Prague Winter

I read (or listened to) Madeline Albright's book Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War 1937-1948.  Madeline did her own reading and I liked to listen to her voice.  Madeline grew up in Prague and she writes from the point of view as a native Czechoslovakian and a diplomat.  She was born in 1937 and her father, Josef Korbel was a diplomat for his country.  But it wasn't until Madeline was working as a secretary of state for the United States and until the age of 59 that Madeline learned that although she was raised as a Roman Catholic, she was Jewish and had lost more than 20 family members, including three of her grandparents, in the Holocaust.  She learned this fact after her parents had passed on and never got the chance to ask why she wasn't told.  Escaping the Nazi's might have played a role in it but her parents were out of the country and living in England when that happened so it is possible they had other reasons.  Albright gives a detailed history of Czech politics which is quite convoluted and confusing.  I found it interesting to hear about World War Two politics from a diplomatic point of view.  She writes about Adolf Hitler and his demands before going to war.  He demanded quite a bit and threatened to go to war if he didn't get what he wanted.  Nations were falling over themselves to give him what he wanted.  If he was appeased in his demands, he changed what he wanted.  He never wanted to be appeased.  As much as people didn't want to believe it, he wanted to go to war.  No matter what concessions were made, he was not reasonable because his goal was to be famous by creating a war.  In my life, I have met people like that; unreasonable people who want what they want when they want it.  There is no way to win with them.  But I never heard a diplomat come right out and label it like she did.  Albright is a great writer and I imagine she'd make a very interesting dinner guest.  I get the feeling she might even offer to help with the dishes.