"We all share the guilt. We went along with everything, and we half-took the Nazis seriously instead of saying "to hell with you and your stupid nonsense". I misled my soldiers into believing this rubbish. I feel utterly ashamed of myself. Perhaps we bear even more guilt than these uneducated animals."

“He was trembling all over and the desk on which he was leaning shook. He was bathed in perspiration and became more agitated.”

“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.”

“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.”

“If for the first time I had disobeyed, it was because I knew that Hitler was insane.”

“I am a soldier. I get orders. I execute them.”

“Oh, Field Marshal, so far it would have been a funeral without military honors, maybe now it can become one with military honors.”