Postwar

Yugoslavia did not fall: it was pushed. It did not die: it was killed.

But then the Germans were alive and present, whereas their victims—Jews above all—were mostly dead and gone.

as Stalin had promised in September 1941, he had returned ‘East Prussia back to Slavdom, where it belongs.’

These figures gave rueful significance to the wartime German joke: ‘Better enjoy the war—the peace will be terrible.’

Since 1989 it has become clearer than it was before just how much the stability of post-war Europe rested upon the accomplishments of Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

Stunde nul, as the Germans called it—Zero hour.

Post-war Vienna—like post-war western Europe—was an imposing edifice resting atop an unspeakable past.

grand to serve as a mere quotidian artery for commuters in a medium-sized European capital—and the city was justifiably proud of its public e

The wind of change is blowing through this continent and, whether we
like it or not, this growth of [African] consciousness is a political fact

You can’t help people being right for the wrong reasons . . . This fear of finding oneself in bad company is not an expression of political purity; it is an expression of a lack of self-confidence