Father of France

Chapter 92 Same people but different fates

Over the past three days, the Soviet Red Army has completely occupied Berlin, and the remnants of the German army have surrendered. Helmut Weidling, commander of the Berlin defense zone, signed the surrender order.

German troops in northwestern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands surrendered to the Allies. The signing ceremony took place in the Lüneburg wasteland, and was signed by British Commander-in-Chief Montgomery on behalf of the Allies.

Czechoslovakia's Army Group Center surrendered, and a large number of deserters poured into the Allied-occupied areas. This wave of fleeing soldiers alone caused the occupying forces a great deal of trouble. The Soviet army protested to the Allied command, believing that this violated the agreement between the two sides.

The capture of Berlin did not end the chaos; on the contrary, it made things even more chaotic.

The hotel lobby was converted into a makeshift interrogation center. Goodron and her mother were separated and taken to different rooms. Before parting, Margaret suddenly grabbed her daughter's wrist and said in a voice only she could hear, "Remember who you are."

The interrogation room, formerly a hotel storage room, now contains only a wooden table and two chairs. Traces of a wine rack remain on the walls, and the air is filled with the smell of mildew and the bitter aroma of coffee.

Margaret was ordered to sit in a chair bathed in direct light, her hands flat on the table. She stared at her swollen, red hands, recalling her husband's teachings to "maintain a proud silence" when facing enemies.

The door opened, and a tall man in casual clothes walked in, carrying a folder. He was about thirty years old, with neatly combed blond hair, and looked more like a university professor. He was Alan's translator.

In the separate interrogation room, Alan was interrogating Himmler's wife, unaware that Koeman had already taken Gudrun out to feed the chickens.

What is there to interrogate about a sixteen-year-old girl? Koeman takes Gudrun to find her father's dream, feeds a flock of chicks in the wilderness, and then recounts what has happened in Germany in the past period.

He knew that this Nazi princess was no ordinary person, and that ordinary methods could not change Gudrun Himmler's mind.

"Fate is so wondrous; in just five years, the destinies of two countries have undergone earth-shattering changes."

Koeman spoke as if he were talking to someone his own age. As for Gudrun Himmler's identity, he pretended not to know. He didn't know what his own feelings were either, but he just did it anyway.

"Your defeat in France five years ago is not comparable to Germany's defeat today." Gudrun Himmler raised his chin, mimicking his mother's condescending posture: "I want to see my mother."

“Miss, you don’t want your mother to worry, do you?” As soon as Coman said this, she felt that her words seemed a little strange, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why.

Suddenly I realized this is a famous line from a Japanese drama! Its status in film and television is comparable to, in the American TV series *San Fernando Valley*, "You're a good girl..."

Shaking off his jumbled thoughts, Koman didn't want to think about those messy things at the moment. He pointed to a wooden shed and said, "There's water inside. If you want to take a shower, lock the door and don't take too long."

"What do you want to do to me?" Gudrun Himmler asked suspiciously, his eyes filled with wariness.

"If I were to do anything to you, given our current status as occupying forces and defeated nations, it wouldn't be too much trouble," Koman said, feigning ferocity. "My patience is limited. Whether you go or not, I'll be waiting for you outside the shed. I also believe you won't run away, and you can't escape anyway."

When talking to this girl, it's best to be direct and straightforward, avoiding being overly sentimental or roundabout.

Given Gudrun Himmler's age and circumstances, anything too profound might be completely incomprehensible to the girl, and because of Himmler, few dared to deceive her.

Ten meters away in the wooden shed, Gudrun Himmler looked out through the crack in the door and saw Koman lying on a haystack, his arms behind his head as a pillow, staring blankly at the sky.

Seeing this, Gudrun Himmler breathed a sigh of relief. After hesitating for a while, he decided to take care of his personal hygiene quickly. Having fled from Berlin, it was indeed unbearable to be so dirty at the best age of his life. Soon after, the sound of water could be heard.

"You shut up." Coman, sitting on the haystack, reached into his waistband.

Less than twenty minutes later, Gudrun Himmler emerged. A few drops of water still clung to his golden hair, and his entire aura had changed.

Since their clothes were still quite dirty, Koman decided to go to where the mother and daughter had stored their luggage and ask them to change into clean clothes.

The two then went to an open-air camp for war orphans, and wherever Koman went, his efforts to rescue war orphans extended to those places.

Dozens of children of varying ages greeted Koeman, a scene that warmed Gudrun Himmler's heart. "These children deserve to be treated well."

