If the Nazi's had won WW2 and conquered England would they still be in power now?

Question

Would it have lasted? Could they have handled running the UK long term?

Would they have grown a conscience eventually?

Answer 1

Read the book Fatherland by Richard Harris - it works from the what if of Germany winning the war - it is a very good novel.

Answer 2

Had the Nazi's beaten England they would not still be in power - The Soviets were a runaway freight train. The Soviets would have overtaken all of Europe... assuming the U.S. never invaded from England.

The U.S. also came up through Italy.... would they have fought the Soviets? Who knows... Eisenhower wanted to at this point.

At any rate, the Nazis were destined to loose. England and the U.S. did not "win" WW2. The Soviet Union did. Just look at the casualties... the U.S. and England combined "only" (for lack of a better word) lost a few million. The Soviets lost somewhere between 20 and 25 million - and there were plenty more where that came from. Contrary to popular belief and open to wide debate is the fact the U.S. invaded Europe in Normandy when they did not to destroy the Nazi war machine - they were already loosing to the Soviets at this point. We invaded to check the Soviets so they would not take over all of Europe. Just look at a Post-WW2 map, the Iron Curtain (border between communism and non-communism) is almost right where the two sides (Western allies and Soviets) met during WW2.

Assuming the Nazis did win however in England, could they have ruled long term? I believe that yes, they could have... depending on how firm a grasp they kept. Underground movements would have sprung up quite frequently just as they did in France, and these movements probably would have been supplied by the U.S. and/or Soviet Union. These movements probably would have been crushed with little effort. The Nazis had well trained soldiers and servicemen, not to mention modern technology. It would probably be run as a police state under martial law - would have been extremely tough to get on or off the English island in the interest of security. Hitler probably would have remained in Berlin, which at this time is in the heart of Nazi controlled territory - no nations as enemies for 1000's of miles (assuming they did indeed beat the Soviets at Stalingrad and kept going.)

Unfortunately as history has told us about these underground resistance movements, they were definitely a thorn in the side of the Nazi war machine - but certainly not enough to end Nazi occupation. So yes, the Nazis could have kept England.

Would they have grown a conscience eventually? Under Hitler and Himmler, probably not... but eventually there may be no reason for them to have a conscience. They were well on their way to murdering all those deemed undesirable by the end of WW2... give them a few more years and almost no Jews, Gypsies, ect would have remained. Disabled people and those thought to be homosexual would probably continue to be murdered, even after Hitler was dead and gone.

Countries do reform. Would the Nazi machine have eventually reformed in to something more moderate? Difficult to say. The Soviet Union reformed itself to the extent they changed political systems and the Soviet Union collapsed. Would the Nazi's have eventually reformed? It's really difficult to say. World public oppinion has a lot to do with reform, and the world would be such a dramatically different place if the Nazis won WW2, so who knows.

I like "what if" questions.... there is a book out there I'd recommend simply called "What if." It's written by top historical scholars. Might give you an interesting read. It covers history all the way from pre-history to post-9/11

Answer 3

They would have established a puppet government controlled from Berlin. Oswald Moseley, a confirmed fascist who helped form the BUF before the outbreak of WW2 (British United Fascists) would probably have been imposed as Prime Minister and, since he was a close friend of Edward VIII ( who approved of the BUF campaign for Edward to keep his throne) the Royal family would not have developed as happened when Edward abdicated to be replaced by George V1. QE2 would not have become Queen.

Hitler was a sick man and would probably have died shortly after the end of the war. His successors may not have followed his strict regime of ethnic cleansing and we probably would not have seen the influx of immigrants to the UK.

How the question of the holocaust would have been handled is difficult to imagine -- perhaps we would not have been privy to the immensity of the crime against the Jewish population of Europe since it could have been covered up.

Would it have lasted, would they have grown a conscience? No and yes I believe are the answers but the former would have depended upon the British people and the latter upon the descendants of the German conquerors.

Answer 4

Whilst I cannot argue with what has been said previously, I wonder whether the 'what if' has been approached from the wrong direction? The interesting question is surely 'who would have succeeded Hitler'? Someone has suggested that his son would be King of England. Very unlikely as it seems that he was impotent. Indeed, would he have married Eva Braun if everything had gone well? Remember, he only finally wed her right at the end when the Russians were in the middle of Berlin. He was 56 in 1945 and already very ill because of the number and types of drugs he was taking. Say he had lived until he was 70, or to about 1960 (which I think unlikely) all his cronies would have been a similar age. One might have stepped in for a few years, but then, say by the mid 1970s, the leadership would have had to have passed to a younger, unknown to us, man. There could have been a battle over succession and the Nazi Party could well have destroyed itself. The hierarchy was held together only by its loyalty to Hitler. With him gone, who can say what might have happened?

Answer 5

Or more likely England would have finally caved and signed the peace agreement that Germany had tried many times to get them to sign. Contrary to popular belief, Hitler did not plan to take over the world, he wanted the European mainland, England was to hold onto her empire (as a anglo empire she was determined to be ok), and Japan was supposed to have Asia (all Asians were viewed as inferior anyway and not worth conquering).

Answer 6

If they had executed Unternehmen Seelowe (Operation Sealion) in June- August 1940, almost certainly they would. They would have dominated all Europe, isolated the U.S. and probably in 1941 - 1942 conquered Russia. Bear in mind that, on their own, and more importantly fighting on two fronts, they got to the gates of Moscow.Fortunately, RAF Fighter command denied them the air superiority they needed to execute Seelowe. Never, in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many.....etc.

Answer 7

Hitler had no long term plans to rule Britain. He admired the British Empire and had in fact believed in a British alliance earlier. Britain and Europe would be somewhat as depicted in Robert Harris's Fatherland.

Answer 8

Yes n Hitler's grandson will be the King of England now.

Answer 9

I personally don't think so. Hitler didn't seem like the brightest spark in the midnight sky and people would have gotten fed up with him and his 'bully-boy' tactics (as we do most 'super powers!') and someone would have eventually toppled him. Gee, do people ever learn from history? Who else would have killed their dog before killing themselves?

Answer 10

If the Nazis won world war 2 the whole world would be speaking german now