South America 1974 (42 DR)

Reichsfuhrer Heydrich

The coup of April 20, 1964 saw the removal and execution of Albert Speer and the rise of SS Reichsfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich to the position of world leader.

Due to Speer's refusal to attack Japan over its nuclear program as well as his plans to initiate multi-party elections, Heydrich struck against the Reichs Chancellor. He found numerous allies throughout the Reich: party members afraid of losing their place in the upcoming elections; Wermacht, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine commanders sure that Speer was prepared to enact further budget cuts to the military; industrialists promised the renewal of slave labor and less government intervention. Heydrich built a coalition among these men before embarking on his daring strike for power.

Known as Operation Phoenix, the SS rounded up Speer and his closest allies the night of Germany's greatest triumph: landing an Aryan on the moon. Only Goebbels avoided imprisonment, his usefulness as a propagandist a sure asset the SS could exploit to explain the shift in power and prevent full-scale civil war. President Goering was quietly retired to his estate at Karinhall and his office fused once more with that of the chancellor which was in turn fused with that of Reichsfuhrer.

Speer would be put on trial and found guilty of betraying Germany for his refusal to strike at Japan, for his undermining of the military, and for threatening to dissolve the Party. Found guilty on all charges, he was executed and denied a state funeral, branded a traitor instead and his body cremated with the ashes scattered.

Heydrich proved an adept leader. Realizing the importance of Speer's programs and government design, he did little to upset them. The bureaucrats and technocrats continued to work smoothly under his reign, though the government increasingly found itself integrated into the SS with the requirement of a rank structure, uniforms, and swearing of allegiance to the Reichsfuhrer.

Heydrich's first act was to prepare for war with the Japanese Empire. Military leaders were saw their budgets swell as reserves were mobilized and plans made. He signed a treaty with President Vlassov offering the Russian leader the return of Siberia in exchange for his invasion of said Japanese province following the initial German strike. Vlassov readily accepted under the condition that no German soldiers would move through Russian territory and an extension of their non-aggression pact be included. Secret negotiations with India assured her neutrality in the war to come in exchange for Burma.

June 21, 1965, Heydrich initiated Operation Sunblossom. From three aircraft carriers which had covertly moved into the Pacific via Chile, the island of Honshu was struck by numerous nuclear weapons destroying key cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima. Russian forces immediately struck into Siberia surprising Imperial Troops still confused following the collapse of the Japanese High Command. German forces would strike into Western China through Central Asia and take advantage of the uprisings of the Chinese who saw the Germans as liberators. The Japanese grip on China proved tenuous despite nearly thirty years of occupation (and wiping out three-quarters of the Chinese population through their "three alls" program). The Japanese quickly lost control of the Chinese Provisional Government which proclaimed independence in September. Within three months the war was over. Sporadic fighting continued with scattered pockets of Japanese forces, especially in Southeast Asia, but the main phase of the war was finished. China would be recognized as an independent entity as would Manchukuo, Tibet, and Korea, though German industrialists were already looking for ways to penetrate the new markets. Southeast Asia (French Indochina, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Siam) remained in Japanese hands though with the collapse of authority in Japan itself, General Umezu declared a military junta under his rule. Siberia was turned over to Russia while India was informed that if they wanted Burma they would have to earn it "with their own blood." The Japanese home islands suffered greatly for the remainder of 1965. Millions died in the nuclear strikes, tens of millions more in the starvation and chaos caused by the sudden collapse in their infrastructure. The Emperor and the entire royal family were wiped out dispelling the myth of his immortality and power. The Empire of Japan was no more.

Heydrich would be noted for numerous wars during his reign including Yugoslavia, Turkey, Afghanistan, and the states of the Arabian peninsula where slaughter and bloodshed reached epic proportions as Heydrich demanded the wiping out of all untermenschen. Full scale war with Iran nearly occured following the capture and sacking of Mecca and Medina by the Wermacht. Though Iran would eventually back down, a jihad was declared and an insurgency begun though failing miserably as the native populations dwindled and the insurgents found it increasingly difficult to blend in.

Heydrich would turn his attention to other matters. The remaining untermensch in Africa, Europe, and Asia under German hegemony would be culled as factories began to move into China and Machukuo to make use of the cheap labor within. Also on the economic side, a treaty was drawn up to include all nations outlawing trade barriers, tariffs, and other boundaries to German economic dominance in the international arena. With cheap labor derived from Asia, no power could match Germany's low costs of production. No country dared resist under the threat of nuclear extinction.

