I Became Stalin?! - Chapter 194:

Chapter 194

After the atomic bombs were dropped on Germany and Japan, the high-ranking officials of each regime chose different endings.

Some had no choice.

“Goebbels is nowhere to be found. He must have… died in the nuclear explosion.”

“He was the one who deserved to be dragged out and hanged… What a pity.”

A considerable number of the top brass were reduced to ashes by the nuclear bomb that fell on the capital. Was it true that they meant what they said, ‘We will die together’?

The Soviet army and the Jewish organization burning with revenge gave up on tracking Goebbels when they found what was presumed to be the wreckage of his official car near the epicenter.

His wife, Magda Goebbels, also left a will and committed suicide with her six children.

The Soviet’s strategic bombing had left the propaganda minister’s house without gasoline, so they could not cremate their bodies completely. The Soviet army barely recovered their corpses.

But most of the Nazi elites were captured alive. Unlike Tokyo, only one atomic bomb fell on Berlin, and only the city center was destroyed, so most of them who had mansions in the outskirts survived.

The war criminals who were brought to the International Military Tribunal set up in Nuremberg looked pale.

“So this is how the German Empire ended…”

“…”

“The German nation! The Germans! The beautiful cultural heritage and civilization of Germany!”

“Shut up!”

The Soviet guard shouted with a grim expression, and Goering clenched his teeth with a displeased look.

He was the representative of the war criminals here. When Hitler was alive, Goering was practically the second-in-command of the empire, and he still had considerable power even after Walter Model was appointed as the president.

“I am proud. I did my best for the German nation and people, and the Germans will also appreciate my dedication to my country.”

He insisted that he was innocent with confidence.

Of course, the chief judges, Iota Nikitchenko of the Soviet Union and Francis Biddle of the United States, looked at him with contempt.

“What was your position in Nazi Germany?”

“Me? Are you talking about me? I was the second-in-command of the empire! The Führer had the absolute authority, but I was his right-hand man, and the people followed me more than him, who was like a god in the clouds.”

Snort, the Soviet judge could not help but laugh and then looked at him sternly.

“Do you admit to conspiring against peace and planning and executing a war of aggression?”

“Ha! A war of aggression. A crime against peace? Is that how you describe my actions? The nation and the people are tempered by steel. Butter and lard make people… weak and fat.”

Goering straightened his chest and laid out his argument. As if he knew this was his last speech.

But there were not many listeners to his words. The prosecutors and judges who glared at him with cold eyes and sneered. And the war criminals who were resigned and brought along. There was only one German secretary who was thin and pale, so Goering spoke to him as if he was giving a speech, with a theatrical tone.

“In 50 or 60 years, there will be statues of Hermann Goering all over Germany! Well, maybe not statues, but at least portraits of me and the Führer will be hung.”

“Puhuhuhu… Ahem.”

The Soviet judge who laughed again was glared at by Goering as if he was annoyed. Even the Soviet prosecutor who had a cold expression all along had his face twisted into a smile-like frown, as if Goering was wondering what was going on.

The Soviet judge nodded to the American judge as if to ask for permission, and then explained in a very solemn voice.

“The defendant’s claim is understandable in this court, but… there is one flaw in the defendant’s claim.”

“What is it?”

“Germany as a nation no longer exists. The original German state will be divided into three countries.”

!!!

The war criminals who were locked up in prison and did not receive proper information from the outside all opened their eyes wide and looked shocked.

“What… what did you say?”

“Your Honor, may I give some more explanation?”

“Please do.”

The Soviet judge Nikitchenko, who had a cruel smile, pronounced the future of Germany, which the war criminals had loved so much.

“It has already been decided, but since you may not have known, I will tell you. The territory of the former German state east of the Oder-Neisse line will be ceded to the newly established Polish Republic. Alsace-Lorraine and Saarland will be ceded to France…”

The war criminals who heard that Germany would be divided into three parts turned pale.

“Oh my God…”

With a short comment from someone, the judges declared a recess.

***

“What kind of sentence do you think is appropriate for these criminals from the US side?”

“Um… well…”

The trial was half a formality.

The evidence was mostly there.

The testimonies were so solid that they could not be overturned.

Now, based on that evidence, the verdict was to be decided by the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.

He looked rather gruff, but Iota Nikitchenko looked at the US judge with a keen face and waited for the US side to propose a sentence.

The US judge frowned slightly at his intimidating gaze, but checked the treatment of each war criminal one by one.

“Hermann Goering, death. Alfred Jodl, death. Joachim von Ribbentrop, death…”

Death, death, death, 20 years, life, 10 years, death… ‘Missing.’

The Soviet judge nodded as he looked at the list that was quickly written down.

He had already received an order from the top.

‘We’ve got the big fish anyway. Respect the US side’s opinion as much as possible and make a verdict.’

