In a book of 709 pages, & in five main parts, Angela documented her whole life, both as personel & career. I enjoyed reading the book and the rich personal life of the German Chancellor, rising from an ordinary family in what was the German Democratic Republic GDR, before the fall of Berlin wall in 1989 and the later unification of the whole country . Her personal life in earlier GDR was fascinating, especially when she refused to cooperate with the Stasi Secret Police to spy on her students and report back to the agency. Justice, freedom and Unity were key words to her political career through the whole period, whether towards other parties in Germany or the recent issues of Georgia and Ukraine, since the invasion of the country in February 2022.  Many personal and funny stories was told, especially when meetings took place with Putin, Obama and the other official personalities. A detailed analysis to the flood of refugees, mainly from Syria, and her dealing with the Pandemic crises in 2020  demonstrated her strength, openness and willingness despite the huge problems she faced both intern and extern..

However when she came to discuss her invitation and visit to Israel and how she viewed the history of the relationship between Germany and Israel, as she wrote in pp 614-628,  she reiterated the classical German & European narrative towards of the crises, especially after the 7th october of 2023. The Palestinians were not mentioned at all,  apart from the two sentences where she repeated the classical support of the two states solution, which is a lip service the majority of European governments adopted  as a whole for the past half century without any effect on the ground- Apart from the few European governments such as Spain, Irland & Norway  who dared to deviate from this classical cliche narrative, recognising Palestine as a state, and demand suspension of European Association  Agreements with the Hebrew state because of the violating the  Human Rights of Palestinians, and demanding stop to weapons’ export -that could lead  to stop the ongoing genocide since the 8th of October 2023 until nowadays, with almost a quarter million people killed, injured and disappeared under the rubble of houses & the total destruction of all civil infra structure of the Biggest Refugee Camp-Gaza-in the World. Seventy three percent of the people of Gaza are refugees displaced by force in 1948 from their villages and towns . In the whole book, and inspite of the title of the book: Freedom, not one word was mentioned about the victims of this ongoing ethnic cleansing for the past 77 years, and their right for self determination & to be free from occupation and the “presumable genocide” according to the highest court of justice in Hague, ICJ.     

A detailed description of the sources, beginnings and seizure of power  of both fascism in Italy in 1922 and Nazism in Germany in 1933.  The invention of fascism, the immediate background of the movements, the successes and failures of the movements, not only in Italy and Germany, but also in many other countries in Europe-France, Spain- there are about two hundred thousand people were killed by Franco after his victory against the Spanish Republicans in March 1939 -p149- , UK, Romania, Hungary-  although without being fully successful, how these movements get power and exercise it; how they work their strategies through coalition with conservatives and other parties, the role of the charismatic leader, the establishment of a dual parallel state,  and what is endly the definition of fascism.  War was a common project for both: the Fuhrer & the Doci: Hitler told Goebbels “the war…made possible for us the solution of a whole series of problems that could never have been solved in normal times”-p 155; while Mussolini told his son-in law and foreign minister : “the character of the Italian people must be molded by fighting….War is to men as maternity is to women”, p 156.  Fascist regimes “could not survive without the the acquisition of new territory for their “race”-Lebensraum, spazio vital-” p 157. One of the reasons for both the Doci’s decision to invade Ethiopia in 1933-34 and the Fuhrer invasion of Poland in 1939. 

All these questions posed by the author and his trial to answer them  in 8 chapters  & through 321 pages of the book- the excessive notes and references;  the ramifications and role of the intellectual, economic, cultural and emotional  factors of these movements that plunged the whole world in World War 11,  1939-45, with almost 70-85 million victims, the deadliest conflict in human history – is a great historical lesson to our generation to try all they can to prevent a revival of those horrors, whose precursors are  already seen in many corners of nowadays World: Ukraine, Palestine: Genocide in Gaza,  the invasion of the congress of the US Capitol in January 6, 2021  …etc. Weapon firms are doubling their benefits & profits from all wars waged recently in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine & Ukraine. Politicians, World Wild, were largely reduced to representatives for those Corporations, mainly weaponry and  the heavy expenses spent on armaments at the expense of education, milieu, health sector, and vital civil services .  Although written two decades ago, and other 12,208 books & articles were written only on Fascism, documented by Rernzo De Felice- as the author noted p.221, it is so relevant to read this book  in 2025, if we want to learn lessons from the horrors of yesterday’s history, and to evade another Hiroshima and Nagasaki Catastrophes.