Heydrich began to foster and support fascist parties abroad. Their greatest successes came in South America. Following their success in Brazil, the National Congress was dissolved and the and power centralized in the executive while Argentina and Chile ascended to membership in the Germanic Union. The National Socialist States and Confederate States of America would also see ascension to the Germanic Union. Switzerland would see an increase of funding and support for the rise of a pan-german movement aimed at the union of Switzerland to the Germanic Union. It would also see itself blockaded and pressured politically until anschluss occured in 1972 finally uniting the whole of Europe under one power. Brazil would likewise join the Germanic Union in 1972.

Brazil proved a pet project for Heydrich. A country long noted for its interracial past, the Reichsfuhrer, the SS, and the leaders of Brazil worked to turn the public against those dubbed untermenschen via a gradual series of repressive laws and edicts. Blame for economic stagnation, political instability, and more were laid at the feet of non-whites. Soon camps began to arise with the properties and assets of non-whites being transferred to the government for distribution among the whites further solidifying their support for the regime's assaults. Many close friends of Heydrich stated that the Reichfuhrer took excessive glee in watching the steady change in Brazil. Brazil would join the Germanic Union in 1974.

Through Argentina and Chile, Heydrich was able to fight proxy wars drawing numerous nations into conflict with the Reich. Chile battled Peru and Bolivia as Argentina fought Uruguay, Parauguay, and Bolivia.

In space, Heydrich ordered the construction of weapons platforms. Fearing that keeping nuclear weapons on the ground would leave them vulnerable, launch platforms were constructed in orbit as a threat to those who would challenge the almighty power of the Reich. Construction of these platforms would continue until the mid-eighties with the final warhead being shipped into space in 1987.

The Church would undergo further change as pagan ceremonies began to be introduced and Christian values were stripped out. The figure of Jesus was increasingly buried with Hitler taking far greater prominence. This would culminate in the shift of the calendar from Christian (AD) to a Reich (DR) centered numerology with year 1 being the Christian year 1932, the year that Hitler was elected president and the Third Reich established. The usage of the Christian system would only continue in the United States of America, Central and parts of South America.

Those few Jews still alive continued to hide from the all reaching hand of the SS in South America and the United States.

Heydrich would die in 1976 (44 DR) from a heart attack. At his lavish funeral, the new Reichsfuhrer proclaimed Heydrich Hitler's true successor, a valiant Aryan, and a conqueror whom Germania should worship and remember for all time.

SOURCE: Harpenau, Franz Rise of the Reichsfuhrer: Heydrich the Great

The National Socialist States of America

Though nominally under the leadership of Fritz Julius Kuhn, Occupied America found itself in the grip of Reinhard Heydrich. Far from an incompetent leader, Heydrich proved adept at building support among the American populace. Through minor concessions, intelligent planning, and the achievement of true economic results which served to stimulate the areas under his authority, Occupied America began to turn further and further away from the free states west of the Mississippi.

It was not unexpected. The situation in America had been bleak throughout the Depression. Under the Hoover and Garner administrations little economic headway had been gained. The national economy had contracted to between 25%-50% of its worth in 1929 with rampant unemployment and stagnated ever afterwards. Millions starved or sacrificed their pride and accepted government handouts. When Dewey was elected on the promise of turning the nation around, he instead pushed America into a war it was not ready for worsening an already bleak situation. Many Americans had expected to be crushed beneath the heel of Nazi oppression much like Poland, the Soviet Union, and other occupied territories. So it was with shock that most Americans discovered their situation improving throughout the fourties and fifties. Jobs were created, the hungry were fed, and the scars of war disappeared beneath an increasingly frenzied phase of reconstruction.

Heydrich had his reasons to push for a renewed America. It would serve as his powerbase in the years to come, a counterbalance to those states under his rivals in the Party. Economically it filled the coffers of the SS, that money used to bribe the proper officials in Heydrich's clandestine scheme to build enough support for his eventual coup in 1965 as well as to strengthen the SS for a possible showdown with the military. A second reason was Heydrich's desire to prove his administrative capabilities. Third, Heydrich attained numerous allies among the American population using it as a labor pool for his forces. Brilliant SS leaders would emerge from the occupied territories filling his ranks.

