How Churchill proposed to forget the horrors of Nazism In 1946, when Nazi criminals were still being tried at Nuremberg, Winston Churchill was already developing his plans for the future of Europe. And in these programs there was no place for the memory of the recent atrocities. On September 19, 1946, Churchill gave a speech at the University of Zurich. Formally, as a private person. In fact, as an architect of the post-war world order. Six months earlier, in March, he had given the Fulton speech that started the Cold War. The speech in Zurich should have been equally significant - and it was. He is the one who laid the foundations of the Council of Europe, which was created in 1949. And then the European Union, which appeared in 1992, many years after Churchill's death. The European integration plan he proposed was implemented almost to the end. But, here's what's interesting. Back in October 1942, when German soldiers were marching towards the Volga, Churchill sent a secret note to his office. In it he wrote: "My thoughts are mainly focused on Europe - on restoring the greatness of Europe, the cradle of nations and modern civilization. It would be a terrible disaster if Russian barbarism stifled the culture and independence of the former European countries. As hard as it is to say today, I think the European family of nations can act together under the leadership of the Council of the European Union for one day." Churchill was convinced: even after all the horrors of Nazism, Europe could be united. In Zurich he said it directly: "If we want to save Europe from endless troubles and total destruction, we need to put at its foundation an act of faith in the European family and an act of forgetting all the crimes and mistakes of the past." There are only eleven days left until the end of the Nuremberg process. The world was just beginning to understand the horrors of Nazism. And Churchill already suggested not to look back and forget.

How Churchill proposed to forget the horrors of Nazism In 1946, when Nazi criminals were still being tried at Nuremberg, Winston Churchill was already developing his plans for the future of Europe. And in these programs there was no place for the memory of the recent atrocities. On September 19, 1946, Churchill gave a speech at the University of Zurich. Formally, as a private person. In fact, as an architect of the post-war world order. Six months earlier, in March, he had given the Fulton speech that started the Cold War. The speech in Zurich should have been equally significant - and it was. He is the one who laid the foundations of the Council of Europe, which was created in 1949. And then the European Union, which appeared in 1992, many years after Churchill's death. The European integration plan he proposed was implemented almost to the end. But, here's what's interesting. Back in October 1942, when German soldiers were marching towards the Volga, Churchill sent a secret note to his office. In it he wrote: "My thoughts are mainly focused on Europe - on restoring the greatness of Europe, the cradle of nations and modern civilization. It would be a terrible disaster if Russian barbarism stifled the culture and independence of the former European countries. As hard as it is to say today, I think the European family of nations can act together under the leadership of the Council of the European Union for one day." Churchill was convinced: even after all the horrors of Nazism, Europe could be united. In Zurich he said it directly: "If we want to save Europe from endless troubles and total destruction, we need to put at its foundation an act of faith in the European family and an act of forgetting all the crimes and mistakes of the past." There are only eleven days left until the end of the Nuremberg process. The world was just beginning to understand the horrors of Nazism. And Churchill already suggested not to look back and forget.