During this period, I had been doing studies that hinted at the presence of another book written by Hitler. Since I was currently researching German foreign policy, you can understand that I was very excited. |
I discovered, as a child, that spending time in Nazi-Germany as a Jew was not recreational. I also found that getting beat up in German schools was not pleasant. |
I wasn't very happy with the existing literature. They tended to look at the Earth as a cube. When people read books on the war, it's always like looking through a pipe at one theater or battle. They fail to engage the interrelationship between events. |
It's very, very important for people to get a sense of what the potentialities of people really are, what the dangers of ignorance can be. It is in this context, that a supposedly advanced society risks descending into the sewer, that the Holocaust is a warning to people who think of themselves as an advanced, modern society. |
People don't have to read all of it at one time; that's not required. I've told people that they can keep it in the trunks of their cars in case they're driving on icy roads so they won't skid. |
The fires have been extinguished, but it is up to each and every one of us to see they are never lit again. |
The most important failing is that they divorce the study of the Holocaust from the war, |
We live in a world where there is enormous potential for evil. |