How did John Smith become high ranking if American?

***SPOILER WARNING*** A few spoilers be below, especially if you haven't even seen Season One yet.

Smith, despite his Anglo-American last name, certainly could be of mostly German-American extraction. But IIRC there is nothing in either the novel or the miniseries to indicate he definitely is that.

One ubiquitous theme of both novel and miniseries is that a great many people are born collaborators. They do whatever they perceive as "looking out for number one" even if that's actually against their best interests. And if-- as in this imaginary timeline-- the power that wants you to collaborate is the only power on earth that has, or has ever had, control of nuclear weapons, that's a powerful incentive to collaborate even if one has sneaking moral reservations.

As Smith sometimes does, and will have more when his son is slated for extermination.

"I don't deduce, I observe."

There are references in season one that he fought hard for the Nazi's in Ohio when he was younger.. which makes sense that that would have been a battleground area.

He was a traitor and collaborator who chose the winning side whether out of true conviction or simple self-interest or some mix.

Never got the impression he left the States to go and fight for the Vaterland and then came back as part of the German occupation.

If a successful occupation of the States were to ever happen, it would have to rely on millions of Smiths to do the grunt work while millions more stood by and accepted the new status quo.

Chief Inspector Kido, while in Obergruppenführer Smith's office, notices Smith's medal for being at Guadalcanal. There were no Germans at Guadalcanal, so Smith had to have been in the US armed forces.

The German SS recruited among the many conquered nations so there were French, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Belgian, etc. SS units. There were even Spanish volunteers. Not sure of Smith's background but there must be plenty of Americans in the gov't, the Germans wouldn't have the manpower to occupy the US and Europe and Russia.


if man is 5
then the devil is 6
if the devil is 6
then God is 7
and if God is 7...

I think answering this question would make for a more interesting series than what they have. I think Smith is the most interesting character on the show.

And I'm pretty sure he wasn't in the short story/novela, but it's been a while since I read it.

I said in another thread that I think he was a secret traitor who worked to sabotage the US. Beyond the fact that he became the highest ranking nazi in America, watch the scene at the beginning of Season 2, episode 10 between Helen and John right before the bomb is dropped on Washington. The Transcript is as follows:

Helen: You were supposed to be there hours ago
John: That's fine, I'll just go straight to The Pentagon in the morning.
Helen: Oh we're slowing you down.
John: No, Keller won't mind.

Just a few seconds later the bomb is dropped on Washington destroying the Pentagon, where John was (presumably) already supposed to be. Perhaps John knew of the bombing and intentionally stayed within a safe distance of Washington where his colleagues were meeting. Perhaps he even informed the Germans of the meeting and they dropped the bomb to wipeout a large portion of the American military leadership. Again it's just speculation, but I do think it might be quite likely he achieved his rank of being the highest ranking nazi in America through efforts that helped the axis win the war in the first place.

The German Army in WWII was both mutliethnic and multinational. Soldiers and officers from all over Europe (and even India and the Middle East) served with distinction and honor in the Reich.