Wilhelm Keitel Quotes

• Why did the generals who have been so ready to term me a complaisant and incompetent yes-man fail to secure my removal? Was that all that difficult? No, that wasn't it; the truth was that nobody would have been ready to replace me, because each one knew that he would end up just as much a wreck as I.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Men, Wrecks, Failing

  "The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Keitel". Book by Walter Gorlitz, p. 52, 1966.

  30 Copy quote

• Hitler had charm, loved children, charmed women. But in political respects he would stop at nothing. In other respects he had soft and touching emotions. Just as he could be terribly brutal in following up political ideas, so he could be humanely sensitive for the feelings of individuals, for the individual human life.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Children, Ideas, Political

  25 Copy quote

• Death by hanging. That, at least, I thought I would be spared.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Would Be

  "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1995.

  22 Copy quote

• If I had known it I would have told my son, I'd rather shoot you than let you join the SS. But I didn't know.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Son, Knows, Known

  24 Copy quote

• This fight has nothing to do with soldierly gallantry or principles of the Geneva Convention. If the fight against the partisans is not waged with the most brutal means, we will shortly reach the point where the available forces are insufficient to control the area. It is therefore not only justified, but it is the duty of the troops to use all means without restriction, even against women and children, so long as it ensures success.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Children, War, Mean

  24 Copy quote

• I call on God Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than two million German soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons - all for Germany.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Son, Two, People

  Last words, quoted in "The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II" by Jon E. Lewis, 2002.

  20 Copy quote

• I believe German soldiers are good and decent, and if they did anything wrong it was because of military necessity.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Military, Believe, Soldier

  "The Nuremberg Interviews". Book by Leon Goldensohn, 2004.

  30 Copy quote

• It isn't right to be obedient only when things go well; it is much harder to be a good, obedient soldier when things go badly and times are hard. Obedience and faith at such time is a virtue.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Soldier, Virtue, Obedience

  "The Nuremberg Interviews". Book by by Leon Goldensohn, ed. by Robert Gellately, p. 166, 2004.

  23 Copy quote

• No matter what Hitler said, he spoke with a fine feeling for the particular circle which he addressed. ... He was a great psychologist.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Circles, Feelings, Matter

  16 Copy quote

• I am a soldier and I worked for the kaiser, under Ebert, Hindenburg, and Hitler, all the same way, for the past 44 years.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Past, Years, Soldier

  "The Nuremberg Interviews". Book by Leon Goldensohn, 2004.

  18 Copy quote

• Hitler gave us orders - and we believed in him. Then he commits suicide and leaves us to bear the guilt. He should have remained alive to bear his share.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Suicide, Order, Should Have

  "The Nuremberg Interviews". Book by Leon Goldensohn, ed. by Robert Gellately, 2004.

  12 Copy quote

• It is tragic to have to realize that the best I had to give as a soldier, obedience, and loyalty, was exploited for purposes which could not be recognized at the time, and that I did not see that there is a limit set even for a soldier's performance to his duty. That is my fate.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Loyalty, Fate, Giving

  "The Trial of the Germans". Book by Eugene Davidson, p. 341, 1997.

  15 Copy quote

• This war no longer has anything to do with knightly conduct or with the agreements of the Geneva Convention.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  War, Agreement, Conventions

  25 Copy quote

• The troops are therefore empowered and are in duty bound in this war to use without mitigation even against women and children any means that will lead to success.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Children, War, Mean

  18 Copy quote

• A field marshal who issued orders to the armed forces but had no idea of the results they would have in practice.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Order, Practice, Ideas

  13 Copy quote

• If this war is not fought with the greatest brutality against the bands both in the East and in the Balkans then in the foreseeable future the strength at our disposal will not be sufficient to be able to master this plague.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  War, Brutality, East

  88 Copy quote

• Consideration of any kind are a crime against the German people and the soldier at the front.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  People, Soldier, Kind

  9 Copy quote

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