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Dietrich von Choltitz Quotes
1894–1966 Germany
Dietrich Hugo Hermann von Choltitz (9 November 1894 – 4 November 1966) was a German General who served in the Royal Saxon Army during World War I and the German Army during World War II. He is chiefly remembered for his role as the last commander of Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944, when he disobeyed Adolf Hitler's orders to level the city, but instead surrendered it to Free French forces.
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14 quotes
Since Sevastopol, it has been my fate to cover the retreat of our armies and destroy the cities behind them.
Oh, Field Marshal, so far it would have been a funeral without military honors, maybe now it can become one with military honors.
Paris is like a pretty woman; when she gives you a smack, you don't smack back.
I am a soldier. I get orders. I execute them.
Ever since our enemies have refused to listen to and obey our Führer, the whole war has gone badly.
I stood in front of him and I saw an old, stooped, bloated man with gray, slick hair, barely standing on his legs.
If for the first time I had disobeyed, it was because I knew that Hitler was insane.
Even today, I can not say with certainty whether he himself believed in his words or whether he was knowingly deceiving those around him to urge him to keep to the end.
He was trembling all over and the desk on which he was leaning shook. He was bathed in perspiration and became more agitated.
I asked the Field Marshal von Manstein if he would take part in the actions against Hitler. Manstein was sitting in a chair and reading the Bible. Quick, almost embarrassed, he put it aside and covered it with some papers.
Have you read Churchill's speech? Appalling beyond all words! A Jewish brigade to go to Germany! Then the French will take the west and the Poles the east. The hate in that speech! I am completely shattered.
Gentlemen, you are the leaders of the best soldiers in the world. I will give you five or six of my own men; we will cover your back with sustained barrage fire to protect you while you cross the rue de Rivoli. All you need to do is force open a door to fight your way to the tapestry.
No doubt: I was in front of a madman. The awareness that the existence of our people was in the hands of an insane person, unable to dominate the situation [...] weighed on me with all its strength.
The worst job I ever carried out - which however I carried out with great consistency - was the liquidation of the Jews. I carried out this thoroughly and entirely.
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