Parachronic Tourism during World War II

[Tom Kalbfus]

Suppose in the Infinite Worlds Campaign a historic echo was discovered where the date was June 1, 1939, and some tourist company got a hold of a projector and conveyor and from Homeline started selling tourist packages to 1939 Europe. People get to visit Poland before the German invasion, and then the rest of Europe preceding all the actions of World War II. Imagine tour buses descending on Polish villages and snapping their pictures. How much do you think such a tour company can get away with before history starts to notice them? How hard do you think it would be for the tour guides to keep the tourists in line and prevent them from messing with history. What sorts of problems do you think there would be in running such an operation?

[sn0wball]

Originally Posted by Tom Kalbfus

Imagine tour buses descending on Polish villages and snapping their pictures. How much do you think such a tour company can get away with before history starts to notice them? How hard do you think it would be for the tour guides to keep the tourists in line and prevent them from messing with history. What sorts of problems do you think there would be in running such an operation?

Probably disgusing the operation to the natives will be fairly hard. Rural Poland of 1939 wasn´t hardly a tourist attraction. So a contemporary bus full of foreigners will draw much suspiscion. On the other hand one could argue that it hardly matter if polish vilagers or polish authorities notice. They will soon have bigger and more pressing problems than a bunch of strange tourists, so this might not impact their histories much.

More important could be to disguise the operation from any German, spy or otherwise. Too many unusual happenings at the border might stall or change the course of the invasion.

Most of the problems are going to come from the tourists themselves, much more than usual, I´d think.

What customer is that tour adressing to ? Only one really and specifically interested in the subject. Rural poland of 1939 wouldn´t be the most fascinating attraction. Perhaps even a really, really boring one. No offense to anyone who happened to live there, but that place will interest only becuase of later happenings. Waterloo before Napolein will only be a village like thousands of others. Or Gettysburg.

Therefore an unpropotional large part of the group will try something. If Infinity Unlimited asks for my opionion I would restrict the operation to dedicated specialists. Or at least have the backgrounds of the travellers thouroughly checked.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Originally Posted by sn0wball

Probably disgusing the operation to the natives will be fairly hard. Rural Poland of 1939 wasn´t hardly a tourist attraction. So a contemporary bus full of foreigners will draw much suspiscion. On the other hand one could argue that it hardly matter if polish vilagers or polish authorities notice. They will soon have bigger and more pressing problems than a bunch of strange tourists, so this might not impact their histories much.

More important could be to disguise the operation from any German, spy or otherwise. Too many unusual happenings at the border might stall or change the course of the invasion.

Most of the problems are going to come from the tourists themselves, much more than usual, I´d think.

What customer is that tour adressing to ? Only one really and specifically interested in the subject. Rural poland of 1939 wouldn´t be the most fascinating attraction. Perhaps even a really, really boring one. No offense to anyone who happened to live there, but that place will interest only becuase of later happenings. Waterloo before Napolein will only be a village like thousands of others. Or Gettysburg.

Therefore an unpropotional large part of the group will try something. If Infinity Unlimited asks for my opionion I would restrict the operation to dedicated specialists. Or at least have the backgrounds of the travellers thouroughly checked.

What if the tourists visited the point where the Germans were scheduled to first cross into Poland, maybe snap a few pictures of the German border guards or something, talk to some of the Polish villagers or something, and maybe travel around and visit the sites of the various Death camps before they were built. Then they could travel around Europe, maybe just ahead of the German Army by a week or two just for excitement. Maybe visit the home of Anne Frank, get her autograph and a picture with her or maybe not. Anne Frank might wonder why she is a tourist attraction. I think interactions with Anne Frank or presenting her with a copy of her Diary for her to sign, might alter the quantum level of this alternate and so by strand the tourists in this World War II setting.

The problem is, visiting these sites while things are happening might be somewhat dangerous, and you don't want the Germans finding out that have visitors from an alternate reality from the future, they might want to know certain things for instance that perhaps they shouldn't. It might be a particular challenge to run a tourist operation without altering history, but it might make for some rather strange situations.

[sn0wball]

Well, the closer to the action, locally and temporally will raise public interest - but also increase the danger.

By the way, that could be the ideal place and time to run across agents of the REICH-5 timeline.

[flyingwombat]

Originally Posted by Tom Kalbfus

Suppose in the Infinite Worlds Campaign a historic echo was discovered where the date was June 1, 1939, ... What sorts of problems do you think there would be in running such an operation?

Infinity takes exception to echoes being overrun by tourists. Time Tours might be able to manage it on a limited basis with small groups, say no more than four of five people with two or more guides. The screening process and security requirements would make this trip very expensive.

However, a fly-b-night operation might set up the business under Infinity's nose. Jim's Time Stoppers might sneak some tourists who want to see Warsaw bombed; get that message to Pearl in time; rescue Anne Frank, Violette Szabo, Jean Moulin, etc.


Or worse, Israeli agents from Homeline come to snag Adolf for trial. why worse? Well, only because it would knock the timeline into another quantum.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Actually you could rescue Anne Frank after she writes the last entry in her diary. She would then just disapear and people would assume that she died in one of the Death Camps. History wouldn't change very much in that instance. If done carefully, Time Tours or Infinity could recruit alot of people who are destined to die in the Holocaust, they just have to make it seem as if they died, usually if they went missing it is assumed that they perished. The Germans kept logs of who went into the Death Camps, so an infinity agent would have to infiltrate the place and switch the Death Camp's log book with the Homeline's version showing the characters they recruited to have perished. The Germans won't know much different, they've seen many people go into the gas chamber, and they're not remembering faces.

[flyingwombat]

Originally Posted by Tom Kalbfus

Actually you could rescue Anne Frank after she writes the last entry in her diary. She would then just disapear and people would assume that she died in one of the Death Camps. History wouldn't change very much in that instance. If done carefully, [..]

Certainly. You can even get a certain general with a flair for tank warfare, on Oct 14, 1944. just replaced the two generals and the guard that came to get him. ;-)

Though I sincerely doubt he'd leave his wife and son behind. The both lived a long time/

[Tom Kalbfus]

Originally Posted by flyingwombat

Certainly. You can even get a certain general with a flair for tank warfare, on Oct 14, 1944. just replaced the two generals and the guard that came to get him. ;-)

Though I sincerely doubt he'd leave his wife and son behind. The both lived a long time/

I think saving the life of Anne Frank such that she never publishes her diary would cause less of a quantum shift, than would killing Adolf Hitler before his time would. World War II would still proceed if Anne Frank was safe. If you spirited away Rommel's family as well as Rommel, the timeline shift would be dramatic. If you however, dropped Rommel off in England, that would cause a much greater quantum shift, as he might then cooperate with the Allies, and there's no telling what he might do then.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Tom Kalbfus

The Germans kept logs of who went into the Death Camps, so an infinity agent would have to infiltrate the place and switch the Death Camp's log book with the Homeline's version showing the characters they recruited to have perished. The Germans won't know much different, they've seen many people go into the gas chamber, and they're not remembering faces.

From what I've read the Germans only kept logs about those that entered the camps themselves. Those who were gassed on arrival were just numbers. For example they record that 10k prisoners arrived on the train and 5k of them went into the camp.

[flyingwombat]

Originally Posted by Tom Kalbfus

I think saving the life of Anne Frank such that she never publishes her diary would cause less of a quantum shift, than would killing Adolf Hitler before his time would. World War II would still proceed if Anne Frank was safe.

IIRC Anne's father survived the camps and it was he published the diary.