Darya Silman

“In the Vilnius ghetto, the news of German setbacks in the Soviet Union in the opening weeks of 1943 resulted in an upsurge of grim humour, as Herman Kruk recorded in his diary: A German asks a Jew to lend him 20 roubles. The Jew immediately takes the sum out of his pocket and gives it to him. The German wonders: ‘How can this be? You don’t know me at all, and you trust me with such a sum?’ I have the fullest trust in the Germans,’ answers the Jew. ‘You took Stalingrad and gave it back; you took Kharkov and gave it back. I’m sure that you will give me back my 20 roubles.’ What is the difference between General Rommel and a watch? A watch goes tick-tock and goes forward; Rommel goes tock-tick and goes backward … What city is the largest in the world? Stalingrad, because it took the Germans months to get from the outskirts to the centre.6”
― Prit Buttar, Centuries Will Not Suffice: A History of the Lithuanian Holocaust

“Whilst the men and women involved in the July Plot of 1944 are generally regarded as heroes, it should be remembered that few, if any, intended to replace the Nazi regime with anything approaching a modern representative democracy. Stauffenberg and others were in favour of retaining much of the territory that Germany had seized from Poland in 1939 and wished to negotiate an end to the conflict only with the Western Allies – they fully intended to continue the war in the east against the Soviet Union. They planned to insist that Germany would not be occupied by any foreign power at the end of the war, and that prosecution of any war criminals would be a matter purely for German courts.”
― Prit Buttar, Into the Reich: The Red Army’s Advance to the Oder in 1945

“the really significant consequence was that German troops remained south of Rome, both to disarm the Italians and to defend the Allied invasion, rather than pulling back swiftly to a defensive line to the north as Rommel – and Hitler – had planned. The terrible irony was that, had the Allies done what Ambrosio, Badoglio, Roatta and Carboni et al. had wanted and postponed the announcement – and the invasion – until 15 September, southern Italy would have been theirs for the taking. The outcome would have been the very opposite of what they had feared. What an incredible missed opportunity for the Allies! And for Italy, for that matter. But they had not known that. And so, already, the Italian campaign was starting to play out in a very different way to how all parties had envisioned.”
― James Holland, The Savage Storm: The Heroic True Story of One of the Least told Campaigns of WW2

“If you weren’t there during one of those firefights you wouldn’t be able to get your head around it. Hell, I was in plenty of firefights, and I’m not sure I know what went on over there. The VC understood us better than we did them, but nobody’s got a lock on the whole story. Certainly not a bunch of drunk old grunts.”
― Nancy Stroer, Playing Army