New Orleans

"The Big Easy. Can't undo your tragedy. But I can punish the people responsible."

―B.J. swimming to a bus in New Orleans.

A Nazi soldier patrols the ruins of the former New Orleans.

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana.

It is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music (particularly as the birthplace of jazz), and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras, dating to French colonial times. The city is often referred to as the "most unique" in the United States.

New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana and developed on both sides of the Mississippi River. The heart of the city and French Quarter is on the north side of the river as it curves through this area. The city and Orleans Parish (French: Paroisse d'Orléans) are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north and Lake Borgne lies to the east.

New Orleans was founded in the Spring of 1718 (7 May has become the traditional date to mark the anniversary, but the actual day is unknown) by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time. The title came from the French city of Orléans.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

According to newspapers prior to 1952, residents of New Orleans began preparations for the Mardi Gras celebrations on February 10th 1948, with the mayor Terrel Hill promising that the parade would be the largest that year, hoping that the celebrations could bring hope and morale for New Orleans in the dark times. Edith LeFleur, a local schoolteacher and the oldest woman in New Orleans at the time, hopes that on her 101th birthday that her grandson returns home from the war in Europe. Paris Jack was a native of New Orleans, and was known as Louisiana's most renowned clarinet player. According to another newspaper dated November 8th 1948, Paris Jack returned for a gig at a club in New Orleans. The Ku Klux Klan also had its own chapter in New Orleans, with William Stephenson as its leader.

New Orleans was eventually under the control of the Nazis, but life relatively continued on, with various minor infrastructural projects undertaken by the Reich (such as replacing the city's famous streetcar system with double-decker trams). However, as a result of growing civil unrest, the Nazis undertook efforts to desolate the city and transform it into its present, despoiled state. As a result, the city of New Orleans was transformed into a ghetto, which became a massive open-air prison for those who were seen as undesirables of the Nazi regime, such as communists, intellectuals, and African-Americans punished for infractions. What further sealed the fate of New Orleans was the construction of a massive wall around the city which began somewhere in 1950-1951, with Sebastian Williamson being its head architect. The wall was constructed using slave labor, with conditions presumably being terrific as workers constructed the wall under the sweltering heat. The wall was finally completed by 5th May 1952 in a glamorous inauguration ceremony, with Sebastian Williamson claiming that the wall serves as a protection for ordinary citizens of the American Territories and keeping the virus of terror and malice away from the public in an inauguration speech, as famous generals, celebrities and ministers of the Reich attended the audience. According to state propaganda, the New Orleans ghetto served the American Territories as a place where people could "re-educate themselves" to better serve the society of the Greater Reich.

The New Orleans Ghetto eventually became home to the New Orleans Resistance Cell led by Horton, which were one of the few surviving cells of the American Resistance, resisting the Nazi regime.

A Nazi soldier comes across a crocodile.

Eventually over the years, the condition of New Orleans began to deteriorate within the walls, and was further exacerbated by Hurricane Greta in September 1960, which turned the city into its current state in New Colossus, with the entire city having been transformed into a crocodile-infested swamp, with disease and famine presumably affecting the detainees there. On the 22nd of July 1961, In a swift response to the ongoing situation, Irene Engel ordered the "Humanitarian Aid Action Teams (HAAT) to be sent into the city. In a televised speech to the American Territories, Engel stated: "Someday, I believe New Orleans will rise up and become a prosperous city that celebrates Our Beloved Führer, the cultural values of the Greater Reich and all its people," relocating the ghetto inhabitants which were given the name "Häftlings" and relocating them to safer, new locations with sanitary living conditions. In reality, Engel ordered the Einsatzgruppen, a death squad, accompanied by Panzerhunds and Zitadelles, alongside American auxiliaries such as the Ku Klux Klan, to patrol the streets and cleanse the New Orleans ghetto of its "Häftlings" and eliminate the resistance hiding there. The Ministry of Tourism in the State of Louisiana revealed plans on 26th July 1961 to transform New Orleans from a dilapidated ghetto into a vibrant tourist spot. With the help of the "humanitarian aid efforts" to New Orleans, and the supposed "relocations" of the inhabitants of the Ghetto, it was to be cleaned and renovated after years of damage, with New Orleans' famous French Quarter being restored and transformed into a war museum, where tourists would be able to learn about the history of the "Liberation War" and the liberation of the American Territories. The French Quarter would also be purged of cultural deviances, and there were plans to construct modern hotel towers, made of überconcrete, and hopefully, demolish the massive wall surrounding the entire city.

Boundaries of the New Orleans Ghetto walls, as shown over a birds-eye view of modern day New Orleans. Data taken from the map seen in the New York City Bunker.

However, following the events of the New Colossus, such as the New Orleans resistance cell being rescued by the Kreisau Circle, and the nuclear blast during their escape from the ghetto, the New Orleans Ghetto became heavily irradiated as a result, presumably putting the plans to rehabilitate the city into a tourist destination to a grinding halt. In a letter by Kommandant Sauer after the escape, 7 zones were marked forbidden to enter as a result of the heavy radiation, with Überkommandant Ackermann ordering a quarantine protocol ensuring that "Zone 5C" kept within acceptable radiation levels. Another additional information in the letter, ground surfaces and exterior walls were cleaned chemically, with a new base of operations which secured all equipment and confidential material in the New Orleans Ghetto. Soldiers continued manning the wall and report radiation levels every hour, with a grid of measurements to determine how the radiation spreads and predict the integrity of the base.

With the fall of the regime as a result of the Second American Revolution, the Nazis plan for New Orleans had come to a grinding halt. It is unknown what happened to New Orleans during the events of Youngblood, but possibly, similar to that of New York (which was destroyed and heavily irradiated from a nuclear bomb), New Orleans had been rebuilt decades later.

New Orleans was also where B.J. successfully assassinated Übercommanders, Daniel Eckstein, Albert Grosse, Otto Ackermann and Victor Kreuger.

External link

• New Orleans on Wikipedia.