Of course negative repercussions arose from Heydrich's influence. A streak of racism would creep across Occupied America leading to the establishment of camps which were quickly filled with blacks, Poles, Jews, and others who did not slip across the Mississippi before the crackdown. These debilitating races were deemed responsible for the weakening of the American character and wiped from the face of her shores. America's cooperation in genocide served to cement a stronger bond between occupier and occupied and also to purge defeatist feelings as all that was weak was scapegoated; a sacrifice to regain a dark pride.

In 1954, Occupied America officially broke from the rump United States to form the National Socialist States of America. The United States recognized her independence under the terms that payment for occupation by German troops would end, reparation payments would likewise cease, and the border between the two nations would be demilitarized.

The National Socialist States of America would adopt the Reichmark as its currency and join the Economic Union. It would also include Canada which had also been occupied by Germany following the war. This new nation would be a powerful ally of Heydrich's in the years to come, its leadership personally chosen by the SS Reichsfuhrer to ensure his subtle control.

SOURCE: Arnold, Kevin The Dissolution of the United States

Albert Speer: Reich Chancellor

Albert Speer

Reich Chancellor: 30 April 1945 - 20 April 1965

Many have called Speer the most reluctant world leader to ever take the political stage. Yet that did not stop him from becoming the brilliant leader that he was.

An apolitical man, Speer was first drawn to politics at a Party rally he attended in December 1930. There, he was amazed to find himself swept up in the oratory of the Fuhrer. Speer claimed to have been quite affected, not only with Hitler's proposed solutions to the threat of Communism and his renunciation of the Treaty of Versailles, but also with the man himself. It was this attraction to Hitler that would draw Speer into the Party and up to the highest echelons of power.

Despite numerous offers during the early years of the Reich, Speer turned downed numerous posts, instead wishing to focus on the architecture that was making him famous throughout Germany. He was determined to leave a defining mark on the Reich, his obsession with his works bordering on the manic. It was only through Hitler's personal request that Speer accepted the post of Armaments Minister during the Atlantic War. In that post, Speer demonstrated an excellent ability to recognize and recruit talent, manage, and lead. It was also in this post that Speer realized the inefficient system of conflicting and overlapping offices that hindered productivity in the Reich. He would learn quickly how to overcome those who stood in his way, centralizing authority in his hands.

It was a surprise to Speer when he spoke to Hitler on the night of the Fuhrer's 56th birthday. Hitler's health was failing and he believed he could no longer fulfill the obligations of his office. Speer tried to counter Hitler's arguments, but the aged leader would hear none of it. Hitler was not bitter that his body was failing him and that his time to retire had come. The Fuhrer had returned Germany to its proper place as a world power. He had led the Reich to victories over all the western powers. Germany was whole again. His duty was done. But Hitler could not leave unless he was sure that his Reich was in proper hands. The Fuhrer had already decided to split his office back into its two former parts. Goering was to receive the office of Reich President. Hitler wanted Speer to take the office of Chancellor.

For Speer, the idea of accepting such a post was anathema to what he believed. He had only taken the post of Armaments Minister to see Germany through its war with America. He was not a politician. He was an architect. What he had seen of the political leadership sickened him. He had avoided the corruption of power thus far. To be besieged by such sycophants. Speer had been sure this meeting was Hitler's acceptance of his resignation. He had never dreamed the Fuhrer would offer him such power. But offer Hitler did. "I cannot accept your offer, my Fuhrer. I am no leader. Surely there is someone better suited for this than I."

"You say you are a builder," Hitler told Speer, that old fire rekindled in his blue eyes with Speer caught in the center of them. "What do you build for? You build for the future of the Reich. What I am offering you is the chance to shape the Reich itself. No man can understand this more than you. You are an artist. You see things others can't. You are not corrupted like everyone else. You are about the spiritual. The amorphous shape. You take from the ether and make the abstract real. You cannot deny your talents. I have watched you. Nothing is impossible when you set your mind to it. I have entrusted so many of my dreams to you." Tears shone in the Hitler's eyes as his body trembled. The frail Fuhrer put a shaking hand on Speer's shoulder. "These people need you. I need you. Do not forsake us."

