It is a year and a day now. A year and a day since I became a free man. It is amusing to me to think that in olden days, a year and a day was the period of time that a serf needed to become a free man. I have not that luxury. The past year has been the most difficult for me however it has been my happiest. I have perhaps started on the wrong foot, let me start at the beginning just over a year ago.
The year is the 100th year of the Third Reich. The world is still at war, starting and stopping in spurts of violence. It is a hundred years since Der Führer beat the English into submission. Over the next five years Hitler had created enough "Lebensraum" for the master race. In the process millions had escaped to the last two strongholds left in the world, the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. For the past 100 years the motherland, the beloved Deutschland had control over all of Europe and Africa. The U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. had at first signed peace treaties, however the ever-present tension at times turned into bloody and violent conflict.
Under the new order, all of Europe and Africa seemed at peace and was prospering or so the public broadcasts would inform us. Within two years the Gestapo had burned all books objectionable to Der Führer's wishes. Most of the classic literature had disappeared from all countries. All major pieces of art had been transferred to the palace in Berlin, although the collection has never been complete due to the missing paintings from The Louvre, which had never been found.