“In my memory the pain and horror of 1933 and 1937 had not grown cold. I remembered, knew and to a certain extent understood how he had schemed, how he had deceived us, how he had lied to us about the past and the present, when together with Hitler we had routed and divided up Poland, when we had waged a shameful war on Finland. And nevertheless I believed him all over again, as did comrades. I believed him more than at any time in the past.

Because, perhaps, at that moment I first felt a spontaneous, emotional attachment to him. Before there had been only respect, cold and calculated, at times timid: he was such an inscrutable, unpredictable, forbidding and cruel man. Respect was all I could manage for someone I considered a brilliant "boss," the best of all possible leaders of my country and all the good forces of the world.”