As president, Goering proved more a figurehead than an all-powerful ruler. He was content to sit in the background, stepping out for grandiose state functions in glittering, gawdy outfits. He did little to impede Speer in his post as chancellor, instead wandering the vast halls of his presidential palace. But the threat to Speer's power would not come from above. It would come from below.

Speer came to discover that without allies, the system Hitler had constructed threatened to consume him. Gauleiters, Ministers, SS, and others all valued their independence, even against their ruler, battling over the pettiest things. Speer would form an alliance with Goebbels and Himmler against these men in order to push his agenda. Himmler proved quite adept at blackmailing many officials into compliance with his vast collection of data collected over the years through the Gestapo. Goebbels also served his purpose securing loyalty from the people while using his intellect to outthink many who would try to undermine Speer's authority. Goebbels was to be the public voice of the quiet, reserved Speer. Of course these men did not freely work for Speer. In exchange for the loyalty of the SS, Speer gave Himmler free reign to continue his racial policies aimed at extinguishing all untermenschen from the Reich as well as to pursue ventures like his soldier-farmer colonies in the Eastern Territories. Goebbels found himself elevated to the post of vice chancellor and President of the Reichstag as well as given free reign to begin his assault on religion, though Speer served to moderate some of Goebbel's actions in this regard.

Speer proved a practical ruler, pushing reforms throughout the Nazi system. One of his first acts was to clear the cabinet of many of Hitler's appointees and replace them with professionals. For the first time in thirteen years, the cabinet became a working organ in government. Speer would delegate his programs to these officials who in turn made his will happen. Speer was quick to clean up a vast amount of corruption in government, though the SS proved exempt from these drives. The average age of government would decrease under Speer to an average of 38. Speer had an affinity for young, driven men who focused their energies into their duties.

The educational system found itself completely overhauled. Appalled by the type of students produced under Hitler's reign, Speer curtailed many of the powers of the Hitler Youth in order to resurrect the intellectual traditions trampled by the Nazis. Many restrictive laws were relaxed allowing for greater freedoms for teachers in the classroom. Crackpot theories, political ideology, and other programs receded from the curriculum. Incentives were also created to encourage students to enter psychology and physics, now stripped of their pariah status as Jewish studies.

The economy would also see reform under Speer. He knew reparations money would not continue forever, that slave labor would only damage the economy in the long run, and that the massive military currently in existence was not necessary, especially with the nuke now in their arsenal. Demobilization was rushed through in order to cut military spending, though a sizable budget would remain. Slave labor was slowly removed from industry creating jobs for the soldiers returning home. Government was streamlined and many unnecessary projects halted, most especially Hitler's building projects though Welthauptstadt Germania would still be realized by 1964. To further encourage economic growth, Speer had an economic union established that included nearly all of Europe, Canada, and South Africa. It forged a single currency, stripped away tariffs, and allowed German business to dominate like it had never done before.

Great strides were made in agriculture boosting yields and turning the Reich into the breadbasket of the world. Advanced fertilizers, farm equipment, and more put Germany at the forefront of food production.

Germany would also establish the first space agency headed by Werner von Braun. Goals made by the agency were to launch the first artificial satellite (1955), to put a man in orbit (1958), to reach the moon (1964), to establish a lunar colony (1979), and to eventually venture out to other planets in the Solar System.

Technology and medicine would flourish during Speer's reign. He invested mass amounts of state funds into education and grants to spur technological growth, doing his best to get the greatest minds to interact with one another. The medical field made rapid gains, in part because of the use of untermenschen for experiments. The first organ transplants, human study (both physical and psychological), dissections, and more allowed for in depth understanding of the human form. Genetics were also pursued with the goal of eventually breeding out recessive genes and enhancing others.

In the shadows of this golden age, the Final Solution was ramping up. With the Jews of Europe wiped out by 1946, the SS added others to their list for extinction. This would include Slavs, Asiatics, Poles, Slovaks, Czechs, Blacks, Homosexuals, Gypsies, the insane, the handicapped, the retarded, Jews outside Europe, and others. Camps began to appear in Africa, North America, and the Eastern Occupied Territories. They would gradually eat away at the pseudo independence of the Central Asian states as well, gradually turning them into reichskommissariats. Tens of millions would die over the next two decades with the SS declaring their work done by 1963 in all German territories. It is estimated that roughly 100-150 million may have died during this period (including in the expanded territories of the European Union).

