First, as an overall statement of fact, I will note that one of my own contest teammates is, in fact, German. They offered significant input on the drafting of this tale, regarding both the usage of the German language and on overall tone and style — and they have not voiced any complaint about my portrayal of the Nazi regime. I make note of this solely to demonstrate the falsehood of assertions that I am somehow ignorant of the German perspective.
Second, you accuse me of using German words randomly, and solely as a means to evoke emotional associations with Nazism. While the use of German within this tale is done for stylistic effect, it is not random, and it is not meant to play on germanophobia. While this tale is framed as being an in-universe translation of a set of originally German documents, it was written in English for an English audience — therefore, the occasional use of German throughout the documents is done where there is no equivalent word or concept in the English language (such as with the rank of Reichsführer, a title unique to the SS), or where a literal translation would fail to convey the intended tone. For example, the use of Judenriese to refer to the Golem of Prague, instead of the literal translation of "Jew giant", is done to convey the amount of hatred and fear Obskuracorps has of the Golem — so great is their emotion that they invent a new word to use as a slur solely for the Golem, a sentiment which is lost if a literal English translation is used. Similarly, the terms Judenmagier and Kriegsmagier are respectively used to show the Obskuracorps' contempt of Kabbalists and their esteem for the Thule.
(As for the usage of Obskuracorps instead of the more correctly German spelling of Obskurakorps, that is merely a result of following the example of previous authors such as Clef, who have consistently used the term Obskuracorps. While I personally consider this a minor stylistic issue which can easily be explained away as the result of in-universe transcription errors by Anglophone organizations, if there is significant sentiment that it is a problem, I can try to get the Obskurakorps spelling standardized throughout Third Law.)
Moving on to the third point, you accuse me of portraying Nazis as mindless, faceless villains, which is a point that I find exceptionally baffling, as I took particular pains to ensure that the very human element of the Nazi's evil was readily apparent. I completely agree that it would be inappropriate to treat Nazis as inhuman monsters, and this piece was motivated at least in part as a reaction to such portrayals. The true horror of the Nazi regime lies in the very fact that they were humans, with human motives and emotions — and that despite this, they were still willing to commit (or unwilling to oppose) the industrialized genocide of millions of human beings. I have read the transcripts of the Wannsee Conference and of the post-war tribunals, and what is most striking and terrifying about them is not the lack of any genuine displays of remorse — after all, no one is a villain in their own mind — but rather the undeniable humanity of the people involved, twisted as it may be. There is no monster ever conceived by nature or human imagination that is more monstrous than a human being acting out of genuine belief in their own superiority. That is why depictions of Nazis allied with or driven by occult or inhuman forces are so problematic, and that is what I attempted to avoid here: the Obskuracorps are not allied with the occult, they are merely using the occult, just as every other organization in the Foundationverse does — in a world where magic is real and subject to scientific study, its usage will be as common and inevitable as chemistry. The Obskuracorps are ultimately still driven by the same motives as the rest of the Nazi regime, and the Rite of Solomon is merely another means through which their goals can be achieved, no different from a jet fighter or an atom bomb.
To this end, every in-universe memo writer in this tale is a distinct individual with their own motives, goals, and voices: Weiss is arrogant and self-assured, convinced of his own intelligence and superiority, and fully believing in the racial and racist ideology of the Nazi Party; Schmitz is obedient to the point of subservience, possessing and displaying little initiative of his own, but unwilling to attempt to deflect blame onto others — he practically grovels before Weiss after the Prague Incident, but still takes full responsibility for what happened, even though it could potentially earn the ire of one of the most powerful thaumaturges in the world; Boller is practically the banality of evil personified, having deluded himself into believing that he is just "following orders", to such an extent that he is able to unemotionally and offhandedly describe the atrocities of the Nazi regime as a mere sidenote in what he views as a typical military intelligence report; Wege is an archaeologist taking advantage of the opportunities presented by Obskuracorps and the war, perhaps not fully believing in the Nazi cause and rhetoric, but willing to play along to get support and funding — he is not nearly as certain as he claims about the provenance of the catacomb automaton, but acts confident anyways to curry favor with Weiss; and Himmler… obviously, he is fully committed to the Nazi cause, having helped orchestrate the Holocaust, and like his real-life counterpart, he maintains a firm belief in the occult — however, in the world of this canon, where the occult is actually real, he is cognizant enough to understand that he is out of his depth when it comes to real magic, and is more than willing to defer to Weiss' expertise, at least in private.
As you can see, the members of the Obskuracorps depicted here all have very human and personal motives, although I would not shy away from describing all of them as evil in one fashion or another. However, I understand that it is possible that these depictions — which rely in part on the connotations of some very specific word choice, and require some exegetical reading of the text — are nuances that could easily be missed by someone not as familiar with the English language as the intended audience.
Fourth, you claim I portray the Nazi regime as stupid, cartoonish buffoons. This is simply not the case, and I don't know how anyone could read this tale and think otherwise, because there is no nuance to miss here. Yes, the Obskuracorps makes mistakes and blunders, but they are all, universally, attributable to an institutional belief in the Nazi ideology, leading them to consistently overestimate their own competency and capability while underestimating the abilities of their enemies. Such a situation is readily apparent in the strategies and actions of the historical Nazi regime, where the arrogance of the Nazi leadership repeatedly led to catastrophic blunders that ultimately led to their downfall — the most obvious example of this is, of course, the ill-timed and poorly planned invasion of the Soviet Union, although the Deutsche Physik movement is the closest analogue to the actions of Obskuracorps — the Nazis were so adamant in their beliefs that Jews were inferior that they sabotaged their own nuclear research efforts by refusing to use the research and theories of Jewish scientists such as Albert Einstein. Likewise, while the Obskuracorps is attempting to use a ritual of Jewish origin, their institutional arrogance causes them — and specifically Weiss — to believe that they are smarter than Solomon (who is, after all, just an inferior Judenmagier in their view), which leads them to essentially ignore the instructions on what is an incredibly potent occult weapon. This is not because they are incompetent — Weiss, for instance, has already been established as being one of the most powerful and knowledgeable wizards in the world — but because they display a kind of Dunning–Kruger effect which is endemic to fascist regimes: an inability to accurately assess the strength and competency of enemy forces, because of an ideological certainty of their own inherent superiority.
This ideological arrogance is best seen in the Obskuracorps' attitude towards the Golem of Prague. At first they view it as just another artifact to be looted. When the Golem eliminates their recovery team and escapes Prague, this attitude shifts towards dismissive condescension, considering the Golem a dumb machine and attributing its escape to the intervention of the Templar Knights. As the war progresses, and the Golem continues to triumph against them, this attitude shifts towards fear and then to hate, as cognitive dissonance arises from the conflict between their own racist convictions, their need to acquire the final Key, and the undeniable evidence of the Golem's prowess. Eventually, the cognitive dissonance grows to a point where they simply ignore the Golem, in their arrogance believing that they can implement the Rite without the Key. These actions are all consistent with the documented tendencies and actions of fascists and racists facing similar dilemmas, and is another effort on my part to be as realistic as possible in my portrayal of the Nazi regime.
