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Karl Dönitz Quotes
1891–1980 Germany
Karl Dönitz (September 16, 1891 – December 24, 1980) was a German naval leader who commanded the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) during the second half of World War II after Erich Raeder. He became a Großadmiral (Grand Admiral) and served as Commander of Submarines and later was Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy.
Germany Heads of state Military leaders Also known as: Donitz, Karl, Dönitz, Karl, Karl Doenitz, Karl Donitz
Random Karl Dönitz quote
15 quotes
With the new weapons like the atom bomb, Russia would have it, too, and use it first. It is a very difficult world. But that trouble is imminent is obvious.
I'm an old man at 54, without teeth, and with rheumatism.
By placing these people with foreign ideas in camps, German blood was saved. Would it have been better to have a civil war?
The north German does not go in for extremes. He has broader horizons than the men from the mountains of Bavaria and Austria.
I would rather eat dirt than see my grandchildren grow up in the filthy, poisonous atmosphere of Jewry.
I read sometime around 1938 of Jewish fines and some street actions against them. But I was too concerned with U-Boats and the naval problems to be concerned about Jews.
Our losses...have reached an intolerable level. The enemy air force played a decisive role in inflicting these high losses.
I accept responsibility for U-boat warfare from 1933 onward, and of the entire navy from 1943 on, but to make me responsible for what happened to Jews in Germany, or Russian soldiers on the east front — it is so ridiculous all I can do is laugh.
I think that I have now said enough about the war, which is past now for over twenty-five years. I bow in reverence before the memory of the men who lost their lives in this war on both sides, and I think that we all hope that we never shall have such a war again."
The World at War: the Landmark Oral History from the Classic TV Series (2007)
I could imagine that it would be very difficult for the population in the towns to hold out under the stress of heavy bombing attacks if such an influence were allowed to work
Certainly inside my heart I know degrees of difference. But I can't blame any of these men who share a common fate with me. The big folly of this trial is that it lacks the two men who are to blame for anything which is criminal, namely Hitler and Himmler.
To think of Russians sitting on a bench in Nuremberg, trying German leaders! The Russians sank a German boat with men, women, and children aboard. I know of the case. But is that investigated? You Americans weren't completely without fault, either. You armed merchant boats before the U.S.A. was in the war.
The biggest mistake of Hitler, I have to say the main fault, was that under his government these terrific exterminations of men happened, which went on behind the backs of the German nation, which would never have tolerated them, but the government kept these crimes completely secret from the German people.
The World at War: the Landmark Oral History from the Classic TV Series (2007)
Your American admiral said that he held me in the highest esteem, and thought that I conducted my defense perfectly. He said through his chief of staff that my conduct was beyond reproach and he had the greatest admiration for me.
The enemy holds every trump card, covering all areas with long-range air patrols and using location methods against which we still have no warning...The enemy knows all our secrets and we know none of his.
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