Status Updates From Terceiro Reich em Guerra

'A police chief came to the apartment of a Jewish family to take some things away. The woman cried that she was a widow with a child. The chief said he'd take nothing if she could guess which one of his eyes was the artificial one. She correctly guessed the left eye. She was asked how she knew. "Because that one," she answered, "has a human look."' From the journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum, Warsaw 1940.

The guilt is honestly surprising. I should watch 'The Zone of Interest' again.

I've for sure read this before, but I feel like this is the first time it registers that Heydrich was assassinated by the Czech (based).

Strange to imagine that some of the Task Force men (SS and police) committed suicide due to what they did. The question remains is how were any of these people allowed to survive and live with themselves. Not that this phenomenon continues to the present day…

It's a bit baffling how the 'Holocaust by bullets' isn't really emphasized in basic history classes on WW2. At least from what I remember, I only really understood the distinction when doing my own reading.

Potential PhD topic: Historical relations between Balts, Russians, and Jews, specifically differences between the relationships during Tsarist Russia (pogroms), Nazi occupation, and the USSR + current memory and attitudes.

Evans treatment of the Soviet Union proves that he's a historian worth his craft as he neither tries to demonize the USSR (especially horrid to try and do given the central topic) nor glaze it as some valiant 'anti-fascist' heroic force. His antidotes on Stalin, and the treatment between Soviet and Germans POWs are just central to his credibility.

Was Stalin's head filled with literal bricks? Guy defects from Germany to tell him that the Germans are invading tomorrow morning. Stalin: "Whoops you're spreading misinformation. Say bye-bye to your life-life!" ^-^