‘To respect as much as possible’ was no different from saying to follow exactly. At least in the Soviet Union, that was the case.

When the order came down to respect the prosecutor’s opinion, they followed the prosecutor’s sentence.

Even if they said to respect the judge’s autonomy, it was better to follow the sentence in most cases.

Especially if the order came from the Kremlin.

Stalin, the secretary-general, thought of revenge on the war criminals as nothing but a means. In his chessboard, those who once dominated the superpower were also pawns.

“Very good. We have no objection to this. Indeed, the Americans are reasonable.”

“Ha ha, thank… you.”

The American judge laughed nervously at the awkwardly uttered words. The Soviets had a tendency to act overly friendly when they saw the Americans these days.

“However… in the case of this person, there is no need to sentence him to death. We think it would be better to reduce his sentence to 30 years or life imprisonment.”

“Yes??? This person…?”

“Ha ha ha, well… you might be surprised, but this person did not participate much in the war crimes themselves, so we think we can avoid the controversy that we are unfairly punishing the victorious countries…”

‘The secretary-general ordered it. Why?’

The American judge frowned and looked at the name that the Soviet judge’s finger pointed to.

“Walter Model… the commander-in-chief…”

“He was appointed only at the end of the war, and as a field commander or a commander-in-chief, he had nothing to do with the war crimes charges of massacring the Soviets. We think that 30 years of forced labor in Siberia would be enough.”

“Um… okay.”

The American side accepted all the proposals, and there was no reason not to give up that one person.

They just wondered what the motive was.

The Soviet judge waited for the American side’s response with a friendly smile.

“Good. We will follow the Soviet side’s opinion on this point.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

In fact, they didn’t even know whether Hitler, the biggest war criminal, was alive or dead, so what good would it do to catch a few small fry?

The American judge nodded his head, making excuses for himself.

Hitler and his personal secretary Martin Bormann could not be found in Berlin.

Some claimed that they had escaped Berlin early and fled somewhere.

More optimistic people cautiously speculated that they might have been buried under the underground bunker.

In the United States, the anti-Nazi activists of Jewish descent, who were enraged by the tragedy of their slaughtered compatriots, were raging and acting as if they would grind all the Germans, especially the Nazis.

‘If only I could catch Hitler and hang him…’

The Soviets must have been burning with revenge, too.

They must have been the ones who were most desperately looking for Hitler.

Japan was so thoroughly and ruthlessly trampled that the key war criminal Hirohito, who had to be executed, died, so they had to execute Hitler at least to show their victory.

The judge Beadle felt a bit regretful.

If he, as the American representative, sentenced Hitler to death and the scene was broadcast on TV, he would be known nationwide.

Then he might have been able to enter politics based on his fame. But people knew Hitler or Goebbels, but they didn’t know much about the small ones like Goering or Himmler.

They didn’t even know what it meant to execute them instead of killing them.

“Anyway, good. Let’s continue the trial.”

***

A similar trial was going on in Japan.

Of course, the situation in Japan was a bit different.

[For the sin of failing to protect His Majesty the Emperor, I will repay with death.]

[I will follow him who went first and become the spirit of the empire. Long live the Great Japanese Empire!]

The survivors, who knew of the emperor’s death, committed suicide sooner or later.

Except for Tojo Hideki, who declared his surrender to the Soviet Union and the United States and waited for death, saying that he was the chief culprit, not a few people killed themselves by cutting their stomachs, hanging their necks, drinking poison, or shooting their heads.

Of course, the Chinese, Americans, and Dutch, who were the victims of Japan’s horrific massacre, were furious, but they soon shut their mouths when a more appetizing punishment came up.

“What will you do with the emperor?”

Zaranov, who was sent as the Soviet representative to the ‘Far East Military Tribunal to Solve the Japanese War Crimes Problem’, threw a shocking word.

The emperor. The national body of Japan itself, and the one that many Japanese had died to protect.

Now that the emperor, who was the subject of punishment, was gone, the tribunal had discussed whether they could punish the young first prince Akihito, who was newly enthroned, at the age of 10.

But it was obvious that they could not try a child who had no responsibility for the war at such a young age.

But now the Soviet Union brought up the national body of Japan itself.

The Soviet Union agreed with the United States’ grand principle of establishing a ‘democratic country’ in Japan, and whether it would be a constitutional monarchy or a democratic republic had not been properly discussed yet.

“Can the national institution of the emperor be a subject of guilt?”

The Dutch judge asked, but the Soviet judge gave a meaningful expression.

‘If it can’t, it should be interpreted as possible.’

The representatives of other countries, who read his intention in his eyes, looked surprised.

Anyway, the two countries of the United States and the Soviet Union would have to deal with the unrest in the military administration area, but really?

But the Soviet judge’s position seemed firm.

Enough to make the American judge, who had received the order in advance, flustered.