MovieChat Forums > The Man in the High Castle (2015) Discussion > What other Nazis should be characters?

What other Nazis should be characters?


Goebbles--Competition for Himmler in upcoming power struggles.

Mengele--Studies the phenomenon of universe switching from the biological point of view and does elaborate and unpleasant experiments to find out what makes people capable of doing it different from others.

Eichmann--When he's hanged in our world, his counterpart in the show begins traveling back and forth. He becomes a sort of evil version of the Man in the High Castle.

Alfred Rosenberg--Definately not Jewish, despite his name. An influential Nazi philosopher and ideologue. I'd have him as the head of the Nazi pseudo-religion.

George Lincoln Rockwell--Founder of American Nazi Party in our world and an airport in the show is named for him. He should be the puppet President of the North American Reich.

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Amon Goeth
And Julius Streicher
Also, Josef Mengele and it's a shame they didn't mention Rudolf Hess

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The fact that Goebbels is still alive should be a logical point for conflict on the show since Himmler seems to have assumed power at the end of the second season and in real life Goebbels hated Himmler.

Including Eichmann in the way you suggest would be brilliant; I'd forgotten that his real life execution (June 1, 1962) coincides very nicely with the timeline of the show.

If Rosenberg was to be on the show, I'd think that his real life status as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (which would have been a very powerful position if Germany had actually won the war) could be an interesting jumping off point for setting up a plot about a potential geographic break-up of the Reich by declaring the territory under his control independent of the Berlin regime in the wake of Hitler's death.

Of the others you mention, Rockwell would probably add the most depth to the meta-narrative about collaboration and resistance, because the show has been surprisingly weak on exploring the collaborationist civilian side of the American Nazi regime.

I'd also suggest Albert Speer and/or Baldur von Schirach. They are some of the most prominent Nazis discussed in the book (the Japanese were hoping for one of them or Goering to come out on top in the power struggle, IIRC), but they have not even been mentioned on the show as far as I can remember. Speer or von Schirach could play a similar role as in the book -- representing a more openly accommodationist faction within the Nazi hierarchy.

There's also the interesting question of what happened to Rudolf Hess in this timeline. Since he hasn't been mentioned at all, we might assume that he's dead, but various justifications could be given for why he's on the periphery rather than in Berlin.

For a deep cut that also adds what could be a very good role for a middle-aged actress, how about Hanna Reitsch or Karin Magnussen either in scientific/technical positions or having gone into politics?

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