Dsp-Germans are asking themselves a question
(With thanks to tshiggins for editorial work.)
A major difference between Germany in WWII(1) and WWII(2) in the summer of 1942 is a great increase in the number of Nazis and other Germans who are asking themselves 'What happens if we lose the war?' (or for the wiser ones 'What happens
when we lose the war?') and in many cases, making plans for that event. These plans tend to fall into a few general categories, with some overlap:
1: Surrender honourably, knowing that they weren't involved in any war crimes. (Most of them are actually right about that, as the majority of German soldiers and civilians did not participate in those atrocities, and often were unaware of the worst of it. Others are quite delusional, and will be surprised when they get sent to prison, or a firing squad.)
2: Surrender and justify any actions that the Allies may want to try them for as 'necessary actions for the good of the German Nation' (and/or 'the Aryan Race,' and/or 'the advancement of SCIENCE!'). (Also pretty deluded, and many will be even
more surprised, though some of the mad scientists and such will get
Paperclipped (those with useful abilities that are rare or seemingly unique), if the Israeli SpecOps troops and the irregulars they trained don't kill them first. Even then, being allowed to live and continue their work in
very secure confinement, generally without sophont test subjects, will be the best the real monsters can expect.)
3: Surrender and claim 'It wasn't my fault, I had to follow orders or I'd be shot!' (or otherwise try to shift the blame onto someone of a higher rank, who is often conveniently dead, and thus unable to contradict them). (Some of them flat out
won't believe the Allied propaganda that this defence will not be accepted, because
obviously you want soldiers and civilian support personnel to obey orders without question. Others are planning to make deals or otherwise believe that they have sufficient mitigating circumstances that they'll be able to get out with minimal jail time; a few of these may be right.)
4:
Form a resistance cell and continue the fight. (Mostly hard-core Nazis in this category, some rather deluded, and others simply stubborn and expecting a firing squad
anyway. There are some SS, Waffen-SS, and Hitlerjugend units (including some from the
League of German Girls) among those being specifically trained for this, though the training is justified with various excuses, so as not to alarm anyone who might find it ideologically inappropriate.)
5: Run off and hide somewhere. (This is a mix between those who are overlapping with '4,' and plan to go off somewhere to build up forces and take revenge - so, pretty deluded - and those who just want to live a peaceful life somewhere with their ill-gotten gains, and not get shot by angry Jews; the latter also includes some who haven't committed war crimes, and just want to avoid being harassed. Some in the 'build up and take revenge' group have already been approached by Cytherean agents, so they are at least less deluded than those with that plan in our history; most of the men are still rather deluded as to what sort of positions they'd have in Cytherean society, though.)