With Hitler and Mussolini: Memoirs of a Nazi Interpreter

by Eugen Dollmann

The other verdict on Robespierre which might also be applied unhesitatingly to the Reichsführer-SS and head of the German police comes from Grillparzer, who described ‘the exaltation of a cold mind’ as the most awesome of all dangers.

Hassell knew Dante too well. I distrust foreigners who know Dante. They try to hoodwink us with poetry.

He played the martyr, and one can only speculate sadly as to what might have happened if the dictators had been confronted by a man like Churchill.

‘Books, mio caro’, she said, ‘what are books to someone who knew the authors as I did?’

The Italian leader, so much the more intelligent, human and fascinating of the two men, listened to the interminable speechifying of his opposite number with a mixture of sorrowful humility and envious admiration.

The Duce, who had found his tongue again, pointed to the heavy snow-flakes and declared that he would need snow as far south as Etna if he were ever to turn his Italians into a race of warriors.

Dictators do not listen to their advisers until they are at their wit’s end.

The two dictators sat down, one on an upturned box and the other on a rickety chair, looking vaguely like the characters from some Shakespearian tragedy.

I shall wreak vengeance—inexorable vengeance—on all who were involved in this, and on their families, if they aided them. I shall exterminate this whole brood of vipers once and for all! Exterminate them, yes, exterminate them …’