The Economic union Speer had crafted would lead to the integration of states into the Reich which created a problem for the superstate. How was Germany to deal with this influx of individuals, many of whom may not be of Aryan stock? The SS would step in, doing racial histories and deciding what groups were worthy and which were meant for the camps. One shocking development saw the southern Italians deemed subhuman as well as the Albanians. Many would flee to independent Yugoslavia to avoid the camps. Despite pressure by Himmler, Speer would not authorize an invasion of the slavic kingdom.

With Europe integrating, German influence, and thus SS influence, spread. The SS would make its presence most known in Africa where it quickly rushed to wipe out the natives or use them as slave labor in the mines. By 1963, roughly 15 million blacks remained in the whole of Africa.

Media would undergo a revolution as television emerged. Goebbels proved the most adept at realizing its full potential, using the new media as a way to assimilate many into the regime including those nations newly added to the Reich.

Nuclear power would become the beating heart for this great regime, providing energy to millions at a fraction of cost.

As to religion, Goebbel's served to bring first all German churches and finally all European churches under state control. Dogma was altered to support the state and its goals. This revisionism saw alterations to the Old Testament which stripped out Jewish cultural history and replaced it with an Aryan motif.

The population of the Reich would grow by leaps and bounds. By 1960, the estimated population of the Reich (including those European states added through the union) stood at well over 300 million.

Over the years, Speer's power grew greater and greater as he centralized his authority. One by one he removed those gauleiters against him until all that remained were allies. In full control, the chancellor would make it law that he had the right to appoint and dismiss gauleiters at will. Speer would further undermine local authorities by having all taxes paid straight to the central government which would in turn be doled out to the local governments.

When Himmler died in 1964, Heydrich became the new Reichsfuhrer and a rift began to develop in the alliance Speer had once held with the SS. Though Germany had expanded greatly, independent states still existed such as the United States and Japan not to mention South America and Australia. This angered the Reichsfuhrer who believed that Germany should use their nuclear arsenal to force the world under their hegemony. There was also the issue of open elections. Speer believed it was time to allow for a gradual return to democracy, something many in the Party feared. Speer believed it would make the government more responsive to the people and also break up the stagnating influence of a single party with no challengers. The threat of elections would force those in government to become more dynamic and competive. It would also bring fresh voices to power. But above all, what proved the most damaging to the alliance between Speer and the SS was when it was discovered that Japan was working towards a nuclear weapon. Heydrich presented this information to Speer, advising the chancellor that Japan should serve as a warning to those who would think to challenge Germany's nuclear superiority. The Reichsfuhrer suggested that they nuke every major city in Japan destroying its industrial and cultural base and rendering it incapable of challenging them in the future. Speer was horrified at the idea. The chaos that such an act would bring. The casualties alone would be in the tens of millions. Then there was the threat of destablization throughout Asia following the fall of Japan which could threaten to spill over into German lands. Speer believed dialogue would work best.

Despite warnings from all corners, Speer believed himself safe from the Reichsfuhrer's wrath. The chancellor had the support of the military, the final arbiter of power in the Reich. He had also been gradually wittling away at SS authority, Himmler's obsession with the Final Solution and his colonies blinding him to Speer's eroding of SS authority, whether it be in factory ownership, independent funding, control over the nuclear arsenal, the dismantling of the Gestapo, or the gradual demobilization of the Waffen SS with those remaining divisions being placed under Wermacht control. By the time Heydrich had come to power, the SS had been reduced to a national police force with a foreign intelligence wing. But such a force was more than enough for Reinhard.

With the strength of the SS behind him, Heydrich launched a coup on April 20, 1965.

SOURCE: Blix, Heidi The Reluctant Chancellor

The Final Solution

The Final Solution to the Jewish Question was the Nazis' plan to engage in systematic genocide against the European Jewish population. The term was coined by Adolf Hitler as “Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe.” The implementation of the Final Solution resulted in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust.

Mass killings of about one million Jews occurred before the plans of the Final Solution were fully implemented in 1942, but it was only with the decision to eradicate the entire Jewish population that the extermination camps were built and industrialized mass slaughter of Jews began in earnest. This decision to systematically kill the Jews of Europe was made by the time of, or at the Wannsee conference, which took place in Berlin, in the Wannsee Villa on January 20, 1942. During the conference, there was a discussion held by a group of German Nazi officials to decide on the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question". It is believed that German occupied Africa served as a model for the Final Solution with the embryonic death camps which arose there. Heydrich would make frequent mention to SS African activities during the conference. By spring of 1942, Operation Reinhard began the systematic extermination of the Jews, although hundreds of thousands already had been killed by death squads and in mass pogroms.

