Hitler

"The history of Lazard was, however, chaotic. Several times, the saga nearly ended abruptly. In the dark days of 1940, when all "Jewish assets" were seized, when the fabulous collections of the David-Weills were being added to the artistic loot of Hitler or Goering, who could have imagined that everything would restart less than five years later?"

"Churchill led Britain into total war without much thought for the morrow: he said he had ‘only one single purpose – the destruction of Hitler – and that his life was much simplified thereby’. —ROBERT TOMBS"

"Yet Mussolini was in power. "Just like Franco let all the people who wanted to fight the good fight in England go while he was very close to Hitler, it was strange indeed. . . ", he recalls thoughtfully."

"Every day I was confronted with the realization that I’d come from clean-as-a-whistle government-regulated broadcasting into a business where ego and self-promotion corroded everything. It astonished me to see an entire company wired to the asses of its senior management. And the company’s owner, in the person of Charlie, acted like an old-time emperor. Between frantically buying companies and trading every hour of the day in whatever markets were open, Charlie would occasionally call me with his perennial idea for what he said would be the blockbuster of all time: the tale of Sitting Bull and Hitler at war with each other."

"history? Churchill recognized that the public needs to see its heroes clearly. “One of the most necessary features of a public man’s equipment,” Churchill noted, “is some distinctive mark which everyone learns to look for and to recognize.” Like Hitler’s toothbrush mustache, Montgomery’s beret, or T. E. Lawrence’s Arab robes, Churchill used his V sign, his cigars, his champagne and whiskey to blaze himself on the public mind. Just as his lisp and his idiosyncratic pronunciation made his voice identifiable on the radio, his distinctive appearance made him easy to recognize."

"Never go through the front door unless you've got a back door, and the hardest thing to get people to do is to not commit themselves to one course of action ... [to think] about what you're going to do next. Playing chess with my father, I give him credit for that. I mean, if you haven't thought three moves ahead and what if he does this, and what if that happens, and what if that happens, in today's world you can't predict what's going to happen. . . . You can take chances, but you never, ever play the game without an out. Maybe that's from being a history major, [studying] everybody in history who has failed to have a back door, whether it's Hitler, Napoleon, and down the list. If you take a chance, always have a back door. That's the fun of it."

"analyze how people succeed or fail. (Napoleon and Hitler launched majoxcampaigns without adequate con!ingeTicypiaTmTn|^ likesto point out. McCaw has never been one~To~start Plan A unless Plan B isih readiness.)"

"“As soon as I was convinced, after being informed, of the lend-lease by my American friend, that Hitler would lose the war, I immediately informed a number of my friends to convince them of the position we should henceforth adopt. But, the day after one of these conversations, I receive a phone call from a character at the Kommandantur who urgently summons me: ‘Be there in half an hour,’ he tells me. I ask him why. He replies: ‘A report was made following a lunch at Maxim’s. I want explanations.’ When I arrive at the Kommandantur, he tells me: ‘I must warn you that if your explanations do not satisfy me, I will give you two minutes to leave, but after this time, I will be obliged to report you.’ ‘Two minutes is short, but enough to consider everything that can happen in the worst-case scenario. Without hesitation, I replied to him:"

"“In the autumn of 1940, I was in Châteauroux, and Hitler had just lost the Battle of Britain. One of my American friends, Ben Smith, who had contacts with ‘Intelligence’, insisted, despite enormous difficulties, on coming to announce a crucial piece of news to me: ‘Now that Hitler has had to retreat,’ he told me, ‘a treaty will soon be concluded between the United States and Great Britain, providing, in the form of a lend-lease, American military assistance to the British.’ He explained everything he knew about the anticipated course of operations. Listening to him, I recalled this very true statement: the nation that controls the seas always ends up winning. From that moment on, I knew that the right choice was the Allies’. I told myself: let’s play it, and I made that choice and have always kept it.”"

"“This will not change the outcome of the war. Hitler lost it when he faced England in 1940!”"