Nazis: The Ultimate Evil Antagonists

Let’s face it, if a Hollywood screenwriter had made up the Nazis they would not seem very believable. From the black uniforms with matching death’s head, to the cruel technical efficiency of their killing, they seem like the ultimate make-believe villain. The fact that the Nazis were real is what makes them so terrifyingly fascinating and why I decided to make them the central antagonists in my book.

While I’ve been interested in history for all my life it is military history which really captures my imagination. The bookshelves of my office are lined with books, models, and artifacts ranging from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War and pretty much everything in between. During the time periods I’ve studied there have been some terrible leaders, committing horrible atrocities, but none really rises to the level of efficient, cold-blooded ruthlessness of the Nazis.

Using the Nazis as a story’s antagonist is a little bit of a cheat. A writer doesn’t have to explain to the reader how evil these people are – it’s already a given. Because of this a writer can spend more time crafting the story around a reader’s preconceived notions of characters who are Nazis. A writer can also spin those preconceptions on their head to help with the story as well.

Many people are not aware, or simply forget, that Nazi Party ideologies were once accepted by a large portion of the American population. The German American Bund, which was a pro-Nazi American organization, held a huge rally at Madison Square Garden, New York City, in 1939, attended by 20,000 people. However, no matter how much the Bund tried to sugarcoat their rhetoric, they were inveterate anti-Semites to the core, and espoused many other views which stood in stark contrast to American values.

The premise of the Nazi Party ruling America may seem farfetched, but as any student of World War Two history know, the Allied victory was never a sure thing. Without some incredible blunders by Adolf Hitler, as well as the might and will of the Allies, things may have been very different. This is what makes the Nazis such great antagonists and the perfect subject for “what if” stories.

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