No Exit

1942

No Exit: 1942 is the fifth volume in The Protocols, a documentary-style chronicle of the Second World War built from primary voices and contemporary records.

By 1942, the war had shed its early illusions. Conquest, resistance, and neutrality alike narrowed into survival. Violence became systematic, ideology hardened into policy, and moral compromise turned routine. Military fronts stabilized even as civilian life, language, and conscience eroded.

Drawing on diaries, letters, battlefield reports, official directives, and journalism, No Exit: 1942 follows the war as it was lived and justified—at the front and in the homeland. Soldiers fought under orders they could not question. Civilians adapted to occupation and bombardment. Governments spoke in the language of necessity while consequences accumulated beyond calculation.

This volume does not present history as inevitable. It shows how, step by step, exits closed. By the end of 1942, there was no longer a way back—only the continuation of choices already made.