Prior to the beginning of the German-American conflict, during a speech given on March 14, 1939 (the seven year anniversary of his accession to power), Hitler foretold the coming Holocaust of European Jewry when he said:

"Today I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!"

Christian Gerlach has argued for a different timeframe, suggesting the decision was made by Hitler on December 12, 1941, when he addressed a meeting of the Nazi Party (the Reichsleiter) and of regional party leaders (the Gauleiter). In his diary entry of December 13, 1941, the day after Hitler’s private speech, Joseph Goebbels wrote:

"Regarding the Jewish question, the Führer is determined to clear the table. He warned the Jews that if they were to cause another world war, it would lead to their own destruction. Those were not empty words. Now the world war has come. The destruction of the Jews must be its necessary consequence. We cannot be sentimental about it. It is not for us to feel sympathy for the Jews. We should have sympathy rather with our own German people. If the German people have to sacrifice 160,000 victims in yet another campaign in the east, then those responsible for this bloody conflict will have to pay for it with their lives."

After this decision, plans were made to put the Final Solution into effect. For example, on December 16, at a meeting of the officials of the General Government, Hans Frank referred to Hitler's speech as he described the coming annihilation of the Jews:

"As for the Jews, well, I can tell you quite frankly that one way or another we have to put an end to them. The Führer once put it this way: if the combined forces of Judaism should again succeed in unleashing a world war, that would mean the end of the Jews in Europe. …I urge you: Stand together with me … on this idea at least: Save your sympathy for the German people alone. Don't waste it on anyone else in the world, . . . I would therefore be guided by the basic expectation that they are going to disappear. They have to be gotten rid of. At present I am involved in discussions aimed at having them moved away to the east. In January there is going to be an important meeting in Berlin to discuss this question. I am going to send State Secretary Dr. Buhler to this meeting. It is scheduled to take place in the offices of the RSHA in the presence of Obergruppenführer Heydrich. Whatever its outcome, a great Jewish emigration will commence. But what is going to happen to these Jews? Do you imagine there will be settlement villages for them in the Ostland? In Berlin we were told: Why are you making all this trouble for us? There is nothing we can do with them here in the Ostland or in the Reich Commissariat. Liquidate them yourselves! … Here are 3.5 million Jews that we can't shoot, we can't poison. But there are some things we can do, and one way or another these measures will successfully lead to a liquidation. They are related to the measures under discussion with the Reich…. Where and how this will all take place will be a matter for offices that we will have to establish and operate here. I will report to you on their operation at the appropriate time."

SOURCE: Schroeder, Eric The Fate of the Jews

SS in the Congo

January 1941 - The first SS Units arrive in Germany's African colonies. Hitler had only seized the Belgian Congo and Tanganyika for prestige, thumbing his nose at yet more untermenschen brought under the rule of the Reich. What the Fuhrer had failed to see, Heydrich and Himmler had seen plain as day. Africa was a gold mine with enough slave labor to make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Under the guise of instilling order in the Reich's new lands, Himmler quickly enforced his rights to the Dark Continent.Following the surrender of Russia, Himmler appointed Heydrich in charge of a commission to layout SS action in Africa: political, military, and commercial. What Heydrich came up with was ingenious. The SS would create a fully functioning helot state funded by the material wealth of the Congo. Heydrich would set forward a program establishing mines, camps, a transportation infrastructure, and more.

The indigenous population would not reap the benefits of Heydrich's program. Belgian colonists were lucky enough to keep possession of certain properties in the wake of their new superiors. The Kongo, Luba, Mongo, and other native tribesmen, meanwhile, saw their numbers decimated as they were literally worked to death. SS doctors would seize upon those laborers deemed unfit to work and perform numerous experiments on them including sterilization, medical training, weapons research, and more. Many SS men became infamous for keeping the skulls of native africans as trophies. The horrors that would transpire in the jungles of Africa would soon spread to other parts of the Reich.

SOURCE: World Book Encyclopedia