“Indeed, the children are innocent.” Koeman thought to himself that he had even used children as human reaction armor before, but that was all he had done. He was usually quite good at taking care of war orphans, and praised himself, “I’m definitely more tolerant than you Germans, unlike the German concentration camps…”

“Those are educational institutions,” Gudrun Himmler repeated her father’s words, “allowing antisocial individuals to become useful people again through labor.” Gudrun Himmler defended the so-called concentration camps, and Himmler had told her that Dachau was a model community for reforming delinquents.

She saw with her own eyes the neat barracks and smiling prisoners—at least those who were allowed to appear in the visitor area.

"But now many photos of concentration camps have been published." Koman had seen newspapers about the concentration camps just a couple of days ago, but unfortunately he didn't keep them.

Gudrun Himmler retorted sharply, "Lies! This is your propaganda! The government says Jewish cabal groups will fabricate photos—"

"The German government also claims to be the most superior nation, capable of winning any war," Koeman retorted dismissively. "Now, doesn't the outcome of the war prove the German government was lying?"

“This shows that the Germans are not the most superior race, and their defeat is to be expected.” Gudrun Himmler replied silently. This SS princess was not at all swayed by internal strife, displaying a dogmatic style reminiscent of certain ideologies.

Koeman was also taken aback. Was this the mindset of the late-stage Socialist group? Suddenly, following this line of thought, he asked, "France won, so isn't the French the most superior race?"

“Your victory is not due to your own efforts,” Gudrun Himmler replied firmly, as if the question were rather simplistic.

"And what about the Russians? In your propaganda, Slavs are not only not associated with excellence, but are also considered inferior."

Koeman, ever the shrewd man, shifted the blame eastward, saying, "You don't mean to say that the Russians didn't win on their own, do you? You know, Germany has no excuse for the defeat on the Eastern Front."

Gudrun Himmler glared angrily at Koeman, but did not immediately refute him. The victory on the Eastern Front was decisive; Germany had given it its all and watched itself fail.

After a long pause, Gudrun Himmler finally said, "That's because your countries have tied up a large portion of Germany's military strength."

"Thank you so much for your compliment." Upon hearing that France was involved, Koeman sincerely expressed his gratitude, as if just a few minutes ago France was worthless.

"If it weren't for your opposition to the new European order, Europe wouldn't be occupied by barbaric nations like the United States and the Soviet Union," Gudrun Himmler said with a stern face, seemingly very dissatisfied with France's refusal to submit.

“Well, to be fair, you just had bad timing,” Corman replied objectively, without taking a nationalistic stance. “France has already portrayed the Gauls as their ancestors.”

The French solidarity perspective on history refers to a viewpoint that emphasizes the integration and common development of different nationalities and cultures in French history within a historical narrative.

This historical perspective holds that despite the various ethnic conflicts and conquests that France experienced throughout history, it ultimately formed a unified nation-state with diverse ethnic groups.

In the early stages of the formation of this united historical perspective in France, there were two major factions: the Gauls and the Germans.

During the Bourbon dynasty, some French scholars began to express dissatisfaction with the Germanic historical perspective. This marked the beginning of the French people's belief that the Gauls were their ancestors and their challenge to the Germanic historical view of the feudal dynasty. They argued that the Germanic people were invaders who brought great suffering to the ancestors of the French.

However, while the Bourbon dynasty existed, the struggle between the two historical factions remained confined to the common people. But by the time of the Republican movement, the voice of the Gauls had become quite significant.

The first to publicly declare that France was descended from the Gauls was the nationalism promoted by Napoleon. Although there were later restorations of the Bourbon dynasty and alternations between republic and empire, the claim that France was descended from the Gauls increasingly became the mainstream ideology.

In other words, for France to accept Germany's new European order, Germany would have had the capability to occupy France before Napoleon, in which case most French people would not object.

But at that time, even Germany didn't exist, so it was better to hope that France would destroy the Holy Roman Empire.

By the time of World War I, almost no one in France believed that France had any connection with the Germanic peoples, and that if the Germans attacked again, it would be a conflict between nations.

Koeman believes the problem is that while the Napoleonic era established France as a Latin-named country, the Napoleonic Empire was short-lived and failed to spread Latin culture throughout Europe. So what did it ultimately become?

France could not fully support the views of the Gauls and Germans, and eventually began to emphasize ethnic migration and integration, adopting a historical perspective of ethnic integration based on the Gauls as ancestors.

Koeman felt the interrogation time was almost up and was about to send Gudrun Himmler back when Alan came out of the interrogation room and was stunned by what he saw. "I'm here to identify you. What are you doing? Dating?"

“How could that be? I’m trying a new interrogation method,” Koman replied without batting an eye. “Besides, the main difficulty lies with you. The girl I’m in charge of is only a teenager. What could she possibly know? If it weren’t for her relatives, we would have thrown her to war orphans.”

(End of this chapter)