Sublime

Ese mismo deseo de muerte se apoderó de la plana mayor del nazismo: cincuenta y tres generales del ejército, catorce de la fuerza aérea y once de la marina se suicidaron, además del ministro de Educación Bernhard Rust, el ministro de Justicia Otto Thierack, el mariscal de campo Walter Model, el Zorro del Desierto, Erwin Rommel, y, por supuesto, el

Nowhere was this Nazi attitude towards the Eastern Front more evident than in the Warsaw Rising of August 1944. An Allied capital containing nearly a million people had risen against

Reich. Even after the French surrender Stalin remained anxious to avoid provocation of his dangerous neighbour, and constructed no major fortifications on his western frontier. Instead, he exploited the chaos of the moment to increase his own territorial gains. While the eyes of the world were fixed on France, he annexed the Baltic states, where in

Ukrainians on both sides of the Soviet border. “As there seemed no doubt as to who the victors would be,” wrote Kurylak, “our people … began to cooperate in every possible way with the German ‘liberators’ … Some … even raised right arms to them smartly in the Nazi salute.”

Nothing is stable in the realm of power, and even the closest of friends can be transformed into the worst of enemies.