Kershaw - Fateful choices: ten decisions that changed the world, 1940-1941

A chance conversation in our kitchen gave me the idea for this book. Laurence Rees had come up to Manchester to discuss with me the concept for what would become the television series Auschwitz. The Nazis and the Final Solution the third series on which we had collaborated. While we were waiting for the kettle to boil, Laurence happened to mention that, were he a historian, he would want to write a book about the year 1941in his view, the most momentous year in modern history. The thought stuck. But it was obvious that the crucial events of 1941most obviously the German invasion of the Soviet Union (which triggered the rapid descent into full-scale genocide against the Jews), the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the European warwere the logical consequence of a number of vital decisions that had flowed from Hitlers astonishing triumph in western Europe in spring 1940. A study of the interlocking key decisions by the leaders of the major powers during those extraordinary months between May 1940 and December 1941 started to take embryonic shape in my mind. So my first warm thanks are owing to Laurence for the initial impulse to undertake this book.

As usual, numerous other debts of gratitude have been incurred along the way and my brief acknowledgement here can only offer a cursory expression of my thanks. It is right, however, to single out the Leverhulme Foundation, for whose generosity I am once more deeply grateful. Much of the book was written during the final year of a wonderfully generous award which freed me from university commitments.

Finding my way through the less familiar territory that I had to traverse in the research and writing was greatly eased through being able to call upon the expertise of colleagues. I am extremely grateful to David Reynolds, who made very helpful comments on the typescript and shared with me some of his profound knowledge of Churchill and of British relations with the United States. Patrick Higgins kindly let me see his unpublished paper on R. A. Butler, and offered valuable comments on the May crisis of 1940. MacGregor Knox, beyond his own superb work on Fascist Italy, not only answered some detailed queries about the Italian armed forces but also, most generously, made available photocopies of the unpublished Roatta letter-diaries. The late Derek Watson (especially), Robert Davies, Robert Service, Moshe Lewin and, in Moscow, Sergei Slutsch were of enormous help on Stalin and the Soviet Union. Patrick Renshaw, Richard Carwardine and Hugh Wilford answered queries about the workings of the Roosevelt administration. In Tokyo Maurice Jenkins and Ms Owako Iwama were extraordinarily helpful in locating materials I required. I also received useful advice from Ken Ishida and, closer to home, Sue Townsend and Gordon Daniels. On more familiar terrain, Otto Dov Kulka in Jerusalem offered, as always, valuable reflections on the harrowing subject of the Nazi onslaught on the Jews. I profited, too, from a discussion about the emergence of the final solution with douard Husson, a younger French historian of Nazi Germany, whose fine work will surely soon become more widely known. I also benefited greatly from discussions, during a stay in Freiburg, with Gerhard Schreiber, Jrgen Frster and Manfred Kehrig. To all these colleagues and friends I offer my sincere thanks. Naturally, they have no responsibility for any errors or flaws in what I have written.