It was clear to us that in this country, under these conditions, it was impossible for us to live. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War VI: Empire is Untenable, Joachim Neumann, East German dissident
East Germany: [Erich] Honecker is a hard-liner who’s horrified by Gorbachev’s reforms. He believed in the iron fist. ibid. Mary Sarotte
We are the people! We are the people! ibid. demonstrations
What people heard were, Permission to cross the border. ibid. Sarotte
He [senior border guard] got angrier and angrier at being left in the lurch. ibid.
The gates in the wall are wide open. ibid. Friedrichs TV news
The Federal Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden. The man who helped establish the agency has been its president for six years, Paul Dickpopf, a top official with an apparently clean record, suggests that he had been an opponent of the Nazis. Until 1971 and in the Brandt era he is West Germany’s top criminal investigator … In 1968 he becomes head of Interpol. Nazis in the CIA, Netflix 2012
They became willing helpers, spies, because the US Intelligence Services could use their past to blackmail them. ibid.
The American Intelligence services were fighting a new enemy, communism, with the help of Nazis who worked for them as spies. ibid.
‘They were used for covert operations and this type of thing.’ ibid. man in the know
The Americans search all over Germany for the former SS officer [mass murderer] Intelligence officer, Eugen Steimle. ibid.
German industry made arrangements to keep its capital safe. ibid.
It [CIA] recruits fascists in Italy during the Cold War. They are to fight communism on behalf of the Americans. Since the 1960s, Italy is shaken by a series of bomb attacks. Hundreds of people die. These acts are first blamed on leftists, but it has been shown that they were committed by the far right. Stefano Delle Chiaie became the leader of the new right. ibid.
In 1970 the fascists and their backers want to stage a coup in Italy and eliminate the left-wing parties. ibid.
The unit is named Gladio and it is under the control of the CIA. ibid.
Many Italians believe that Moro was killed because he wanted to pursue a third way that contradicted Yalta. ibid.
‘Andreotti was the puppet of the Americans.’ ibid. man in the know
Licio Gelli was master of the influential Propaganda Due Masonic Lodge. Gelli had been an American agent since the War. ibid.
After the War, Barbie was recruited by the American Intelligence Services. ibid.
The Americans hide Barbie and other war criminals first in Germany, then in South America. ibid.
An estimated 60 million lives were lost during World War II, the most destructive conflict in human history. Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial I: Origin of Evil, caption, Netflix 2024
The historic Nuremberg Trial marked the first time national leaders were prosecuted by an international tribunal for war crimes. ibid.
And not only the German leaders had no sense of responsibility, there was not a word said by any of them when they were arrested of being sorry for their crimes. ibid. William Shirer
How quickly they have become broken miserable men. ibid.
Germany in 1918 is turned into a liberal democracy. ibid. historian
Hitler suddenly revealed a ferocious energy and drive. All the warped ideas which had been bubbling in his strange mind since the lonesome days of hunger in Vienna now found an outlet. ibid. Shirer
He talks about making Germany great again. ibid. historian
For Hitler, war was not an if, but when. ibid.
He [Shirer] starts to question how this mass movement came about and how it captured the German people so effectively. Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial II: The Third Reich Rises
The Weimar Republic was a progressive liberal democracy. ibid. historian
The Hitler myth: this was the idea that Germany needed a saviour. ibid.
And it is this common ground between the traditional right and the new far right that helps bring the Nazis into power. ibid.
I have set myself a goal: namely to sweep the 30 political parties out of Germany. ibid.
To my surprise I found that few Germans seemed to mind that their individual liberties had been taken away, and they seemed strangely unaware of how Hitler was tricking them. ibid. Shirer
The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point in the history of Nazi Germany. ibid. historian
Triumph of the Will opens with Hitler flying above the clouds and descending to Nuremberg. ibid.
They easily believed anything he [Hitler] said. ibid. Shirer
Hitler was in such a powerful position after the consolidation of the Nazi regime that he [Hitler] could afford to spend weeks, months, away at his holiday resort on the Berghof. Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial III: Hitler in Power, historian
Membership of the Hitler Youth became compulsory. ibid.
In 1935 Hitler and the Nazis attempt to codify the status of Jews in Germany. ibid.
They introduce conscription in 1935. ibid.
German Troops Enter Rhineland. ibid. Evening Standard headline Saturday 7th March 1936
Four-year plan: Germany must be ready for war within the next four years. ibid. historian
Hitler wasn’t interested at all in bureaucratic procedure. ibid.
Hitler is eyeing Austria hungrily in his preparations for war. ibid.
The German troops are greeted as heroes. ibid.
We flew over the Alps to Switzerland: sanity, civilisation, freedom after the barbarian Nazi nightmare. ibid. Shirer
No-one can say that Adolf Hitler did not give full warning of the barbaric world he intended to make. ibid.
For Hitler and the Nazis it is to put more pressure on Jews to leave. Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial IV: The Road to Ruin, historian
A few months after the Munich Agreement, Hitler moves in and takes over the rest of Czechoslovakia. ibid.
The Poles began to realise they were next on the menu. ibid.
There were a number of false flag operations staged along the border to make it look as if the Poles had attacked Germany. ibid.
Hitler and Stalin had agreed they would carve up Poland. ibid.
War for Hitler was a fundamental human activity. ibid.
He’s going to have to plunder, he’s going to have to steal. ibid.
The Nazis enslaved over 12 million people across Europe. Many German firms including Mercedes-Benz, Bosch, Hugo Boss and Volkswagen greatly benefitted from the use of slave labour. ibid. caption
Germany v Russia: The largest military confrontation in history. ibid. historian
Hitler declares war on the United States. Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial V: Crimes Against Humanity, historian
They are out not only only to conquer our world but to smash it … They will stop at nothing. ibid. William Shirer
In September the elements start coming into play … There is the mud period … and then comes the winter. ibid. historian
1941 Kiev: They retaliate by calling upon the remaining Jewish population, 33,000 men, women and children to assemble, and those people are led to a ravine … ibid.
They use alcohol to compensate. ibid.
It would taken ten, twenty minutes for people to die. ibid.
Not a word of sympathy or grief [Hitler] … This was a man now doomed, and by his own folly. ibid. Shirer
Oh take a look. Jews are frying now. We couldn’t do much to help them. ibid. woman witness to ghetto pogrom
He [Hitler] always overestimated the power and resources of Germany. ibid. Evans
Although he had escaped death by a miracle, Adolf Hitler was never the same after July 20th 1944 … His language grew increasingly violent … This was the beginning of the end. ibid. Shirer
Every day a German factory town is pounded to rubble … the fate of the Germany that used to be. Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial VI: The Reckoning, Shirer
Hitler was convinced right to the end that he would win this war. ibid. historian
He believed above all in himself. ibid. Evans
They [Russians] began to rape women on an extraordinary scale. ibid.
Ultimately, he doesn’t care about the human beings he is playing with. ibid. historian
He refused to visit bombed-out families. ibid. Evans
He began showing symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. ibid.