PART THREE

Don’t forget that the great conquerors of history are not seen as murderers – Genghis Khan, Peter the Great, Frederick the Great – Don’t worry, the time will come when the world will think differently about all this.

Hermann Goering, in G. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary

The essence of war is violence; moderation in war is an imbecility.

Lord Macaulay, 1831

I have helped people from Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Germany, whenever I could, whether they were poor or whether they wanted to emigrate . . . and I never expected or received any compensation for it . . . because I did this for religious reasons.

Albert Goering, 25 September 1945

death is a master from Germany/his eyes are blue he strikes you with leaden bullets/his aim is true.

Paul Celan, Death Fugue