical sense and was respected by Chiang Kai-shek and the Republic of China.

He was a man incomparable to the likes of the enemy from within, Stilwell, whom America would later dispatch to the Republic of China.

But wait…

“…How on earth do you know all of that?”

At my question, Claudia just smiled faintly, and I was suddenly reminded of the sight I saw when I went to congratulate General Model on his promotion.

“…Don’t tell me, Ribbentrop?”

Claudia smiled implicitly at my question and quietly brought a finger to her lips.

No way, she knows this information by sweet-talking the Nazi Regime’s Minister of Foreign Affairs?

Even though Ribbentrop was criticized in his time as a liquor-salesman-turned-diplomat, I had thought that, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs who pulled off the Munich Agreement and the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, he might be a lazy-genius type of diplomat.

Is Ribbentrop a fool with a loose tongue, or is her skill that impressive?

At this point, wouldn’t the Intelligence Department want to recruit her as an agent? I had to look at her with a completely new perspective.

“…Um… That’s a bit, surprising.

Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Huhu, I’m not so inexperienced as to be a worry to you, Captain. This is our domain, after all.”

“…You’re right. My apologies.”

She didn’t ask me why I requested materials on the Second Sino-Japanese War.

She also hadn't asked about the source of the information I brought her since the first time.

And now, she had shared a piece of information that she didn't need to, a matter of national secrecy, though it could be seen as a small slip of the tongue from a high-ranking official with a past as a liquor salesman.

But still, how far could I trust her?

“You’re not about to confess, are you?”

“Pfft!”

As I was staring at her, lost in thought, she said it with a grin, and I burst out laughing.

“Hahaha, ah, well, you are a very charming person, but in a mood like this, it’s a bit hard to have such thoughts…”

I said, deliberately glancing around at the pandemonium, and Claudia put on a blatantly sulking expression.

“Oh my, even if it’s a joke, that reaction is a little hurtful.”

Ah, really now.

She just diffuses the tension like that.

Yes, I have to admit she’s a charming person.

There’s something I realized with Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow, isn’t there?

You shouldn’t trust anyone easily, but hesitating needlessly even with someone you can trust is not helpful.

Is there such a thing as a 100% safe path when engaging in resistance activities against the regime?

“…There are officers who are trying to raise a banner of revolt against the Nazi Regime.”

Claudia, who had been chuckling along with me, immediately straightened her expression at my words.

“But most of them are royalist nobles or traditional Prussian militarists. They believe that if they just oust Hitler and the Nazis, they can return Germany to the Kaiser's Empire.”

If they reinstate the Kaiser, who bears responsibility for the last great war, will the German people shout ‘long live the Kaiser’ and support a restoration of monarchy? Of course not.

The freedom of Germany, which had been forced into an unprepared democracy by the Treaty of Versailles, had to meet its demise at the hands of the Nazis before it could see the light of day.

But even so, the seeds that were sown had clearly produced change, and the populace, while they might cheer for a dictator they elected with their own hands, would not accept the rule of nobles and an emperor as a matter of course.

After all, what is most firmly establishing the Nazi’s dictatorship right now is not those nobles, not the Junkers, not the military, but the support of the German people themselves.

“I truly believe that to bring about change in this Germany, we must fix the public perception. And that is a job that must be done in the civilian sector, not by soldiers who aim for an overthrow of the regime.”

After speaking up to that point, I looked into her eyes, and her deep, blue eyes showed not a hint of wavering.

So much so that it made me think she might have been waiting for this moment.

“…I need your help. Our strength is still weak, and it might be a matter of risking our lives, but would you be able to help?”

When we first met at the Frankfurter Zeitung’s Berlin branch, she was the one who first offered a handshake, but this time, I extended my hand first.

A moment of silence flowed as I swallowed, waiting for her answer.

Claudia looked at my hand silently, took a deep breath, and then took my hand.

The smile she wore with a tense face seemed to shine, and it probably wasn't just because she was beautiful.

“Of course.

That is our domain, after all.”