Swastika Night is yet another World War II alternative history where the Axis Powers – Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire – defeat the Allies and now occupy the defeated countries. The book takes place seven centuries after war’s conclusion, where Germany has absolute power over Europe, Jews have been eradicated, and women are consider less-than-human and are uneducated, useful only as brood mares for reproduction. History has been gradually rewritten to turn the Hitler cult-of-personality into the only acceptable religion.
The ancestors of a German Knight have documented the truths that have been rewritten: Hitler was not a true Aryan, nor seven feet tall; women were educated and participated in society; the defeated countries had unique cultures, customs and backgrounds that are no longer spoken of.
Lacking a male heir, the knight identifies an Englishman to take his family’s documentation and ensure it isn’t lost.
The book aligns with much of what we’ve learned since World War II: Lebensborn; concentration camps (for Jews, not women); cult of personality (Stalin‘s from Khruschev‘s secret speech); much more. With what we know post-war, projecting how Nazis might rule as described by Burdekin does not require a major leap of faith.
The mind-blowing shock: Burdekin wrote Swastika Night two years prior to World War II. Before the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland. When concentration camps held political prisoners and other undesirables and not (many) Jews. Before the Final Solution was decided upon in Potsdam. Before the Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Japan, and Italy. At a time when the US population heavily favored isolationism. Essentially Burdekin predicted what would happen in the years immediately following her book’s publication. Wow.
This passage about how a baby’s sex was determined initially seemed prescient:
….There may be some obscure physical reasons as to why girls are not being born in the property quantity. As von Hess says, research into sex biology was not encouraged even in his time.
Oh, why?They were afraid the biologists might prove for certain that it is the male who determines the sex of the child, and then no one can ever blame a woman for not having sons. That would be highly inconvenient. Also they were afraid that it might be established that the female, being the more complicated and developed physical machine, takes more vitality in her conception and gestation. That the female is the better sex and that with tired parents more boys are likely to be born.
DNA‘s role in inheritance was first understood in 1943 and its structure described in 1953, so I assumed that Burdekin also foretold these scientific discoveries. Unfortunately, at least for the narrative I’d prefer, the importance of X and Y chromosomes in male sperm was confirmed in 1921. Did she know of this? Unknown, but I would like to assume not!
Before the soon-to-be world war, Swastika Night might have appeared to be nothing more than pulp fiction: easily consumed and quickly forgotten. Post-war its subject matter and the unexpectedly-correct predictions provide new insights into a world just prior to European war. A quick, easy read (under 200 pages) but should engage your mind with what could have been.
