#hitlerandstalin
#laurencerees

“And it didn’t matter if you were a well-behaved German Jew. You were still sent to your death.
All of this horror should serve as a reminder – for all time – of the destruction that tyrants with utopian visions can inflict upon the world.”

Excerpt From
Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees
#hitlerandstalin #tryants #tyranny #trump #putin

Potsdam, summer 1945: “The western Allies agreed. So the ancient Prussian city of Königsberg – today called Kaliningrad – became part of the Soviet Union. Today it remains a Russian city, sitting in an island of territory more than 300 miles from the rest of modern Russia – a strange, isolated reminder of Stalin’s post-war demands.”

Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees
#hitlerandstalin #kalingrad #stalin

I didn’t really know this—Kalingrad being part of Russia is so weird..

“Charismatic leaders [..] are immensely vulnerable once they start failing. Given that their followers have supported them primarily out of faith, there is no bedrock of rational understanding beneath their trust. Once events go against charismatic leaders, it is as if they are standing on quicksand. Only fresh victories can shore them up. Hitler knew this, and so he decided on a new offensive.”

Excerpt From
Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees
#hitlerandstalin #tyrants #dictators #trump #putin

“Lord Moran, Churchill’s doctor, wrote in his diary that ‘De Gaulle positively goes out of his way to be difficult’ and that he was an ‘improbable creature, like a human giraffe, sniffing down his nostrils at mortals beneath his gaze’.”

Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees
#hitlerandstalin #degaulle

Excerpt From
Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees
#WWII #deGaulle #hitlerandStalin #ego much ?

“wretchedness of superior beings” ..

@owlislost @bookstodon Nice idea, nice thread idea: I'm finishing up "Hitler and Stalin: The Tyrants of the Second World War." by Lawrence Rees. It very good; very readable--filling in our understanding of history, the history of Eastern Europe at this consequential time. #bookstodon #books #readingthisweekend #hitlerandstalin #wwII #lawrencerees

“What matters more, he realizes that the Russians see this too. It would be useless to try to take a firm line with Stalin. He will be able to do as he pleases. Will he become a menace to the free world, another Hitler? The P.M. is appalled by his own impotence.”

Excerpt From
Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees

#hitlerandstalin #rees #tryants #tehran #1943 #WWII #fdr #churchill #stalin #tehranconference

“Moran believed he knew why Churchill felt this way. ‘Until he came here, the P.M. could not bring himself to believe that, face to face with Stalin, the democracies would take different courses. Now he sees he cannot rely on the President’s [Roosevelt] support.

#hitlerandstalin #rees #tryants #tehran #1943 #WWII #fdr #churchill #stalin #tehranconference

Different take on the chummy relationship between Churchill & Roosevelt..
“[..], Churchill was sufficiently depressed during the [Tehran November 1943] conference to have a late-night vision of devastation. ‘I believe man might destroy man and wipe out civilization,’ he told Lord Moran, his doctor. ‘Europe would be desolate and I may be held responsible.’

#hitlerandstalin #rees #tryants #tehran #1943 #WWII #fdr #churchill #stalin #tehranconference

Uhn. Well. Uhn.. this nazi, this war criminal— this highest placed most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945.—Hermann Göring, was — well, trans,—cross-dresser —or as Goebbels put it ‘idiosyncratic’

Wha…?! #wtf

This guy, Göring, was tried & convicted at the Nuremberg trials..
‘Baroque’ ..” sure, Jan..”
#hitlerandStalin

“…as leader, particularly one who relied on his charismatic authority, [Hitler]* understood that it was immensely damaging to his prestige to be associated with failure.”

Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees
* applies to #putin #trump #xi et al #hitlerandstalin #normanvincentpeale

“If you are the successful, charismatic leader of a major power you enjoy many benefits: the public adore you to the point of quasi-worship, you can make momentous decisions entirely on your own and – above all – you possess the knowledge that you are an epic figure who will be remembered by history. But there is one gigantic potential downside. If things go wrong it’s hard to escape the blame.”

Excerpt From
Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees
#hitlerandstalin #authoritarianism #putin #trump #xi

While the problem with the curtains was swiftly resolved, it was, as Churchill later said, an encounter that ‘reveals one aspect of the gulf between the Soviet way of life and that of the Western powers’.
[..]
Sir Alexander Cadogan of the Foreign Office came to the conclusion that ‘Molotov had all the grace and conciliation of a totem pole.”

Excerpt From
Hitler and Stalin
Laurence Rees
#hitlerandstalin #laurencerees